If anyone's interested, I placed a thread about the original Japanese film, Ju jin yuki otoko, on that film's site. Just a description and discourse on the film, but it might give people some idea of how good the original movie is, and how much they're missing with Half Human.
shareI thought that was a very good read Hobnob!
Normally, I don't mind watching (or owning) an American version of a Japanese film, only because it is that version I grew up watching. But for this movie, the Japanese film is probably the better way to go though I've never seen it myself. As a matter of fact, I was unaware of this movie until I found a VHS copy at Suncoast Video way back in the early 90s. Then I read Leonard Maltin's book to find more information and he gave it a *1/2 (and stated that the Japanese version if probably better).
I do hope that Toho will have a change of heart and release their version and believe it or not, I would not mind it seeing it put on a double-bill with HALF-HUMAN. We can all agree that HALF-HUMAN is not a great movie, but at the same time, I don't want this becoming a lost film either (same with the Myron Healy VARAN feature).
The inclusion of Morris Ankrum makes him unique as the only actor to ever appear in a kaiju (albeit inserted scenes) and a Ray Harryhausen film (EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS). Plus, it was the second pairing of both Ankrum and John Carradine as they were both in the Joan Crawford-John Wayne vehicle REUNION IN FRANCE, although they were not good friends in that one!
Thanks, Big-G. I'm just sorry you didn't post over on the Ju jin site! But I'm glad you read it and liked it. Very long, of course, as I often get (as well you know!).
I don't want to see HH or any other film (or variant thereof) lost either, but I do want to see the originals given their full due as they're generally the best, and at the least provide the source material. Interestingly, I've never seen the 1962 Myron-Healey-altered Varan. I only have the original, which is pretty poor actually, though I gather the Americanized version is much worse. I mean -- Myron Healey?!
But all credit to you in recognizing and highlighting the unique link between Honda and Harryhausen provided by Morris Ankrum. Now that's trivia!
I will post something on the JU JIN site as I still have questions about the Japanese feature.
In regards to VARAN and Myron Healey, you pretty much nailed it down! It is funny that I always find the monster Varan a very interesting looking kaiju, but it is too bad that he wasn't in a better movie (Japanese or American feature)
And too bad that Ankrum was not in a George Pal film. That would have made it a triple-play! (and Ankrum appeared in just about every sci-fi film on the 1950s).
Varan flies in the original, which I gather he didn't in the US version. Also, I understand the much-altered story in the revamp centered on an entirely different plot point, though now I can't remember what I read it was. Scientists looking for something. Not the same as in the Japanese film, in any case.
I once read that during an actor's strike in the 60s, Myron Healey ran into Raymond Burr on the picket line and remarked at how lucky Burr had been to get a trip to Japan to film Godzilla -- whereas he, Healey, had had to shoot his Varan scenes in some dank studio somewhere in Hollywood! Goes to show that even a professional can be fooled.
I always refer to Morris Ankrum's "Mars Trilogy" from the early 50s: Flight to Mars, Red Planet Mars, Invaders From Mars, in which he appeared three years in a row: 1951-52-53. You could make it a quartet if you include the Mars-themed (but not -titled) 1950 Rocketship X-M.
They did change the plot in VARAN. In the Myron Healey version, he is Commander James Bradley of the United States Navy stationed in Tokyo. He is ordered to go to a remote part of Japan to conduct experiments to desalinate a salt water lake, and if successful, would prove very economical. Unfortunately, those bombardments of testing end up waking the monster (which he is only referred to here as “Obachi”, according the local populace). The monster then wrecks havoc wherever he goes, but there is never an ounce of guilt on Commander Bradley’s part (and he was warned by the locals of their god).
The young leads in the original version, Kozo Normua and Ayumi Sonoda are now known as “Paul and Shidori Isoh” good friends of Commander Bradley and his Japanese wife (the wife and Shidori are old college chums!). However, unlike GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS, where they have the Raymond Burr character trying to mingle with the original cast (via extras), Healey and company are completely removed, and mostly spend the middle of the movie avoiding the monster (at Bronson Canyon, a place where hundreds of movies and T.V. shows like STAR TREK have been shot).
And yes, the flying scenes were cut!
I remember hearing about that Raymond Burr-Myron Healey conversation on the Classic Media DVD of GODZILLA. I believe it was when Healey made a guest appearance on PERRY MASON. Well, to be fair, when I was a kid watching GODZILLA, I also believed that Burr was in Japan, not really noticing such things because I wanted to see a monster!
Speaking of PERRY MASON, Morris Ankrum was also a judge in several episodes in those first years. Heck, there were many actors who were associated in a kaiju that appeared in that show – Ankrum, Healey, George Takei, James Hong, Kipp Hamilton, Patricia Medina, Brian Donlevy and I recall that both Richard Jaeckel and Rhodes Reason appeared in a same episode!
Right -- a desalinization experiment. (Not to be confused with de-stalinization.) In the original, the party of scientists is on a field trip to find a new species of exotic butterfly. Enter Varan (or Baran, as he was properly known).
