"Frankenstein tai chitei kaijuu Baragon
(FRANKENSTIEN CONQUERS THE WORLD)"

by Jules Carrozza

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Bizarre, jaw dropping silly and yet entertaining Japanese Kaiju movie with many horror elements goes like this. In 1945 Germany, Nazis storm Dr. Frankenstien's lab and take the heart of his monster to perhaps create the monster to defeat America. They ship it to Japan by submarine. It arrives in Hiroshima where it is caught in the Hiroshima bombing. Twenty years later, a toddler finds the radioactive heart and eats it. The child becomes Frankenstien's monster. It eats garbage, a classroom bunny, furniture, and even a TV. It is found by Dr. Bowen, Dr. Kawaji and Noriko, their assistant in a cave. The creature is gentle with them and becomes quite famous until it is riled by a Rock N' Roll TV show, throws the TV out the window and attacks Noriko, thus Bowen locks it up in a cell. The creature then begins growing and growing until it is about fifteen feet tall. Then it is pestered by reporters. The angry monster escapes into the wilderness where it is pursued by an angry millitary until it just disappears. Meanwhile, at a dance, a new evil is unleashed. A dinosaur named Baragon climbs up from the deapths out the Earth right outside the dance and destroys the dance house. Baragon is a totally rediculous looking monster that looks like Godzilla with bunny ears and a stocky body. The creature begins a hilarous rampage. The creature attacks a farm and eats all the livestock in one of the goofiest scenes in all Japanese Horror Movie history. First you see shots of chicken then you see chicken feathers in it's mouth. So Frankenstien's monster and Baragon finnally meet in a BIG monster battle. Frankenstien wins and strangles Baragon to death. The films has two endings:
In the first ending, which was shown in theaters, Frankenstien's monster and Baragon's corpse are sucked underground.
In the lost second ending which was cut out of both the American and Japanese prints, Frankenstien's monster throws Baragon's corpse over a cliff and then battles a huge octopus which drags it into a lake and drowns it. This ending would've made a better one.
This film has good technical stuff. Great Cinematography by Koizumi, great direction by Honda, EXELLENT music by Ifukube, EXELLENT special effects by Tsuburaya, and great art direction by Kita. Kumi Mizuno also does a great job acting. This film was when Mizuno and Nick Adams' affar began. However, Takashi Kimura (missbilled as Kaoru Mabuchi after 1964) must of been on drugs when he wrote the script because it was like the work of a mad man. The film has a VERY interesting history. In 1942, Willis O'Brien wrote a script called King Kong vs. Frankenstien. John Beck discovered it and took it to Toho in 1962. Toho wanted to make a new Gojira (Godzilla) movie so it became King Kong tai Gojira. They tried making Frankenstien vs. Mothra and Frankenstien vs. Gojira but those didn't work out. So they made this. All in all, it has great technical stuff but an insane story, that's why I gave it a 7 when I voted for it. Good night!!
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