Battle Sequence 003: Condorman (1975)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | February 2, 2008

Categories | Japanese Cinema, Television, Tokusatsu, Battle Sequences

The third clip in Cinebeats’ ongoing Battle Sequence Series is from Condorman : Symbol of Justice (Seigi no shinboru Kondoruman). Condorman was an entertaining action-packed tokuatsu series created by the great Kôhan Kawauchi (aka Yasunori Kawauchi), which aired on Japanese television in 1975. Kawauchi is responsible for creating the first Japanese superhero television show in 1958 known as Moonlight Mask (Gekko Kamen), which shares some obvious similarities with Condorman. The heroes of Kawauchi’s shows have a similar look and episodes often featured cliffhanger endings. They also both drove their own groovy vehicles. Moonlight Mask had a motorcycle and Condorman had his own special car called the Mach Condor.

Condorman starred a little known Japanese actor by the name of Hitoshi Sato who was a former race car driver. His driving skills gave him the ability to handle driving the Mach Condor on the show. As Condorman, Hitoshi Sato would fight evil monsters who disguised themselves as humans and were out to pollute planet earth’s water and air supply, among other things. Condorman was able to see through the monster’s human disguises with his “Condor Eye” and he used many special powers such as “Condor Thunder” and “Condor Hurricane” to stop them. Besides all the various monsters, Condorman also had to deal with their numerous henchmen who all looked like Nazis wearing Lucha Libre masks.

Just a small sampling of the strange monsters Condorman had to fight.

In some ways the important messages in Condorman that warned viewers about the negative effects of pollution, inflation and other ills made the show ahead of its time. Condorman also featured some spectacular action sequences, as well as colorful costumes and prop designs. The monsters he fought were often very unusual and included a sombrero wearing smog creature, a giant cockroach, a green-haired batgirl and strange robots.

Unfortunately Condorman never really caught on with kids or adults and the show stopped airing after only one season. Some episodes of the series were released on video in Japan and I believe the series was also made available on Laser Disc, but it has never been released on DVD. Information about the series is scarce and the show has never been subtitled, but I think some English dubbed episodes of Condorman aired on Hawaiian television in the late seventies.

The clip below features Condorman battling a robot-like monster called Sadora (aka Sadler), who was played by the Japanese actor and playwright Toshiaki Nishizawa. Sadora has help from his evil henchmen, but fortunately for Condorman, Sadora ends up killing many of his own men in the chaos that follows.

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R.I.P. Vampira

by Kimberly Lindbergs | January 11, 2008

Categories | News, Horror, Actresses, Television

From the trustworthy Arbogast and various other online sources comes the sad news that the iconic horror hostess and actress Vampira (aka Maila Nurmi) has passed away at the age of 86. If you’ve read my blog long enough, you’re probably aware that I have a deep affection for horror hosts and I greatly admired the lovely Vampira. She was the original bad girl of late night TV and paved the way for many other men and women to follow in her footsteps. Even though I’ve never been a horror hostess myself, I’ve definitely been inspired by women like Vampira and her followers such as Elvira (aka Cassandra Peterson) over the years.

Maila Nurmi was a beautiful woman and she lived a long and fascinating life. If you’d like to learn more about her I recommend the following links:

- Vampira’s Attic (Maila Nurmi’s official site)
- Vampira’s Official YouTube Channel
- Maila Nurmi at Wikipedia
- Vampira at IMDb.com

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Battle Sequence 002: Fireman (1973)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | January 5, 2008

Categories | Japanese Cinema, Television, Science Fiction, Tokusatsu, Battle Sequences

Fireman (aka Faiyâman/Magma Man) is an interesting tokusatsu series featuring a kyodai hero (giant hero) that aired in Japan on Nippon Television in 1973. It was made by Tsuburaya Productions, who was also responsible for the popular Ultraman series and Fireman had many things in common with that show.