(Do you remember what other imported monster flew in its original film, but not in the American version? It was in an AIP flick from the early 60s. I've probably just given it away.)
The list of guest stars you mention from Perry Mason isn't surprising, though I would take a bit of an exception to linking them directly, or significantly, with kaiju. After all, their participation was only in the hacked-up Americanized versions, not in the original films. The version of the Myron Healey-Raymond Burr exchange I read about claimed it was on a picket line, but I do recall the CM commentary. I almost posted a thread on that commentary on the Gojira site, because while I caught only one mistake in their comments on Gojira, I found quite a number on the Godzilla, King of the Monsters disc! Even Terry Morse, Jr., made a mistake -- prompted by the two regulars -- by stating that GKOTM was his father's only sci-fi film. They all forgot Unknown World (1951).
At least Half Human used the baby snowman suit, shipped over from Tokyo, for its extensive US scenes. But so much of the original film was eviscerated in that version (I'd estimate nearly half of it) that HH really is a travesty of the story. In isolation, on its own, it seems okay, and I'd rather have it than nothing, but you could always tell there was a lot more to the film than what we saw in HH -- especially when you compare running times.
The same thing afflicts Godzilla, but there the Americanized film is much better done, has a better story line and integrates the Japanese scenes from the original film in a moderately satisfactory way. HH contains too little footage from Ju jin yuki otoko and suffers from having no dialogue from the original in the film, all of it smothered instead by John Caradine's narration. He was always good, but the lack of direct connection with the action in the original film is frustrating, and it just doesn't work well when you stop to think about it, and the US scenes are too static, being limited to one or two sets.
Had they contrived to replicate the approach used by GKOTM, or even Varan the Unbelievable, it would have been much better. Whatever changes in tone or substance in those films, the core movie remained to some degree. In Half Human, most of its core has been deleted, and the movie suffers enormously...though you only realize just how much so when you've seen the real thing.
And I know you generally prefer the US versions to the originals!
Yes, I know that AIP movie where they cut out the monster flying scenes. A little Danish flick that I use to watch on the Million Dollar Movie back in the day!
Well, to be fair, people like Richard Jaeckel and Rhodes Reason were in the original Japanese versions. Same with Patricia Medina. And eventhough I have it, I've never bothered to see the Japanese version of WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS, just curious if Kipp Hamilton sings "Feel In My Heart" in that one (or that she is in it period).
And indeed it was interesting that Toho sent the baby snowman suit for the HALF-HUMAN production. But is it is ashamed nothing of significance could be done about it besides Morris Ankrum talking about its anatomy.
It probably would have been better had they just dubbed the film, but I guess the studio that released it stateside wanted something along the lines of GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS (eventhough RODAN had been dubbed and had a successful release all without benefit of inserted actors and different situations).
Congratulations! (Well, almost...!) You didn't give the title, but of course you know it's Reptilicus. Except you didn't see it on MDM (channel 9) -- it was always run on channel 7, on their 4:30 movie. (NYC, folks.)
Someone once posted a link on its IMDb board to a Youtube video of Reptilicus flying in the original Danish film. Reportedly, AIP axed these scenes from the US release because they thought they looked too fake! (As opposed to the CGI-like realism of the rest of the film.) But I thought they looked okay, and are rather cool. In the clip I saw, one actor runs up to the others and breathlessly reports, "Reptilicus fliege!" (or whatever it is in Danish), and the others all stare at him in amazement until one says, "Reptilicus fliege?!" They then cut to the shots of Reptilicus fliegening. Anyway, AIP should have left the scenes in.
Back to HH, the major problem with inserting American actors into the original is that there was no way to "integrate" them into the action in the way that Raymond Burr was in Godzilla, or even Myron Healey in Varan. The plots of those films, with large-scale scenes involving giant rampaging monsters, allowed for an American actor or two to be tossed into the action without disrupting the basics of the real film. But Ju jin yuki otoko is by its nature an intimate drama, with the characters all playing against one another and on the same scale, if you will (the snowman is not 200 feet tall). Therefore, it wasn't really feasible to invent American characters who could somehow become part of the proceedings in the film. The way they did it was probably the only way it could have been done, but it's far from successful, and in any case there was no need to cut so much of the original. They could have had Carradine narrate the opening, and left most or all of the original intact, using dubbing and occasional voice-overs by JC.
True that Rhodes Reason (King Kong Escapes), Richard Jaeckel and Patricia Medina (Latitude Zero), were in the originals...but that doesn't make the films any better. The films would have been just as good with Japanese actors in those parts. As I've said elsewhere, with the exception of Rodan, I find all the Japanese originals better than the Americanized versions. That doesn't mean the latter are bad, just not as good.
Oh, Kipp Hamilton is not in the original War of the Gargantuas...another film with an American actor (Russ Tamblyn) in the original Japanese version. I haven't seen the US rehash, but I didn't much care for that film even its in actual version.
