This independent Japanese daikaiju eiga [giant monster film] — which combines WW2 history with giant monster action — seems to be nearer a release in the West, with the appearance of a trailer with English titles (as seen above). For a full report on the film, check out the excellent article on SciFi Japan. Deep Sea Monster Reigo has given rise to a second daikaiju eiga by the same director — Shinkaijû Raiga [aka Deep Sea Monster Raiga] (2009; dir. Shinpei Hayashiya) — but as that was only in production this year, we can’t expect too much international action for a while.

Addendum: As Keith Aiken of SciFi Japan quite rightly points out (see comments attached to this post), it is rather too optimistic to assume that a DVD release in the West is definitely about to happen. I’m sure that it will sooner or later, but there has been no official word as far as I know. My wording above perhaps gives too strong an emphasis to the likelihood and imminence of it.

Meanwhile, Kaiju Search-Robot Avery has collected a bunch of new images from Deep Sea Monster Reigo (well, most of them are new), including green-screen SFX shots and a few pictures of the Reigo “puppet”:

Gallery:

• Sources: www.moegame.com; www.uppic.net; blog-imgs-29-origin.fc2.com; www.sannosuke.jp; blogimg.goo.ne.jp; blog-imgs-19.fc2.com; green.ap.teacup.com; blog-imgs-19.fc2.com; www.talentnavi.biz; official website.

This particular version of the mighty Kong — 55 centimetres high, with ball and socket joints and once covered in cotton and rubber to form muscles, a latex overlay for skin and rabbit fur — was one of three models used in the making of the film. Two smaller ones undertook acting duties during the Skull Island jungle sequences, and this larger model was the one that crashed around in New York, climbed the Empire State Building and fought the airplanes.

The skull was made of aluminium, modeled from a wooden carving.

Photo: EFE/Andy Rain

The historic armature, unique of its kind and a significant piece of cinematic memorabilia, sold for 121,250 pounds ($218,000) at auction.

The larger model survived thanks to film fan Eugene Hilchey, who set out to gather as many King Kong artefacts as he could from 1949 onward.

He got hold of the auctioned model in 1967 when the miniature department where it was being kept was closed for demolition.

After his plans for a museum of Hollywood artefacts fell through, Hilchey entrusted the model to Bison Archives/Productions who brought it to Christie’s. (Reuters)

• Source: Reuters via ABC News. Also Artdaily.org. Thanks to Robin Pen.

However, an original nitrate print of Dawley’s Frankenstein finally turned up in Wisconsin in the mid-1970s (IMDb) in the possession of a private collector named Alois F. Dettlaff.

Dettlaff was a strange man and kept a tight grip on his find. As a result, it was rarely seen in his lifetime and probably suffered deterioration that an expert restorer could have prevented (Silent Volume).

The film’s IMDb entry contains this interesting observation:

This is one of the only Frankenstein films where the monster is truly created. All Frankenstein films that followed assembled body parts from various corpses to make the monster. In this film, Frankenstein uses chemicals and “potions” to create the monster. The “creation” scene was made by filming a monster-dummy burning, and then playing the footage backwards.

Frankenstein (1910) starred Augustus Phillips as Frankenstein, Charles Ogle as the Monster, and Mary Fuller as the doctor’s fiancée. It is available for download here (being in the public domain), but fortunately it has also been placed on YouTube:

Next year is the 100th anniversary of this first cinematic version of the iconic novel — to be precise, on 18 March 1910. Remarkable achievement, especially as it was filmed in three days.

• Source: via Paul de Filippo’s LJ via Cat Sparks

Eye-Filling Spectacle! Man Against Monsters!

Ilya Muromets [aka The Sword and the Dragon] (Soviet Union-1956; dir. Aleksandr Ptushko)

Based on an ancient legend, this Russian film includes a wealth of fantasy elements, simply going on the images I’ve been able to track down. Not the least of them — and the one that sparked my interest in the film — is the one below, a classic moment straight out of what is probably the first major dragon-slaying film, Fritz Lang’s Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924).