In the series, the handsome Japanese actor Naoya Makoto (Goranger, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, etc.) plays the powerful hero Fireman. Fireman belongs to a race of unusual beings that live deep inside the earth. When earth is attacked by giant monster-like aliens (kaiju), Fireman rises to the surface, takes a human form and joins Japan’s Scientific Attack Force (S.A.F.) so he can help defeat the evil invaders. Much like Ultraman, Fireman is able to grow and become giant size in order to fight the various kaiju monsters he encounters. He also has many special powers and weapons.

Fireman was directed by Jun Oki and written by Bunkou Wakatsuki. Jun Oki had previously worked on various science fiction shows for Tsuburaya Productions such as Ultraseven (Urutora sebun, 1967), Ultraman Returns (Kaettekita Urutoraman, 1971) and the wonderful mystery/horror series Operation: Mystery! (Kaiki daisakusen, 1968), which I hope to write about in more detail soon. With Fireman, Oki was in control of the direction of the series as well as the special effects, which were often very impressive. Like Silver Kamen which I briefly reviewed here earlier, Fireman was a bit more adult than other similar shows that were airing in Japan at the time. The series often contained more mature stories and some unpredictable twists that were rather unusual for a show typically aimed at a young audience.

Fireman ran for 30 episodes and features a great soundtrack by Toru Fuyuki that was undoubtedly one of the Japanese composer’s best efforts. In the “Battle Sequence” featured in the clip below you can hear some of the terrific music that Toru Fuyuki composed for the series while Fireman fights a kaiju monster called Dorigoras. You’ll cheer, you’ll laugh, and you might even cry, but whatever your expectations are, few things can prepare for you for the action-packed wonder that is Fireman!

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Here comes Honey!

by Kimberly Lindbergs | January 1, 2008

Categories | News, Spies & Secret Agents, Television

Anne Francis as Honey West with her pet ocelot (1965)

Honey West is one of my favorite television shows from the sixties and I just discovered that VCI Entertainment will be releasing the entire short-lived series on DVD sometime in 2008. The series has been available in the U.K. on PAL Region 2 DVD for awhile now, but this will mark the first time that Honey West has been released on DVD in the U.S.

The fabulous Anne Francis plays Honey West, a beautiful judo expert who holds a black belt in karate. After inheriting her late father’s high-tech detective agency, Honey and her partner Sam Bolt (John Ericson) become crime fighters who use lots of James Bond style gadgets and weapons to stop the criminals they go after. Naturally Honey also uses her seductive charms and wits to stop various villians as well. Honey West had a cute, but deadly exotic cat as a pet and she often wore animal prints and fabulous sixties fashions on the show. Anne Francis looks amazing in Honey West, which is a lot of fun to watch. In many ways she resembled an American version of the lovely Honor Blackman from the season two of The Avengers.

If you enjoy great television shows like The Avengers or The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., you’ll probably enjoy Honey West as well. Unfortunately the show only aired for one season in 1965, but all 30 episodes are scheduled to be released on DVD by VCI Entertainment. To get a taste of what to expect from this terrific series check out the opening credits from the show below:

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Battle Sequence 001: Silver Kamen (1971)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | December 14, 2007

Categories | Japanese Cinema, Television, Science Fiction, Tokusatsu, Battle Sequences

Begining this week, I’ll be welcoming a new regular contributor to Cinebeats who calls himself T3rtiumQuid. T3rtiumQuid will be sharing short “Battle Sequence” clips from rare and hard-to-see Japanese tokusatsu television shows and films produced during the ’60s and ’70s, and I’ll be writing about them. Most of the shows and movies featured in these clips are not available outside of Japan and should appeal to anyone who enjoys vintage Japanese science fiction and fantasy.

The first Battle Sequence is taken from the Sun-Hong/TBS produced superhero series Silver Kamen (or Shiruba Kamen / Silver Mask) which aired in Japan from November 1971 to May 1972. There is basically no English information readily available about the show that I’m aware of, but I can tell you that early episodes of Silver Kamen are credited to the acclaimed Japanese director Akio Jissoji and his cinematographer Masao Nakabori. Akio Jissoji passed away in 2006 and his last film was a modern remake of Silver Kamen that was released in Japan a month after he died.

