cinema history class: frankenstein conquers the world (1965)

The session: Freaky Frankenstein's
Keith shows us four oddball interpretations of the Frankenstein story 

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.

Week 1: Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965)
Directed by Ishiro Honda

My Level of Prior Knowledge:
Completely unfamiliar.

Plot Synopsis:
A young American scientist in postwar Japan becomes entangled in an experiment involving a strange, radiation-mutated giant—created from the heart of Frankenstein’s monster—who ultimately battles a monstrous subterranean creature threatening the countryside.

Reaction and Other Folderol:
Boy, was this stupid. But I generally feel that way about the Japanese monster movies.

Frankenstein Conquers the World has one of those plots that sounds like it was created by people taking turns adding sentences without being allowed to hear what the previous person said.

Near the end of World War II, the Germans somehow get possession of the still-living heart of Frankenstein’s monster and ship it to Japan for safekeeping. Because apparently, with the Third Reich collapsing around them, somebody decided that relocating Frankenstein’s heart was a military priority.

Then Hiroshima happens.

Years later, the heart has somehow led to a strange feral boy who keeps growing until he becomes a giant Frankenstein. Or something like that. I’m not going to pretend I followed all of it. The movie was surprisingly hard to follow for something this stupid.

Eventually Frankenstein has to fight Baragon, a giant burrowing monster who looks less like a terrifying prehistoric beast than a demented reptile puppy. I kept expecting someone to throw a stick and have him bound happily after it.

The movie was sometimes amusing, although I’m not entirely sure how often that was intentional. And the climactic monster fight was actually pretty good—but that was pretty much standard equipment for Japanese monster movies of the period. Whatever else was going on, eventually two guys in rubber suits were going to beat the hell out of each other while destroying miniature buildings, and the filmmakers knew how to deliver that.

There was also a little something different about this presentation. Keith brought in his friend—and film expert—Joe Cascio as our guest presenter. That meant Keith actually rated the movie, something he doesn’t do when he’s the one presenting.

And, just to avoid confusion, Joe Cascio is not our regular Joe—the Joe whose movie-rating philosophy can generally be summarized as “Why are there numbers below 10?”

Our Joe, inexplicably, decided to deviate from his usual “everything is a ten!” position this time.

Apparently Frankenstein Conquers the World accomplished something I would have thought impossible: it broke Joe.

Anyway, Frankenstein Conquers the World was stupid, confusing, occasionally amusing, and featured a giant demented reptile puppy.

In other words, it definitely lived up to the billing for this month.