Synopsis:

Ilya Muromets is a heroic warrior who succeeded in protecting the Russian land from evil enemies, defeating their thousands-strong army. He saved Russia from various monsters, such as Nightingale the Robber and Gorynych the Serpent. This was the first Soviet wide-screen motion picture. Participating in the shooting were 106, 000 soldiers-extras and 11, 000 horses – the record numbers in the history of world cinema (as documented in Patrick Robertson’s “The New Guinness Book of Movie Records”, published in 1993). (from Ruscico website)

Ilya Muromets was released in Japan during the Showa Period — on 10 March 1959 (according to the IMDb), about five years after the iconic giant monster film Gojira (aka Godzilla) made its box-office mark — and (apparently) by Toho, the production company that singlehanded invented the daikaiju eiga genre. Notice the logographic lettering in the lower left-hand side of the card (the picture of the dragon) above. We discovered this image on a Japanese blog, and the author of the article clearly considers that the film was released as part of the Showa-period development of the daikaiju eiga genre. It is certainly possible to see a potential influence on Godzilla’s greatest enemy, the three-headed Ghidrah [later King Ghidorah], who first appeared in the 1964 film San daikaijû: Chikyû saidai no kessen [aka Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster]. The author refers to the dragon (which is three-headed: see poster below) as the “incarnation of capitalism” — interpreted as such by the Soviet regime –  and points out similarities with the Japanese “legend of the eight dragons”.

In its original undubbed, widescreen aspect (rather than the dubbed, pan-and-scanned and cut US version available online), Ilya Muromets looks as though it is a spectacular and inventive fantasy epic.

Ruscico, the Russian Cinema Council [see review], has released the film in its original aspect ratio and with subtitles.

More images:

And here is the US trailer, though the poor quality of the print does not do justice to the original’s visual beauty:

References:

• Ruscico website
• IMDb entry
• More details and images
• The legend
• View the entire film (US version) online; or watch the Russian version (widescreen but without subtitles) on YouTube.
• Source: Bobcat SwinginBlog. Thanks, Avery.
• Japanese dragon image is part of a ceiling painting at Tenryū-ji Temple 天龍寺, Kyoto, dating from 1899. Ref. Japanese Buddhist Sanctuary website. Other images.

Now correspondent Richfrog has drawn my attention to the fact that pictures and other material relating to the abandoned film production went up for auction on eBay back in 2007 — a fact talked about on the Classic Horror Film Messageboard at the time.

Thanks to Richfrog and Board correspondent HalLane — and two others, SAM33 and JimPV — we now have some more images from the project and more information on it. The picture below accompanied the auction details. Note that the three top drawings visible were apparently (and recognisably) done by O’Brien apprentice Ray Harryhausen for his One Million Years BC film:

Click to enlarge

eBay auction notes from July 2007:

Lot 298. Archive of original scripts and production material from the un-produced Merian C. Cooper and Willis O’Brien prehistoric fantasy, War Eagles. In 1938-39, legendary filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Willis O’Brien (King Kong) teamed with screenwriter Cyril Hume (Forbidden Planet), and under the production banner of MGM Studios, came up with a film project they hoped would rival RKO’s wondrous Kong, produced six years earlier. War Eagles (originally titled White Eagle), an adventure fantasy, was to be a visual rollercoaster of thrills and chills. The screenplay is filled with the daring exploits of a stalwart American aviator and hero, a lost volcanic world, Viking warriors astride giant prehistoric eagles, menacing dinosaurs, blood-thirsty ape-men, a beautiful damsel in distress and a breathtaking finale — a mighty aerial battle between these winged giants and their Viking riders versus a fleet of deadly enemy bombers from somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean and set against, over and through the skyline of New York City. Unfortunately, a lofty budget, war clouds breaking over Europe, front-office fears and fate all conspired to shelve this most ambitious fantasy. Only the legend remained and for more than sixty years, that’s all it has been.

The legend now takes on reality in the form of this collection of scripts and production notes — filled with all the action, thrills, monsters, danger and excitement — that remain to tell us what might have been. This unique collection contains the original Merian C. Cooper outline of the story dated September 20, 1938; two original mimeographed and compete screenplays by Cyril Hume, dated July 31, 1939 and September 28, 1939; nine original 8 in. x 10 in. black and white vintage photographs of production design sketches by O’Brien and others; two vintage “location” photographs of the lost valley; two original stills from O’Brien’s first masterpiece of special effects, The Lost World; twelve reference production design photos from War Eagles (including those from the vast archives of the legendary Forrest J. Ackerman!); a complete photocopied reference final shooting script by Hume dated October 10, 1939; and over one hundred photocopied file pages of research notes from the MGM vaults. The original outline and two scripts are bound in official MGM covers with all authentic markings. A unique collection of materials from a unique and much lamented unrealized motion picture.