In many ways the original Silver Kamen series is typical of lots of other Japanese superhero shows. It featured a masked hero who does battle with various evil kaijin (monsters or space aliens) in an effort to save humanity and he has many unusual powers and gadgets. The difference between Silver Kamen and other superhero shows that were airing in Japan at the time, such as Ultraman and Mirrorman (or Mirror Mask), was the dark edge that the show had. The early episodes of Silver Kamen were also creatively shot and in some ways more adult then a lot of similar shows that were airing on Japanese television at the time. After 11 episodes, Silver Kamen started to loose it’s edge and it took a new and more “positive” direction. The Silver Kamen series was transformed into Silver Kamen Giant, but it still didn’t really find an audience and the series finally came to an end after 26 epsiodes.

In the following clip, the original Silver Kamen (played by Toshio Shiba) fights it out with a nasty kaijin called Tigris. If you pay attention to the clip, you’ll notice that Tigris’ costume catches on fire during the battle. I’m unclear on all the details, but it seems that Tigris’ costume caught fire prematurely and the actor playing Tigris was almost seriously burned during the fight. Thankfully for viewers the show must go on, and it did!

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Free Seasonal Viewing!

by Kimberly Lindbergs | October 25, 2007

Categories | News, Horror, Television

AMC is offering free online screenings of two entertaining American thrillers from the sixties as part of their annual Monster Fest which runs from Oct. 22 - Oct. 31. You can currently watch Francis Ford Coppola’s Dementia 13 (1963) and Jack Hill’s Spider Baby (1968) just by visiting the links posted below.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to see these films before I highly recommend giving them both a look. Dementia 13 is one of my favorite Coppola films, even though the plot is rather predictable and Spider Baby is one of Jack Hill’s most interesting and unusual movies.

Watch: Dementia 13 (1963)

Watch: Spider Baby (1968)

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Louis Malle’s Black Moon (1975)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | October 24, 2007

Categories | Movie Reviews, News, Actors, French Cinema, Television

On Monday I finally got hooked up with Cable TV after years of avoiding it due to the high cost and my tight budget. It’s been well worth it thanks to all the great channels I now get like TCM, which is currently hosting a fabulous Louis Malle birthday bash and playing lots of his films.

Last night I watched Murmur of the Heart, which is one of my favorite Malle movies, along with the director’s impressive Black Moon. Black Moon is a beautiful experimental film that I had never seen before and I really enjoyed it. It was categorized as a horror movie on TCM, but I personally thought it was more of an adult dark fantasy that really defies categorization.

Black Moon follows the misadventures of a pretty young girl named Lily (Cathryn Harrison) who is caught up in a violent civil war between men and women, which seems to take place in a sort of dystopian future. She finds herself at a mysterious house that belongs to a strange old woman and a beautiful sister and brother played by Alexandra Stewart and Joe Dallesandro. The film has no clear narrative structure and Malle’s uses his own kind of dream logic to tell his mesmerizing tale. As I mentioned way back in February, I love the way that Malle explores the complex and often conflicting emotions of young people in his films and Black Moon is no exception. Malle delves deeply into Lily’s subconscious without reservation and we’re offered an intimate look at the inner workings of her young mind. The film plays out like a somewhat more adult version of Louis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland where talking unicorns appear and flowers weep when they are stepped on. Cathryn Harrison is very good as Lily and as usual, it was impossible to take my eyes off of Joe Dallesandro every time he appeared. Dallesandro really looks amazing in Black Moon and I only wish he got a little more screen time in the film.

Black Moon was shot at Louis Malle’s French estate and the grounds are rather rural and wild, but extremely lush and lovely. There’s an intimacy to the film and an almost claustrophobic feel at times, which is probably somewhat due to Malle’s closeness with the location. It’s a really fascinating movie from one of France’s greatest filmmakers and it is a shame that Black Moon is currently only available on PAL Region-2 DVD at the moment.

Recommended Links:
- A brief piece about Black Moon at Moon in the Gutter with a clip from the film.
- You can also find a great piece about Joe Dallesandro at Moon in the Gutter which was just posted today.
- A nice write-up about Black Moon by Jeff Stafford at the TCM site.

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