The proposed cost range was given as $3,000-$5,000.

The following is an article on War Eagles from the magazine Modern Monsters, issue 4, published in 1966 (via SAM33):

Click to enlarge

Below are two on-set War Eagles production shots, as published in “the terrific Cinefex issue on Obie” (JimPV):

Unfortunately the auction site is long gone, but perhaps one day whoever bought the lot will allow the various War Eagles prints and images to be more widely seen. In fact, it sounds as though there might be enough material in the collection to produce a book on the legendary “lost” production.

Thanks, Richfrog.

As you probably know, it was based on a Broadway musical and caused some controversy when it turned the original’s “dark” ending into a “happy” one. Initially, however, the “dark” ending was filmed; it followed more closely on the stage play and it was test audience reaction that seems to lie at the heart of the decision to let both Seymour and Audrey survive the experience. The theatrical ending has, indeed, always seemed a little out of place and a little truncated — but frankly, I loved the characters so much, I’m happy to have them survive to live on in their artificial suburban paradise, as ironic as that may be. The final smirk of the “baby” Audrey II in their perfect garden is priceless.

I’ve always been curious in regards to the original ending but hadn’t seen it until recently. When I did, what surprised me was that it adds significantly to the film’s run-time — and culminates in an affectionate recreation of a Godzilla-like rampage. The original ending, it seems, was not only darker in that it killed off the two leads, but was darker because of the full-on apocalyptic invasion that it depicts.

So here, below, is that original ending, in three parts. It’s in black-and-white and is a rough-cut (because apparently the colour negatives were destroyed in a fire), but hey, watch it! It’s something else. If you’re a giant monster fan, and impatient, skip straight to Part 3. That’s where the kaiju action happens.

Part One:

Part Two:

Part 3:

Which do I prefer? Hard to say really? The sentimentalist in me likes the theatrical one — but the kaiju fan in me really wants the original instead!

Addendum: For more on the story behind the original ending and its history, see this excellent DVD Savant article.

But there are many many others. As an excuse to reveal a poster that Kaiju Search-Robot Avery discovered on the Kong is King messageboard, here is a bunch of less-well-known Godzilla posters, starting with the one Avery found — which advertises the US version by dissing King Kong and offering up a Godzilla who has — very early in his career — clearly let himself go.

Here’s a poster from Belgium for Godzilla vs Gigan, featuring a big pile-up of kaiju, though the one that is supposed to be Godzilla looks more like The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms:

Or this fantastic Polish effort for The Terror of Mechagodzilla — or perhaps Godzilla vs The Yellow Submarine would be more appropriate:

Here we have a rather strange poster for Godzilla vs Megalon, in which… somehow … the two skyscraper-sized monsters end up on either tower of what might be the World Trade Center:

This US poster for Godzilla vs the Thing manages to both obscure what “the Thing” is and to hint that it’s some kind of tentacled Cthulhan monstrosity, even though this nomenclature was a rather silly attempt to obscure the fact that Godzilla’s opponent was a giant moth — a monster that might not appeal to the target 14-year-old US male:

Then there’s this one, a rather snazzy rendering of the main US poster for Godzilla, King of the Monsters:

And finally a recent poster, rather stylish, advertising the British Film Institute’s release of the original Gojira:

Sources:

• Jon’s Random Acts of Geekery
• Kong is King Messageboards
• Conalrad 100

• More on Winston’s Godzilla design
• Sideshow Collectibles via Todd Tennant (original link)

But the prospect that it might get made inspired director Matthieu Ratthi to make a demo scene, hoping to encourage the Powers That Be to consider him for the job of directing a Talisman movie, should such a beast ever be unleashed. The result is called “The Hotel Room”, and in my opinion it works remarkably effectively as a stand-alone piece of cinematic “flash fiction”.

• Source: Arrow in the Head via Avery