Well, here in Southern California (and I’m talking about the greater Los Angeles area), our MDM was on Channel 9, KHJ, a station that was then owned by RKO and yes, they showed a lot of the old RKO features (ironically, the two biggest RKO movies, KING KONG and CITIZEN KANE, were shown on a different channel). And truthfully, though I haven’t seen it in many years, I’ve always had a soft spot for REPTILICUS. Bad looking monster yes, but not necessarily a bad monster film (though I wouldn’t award it an Academy Award either).
The way HALF-HUMAN was done, it is almost like watching a silent film, with Carradine doing the narration. A Japanese film about a monster snowman sounds interesting enough (at least the young sfi-fi fans ), but the way it was done, they managed to even take that interest out. I have it only because I’m a Toho and film buff and I still don’t want it to become a lost film.
And I’m sure the majority of the Japanese originals are better. However, sometimes I’m not a fan of how some of the dialog was originally written and I could understand why changes had to be made. Heck, I could understand why someone like Nick Adams improvised some of the dialog to adapt it to Western viewers. I have FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERES THE WORLD and MONSTER ZERO in the Japanese but frankly, I prefer the American versions. Adams’ classic “You sticking rats!” does not have the same punch in the Japanese edition.
My mistake, for some reason I was thinking of you in the NYC area. But actually, the channels -- the classic channels -- were virtually the same in both NYC and LA. Even channel 9 (once WOR, now, under new ownership, WWOR) was owned by RKO-General Tire, so had pretty much the same stuff as 9 in LA. (Though our 9 did have both Kong and Kane.) The three nets are the same, even the same call letters, save for the K/W switch. (In the 80s in LA I saw a newscaster on 7 named John Schubeck, who used to be on 7 in NY. I know he died several years ago.) The only difference I can recall is that your 11 was the Metromedia channel (now Fox), while in NYC it was 5. Our 11 and your 5 are indies. I can't remember what 13 is in LA; in NYC, it's WNET, the PBS station. But up until the early 60s it was an independent commercial staion assigned to Newark, NJ, and for decades after it became a PBS channel it still bore Newark as its home town, even though its facilities were in NYC.
Anyway, in NY, Half Human was always broadcast on channel 9. I got the film, on both VHS and on the only DVD I know of (from Sinister Cinema) because it was the only version of the film available, and so (as I said in posting about the DVD) was better than nothing, and on its own terms it's passable. It was my luck that thanks to the generosity of kerchable I was able to see the real thing. I'd always heard -- and just assumed -- it was far better, and it is.
I agree that a lot of the dialogue in the Japanese films (assuming good translations on my part) is a bit awkward by American standards, but then we are dealing with another culture, so I guess what sounds fine in one may not go over so well in another. The main reason I prefer Rodan over the original Sora no daikaiju Radon is because the US version is (re-)structured better, the slightly revamped dialogue smooths the narrative, and even the English narration (vs. none in the original) works to the film's advantage (which it doesn't really do for Godzilla, King of the Monsters or the dubbed Godzilla Raids Again/Gigantis, the Fire Monster). So I suppose having an American actor in a Japanese film would help insure that his character's dialogue sounded more natural than a translation from the Japanese.
However, while we're used to dubbed versions of the kaiju films, and so accept them in that form, it's hard to imagine the same for something like Ikiru or Seven Samurai...though I know that dubbed versions of those were produced (and, hopefully, burned) back when.
Our Channel 5 (KTLA, and owned at that time by Gene Autry), was probably the best station in terms of movies. That is the channel that showed the most kaiju (I recall seeing MONSTER ZERO on back-to-back nights!). In addition to kaiju, they showed most of the Universal horror and sci-fi films, Bogart classics and even great 1960s drama/thrillers like THE NANNY, WAIT UNTIL DARK and BONNIE & CLYDE (they even showed GIANT, which at that time in my life, sounded kaiju-like so I decided to check that out as well!). Even “Movies Til Dawn” was on Channel 5. In essence, it was our independent version of TCM long before there was ever a TCM. Sadly, the station is now the CW, and movies are a rarity, except for afternoon weekends.
One of these days, I will have to see the original HALF-HUMAN, once I can find a copy for myself. I will probably be a long time before Toho (if ever) considers releasing it again.
And you make a good point about the cultural differences in terms of dialog. Just curious however, had movies like SEVEN SAMURAI or IKIRU been released here in the states in dubbed versions, might had they been aired on local stations? For us, Kurosawa movies only appeared in our PBS channels.
I would almost swear (except I'm probably being delusional) that I saw a bit of a dubbed version of Seven Samurai many decades ago. Frankly, I think I'm imagining this...but maybe not. Anyway, it's the sort of film I doubt ever showed up on regular commercial TV channels, even in its severely edited US version (about an hour cut out). I have no recollection of seeing any such classic foreign films on TV, dubbed or otherwise. Hardly definitive, but I had pretty good exposure to broadcast movies in the good old TV days.
Love that you thought Giant might be a kaiju! When NYC's Million Dollar Movie would announce its next week's title, I got excited anytime it sounded as though it might be a sci-fi! Which led to a lot of disappointments.
Well, the only dubbed Kurosawa I've seen is RASHOMAN, which is contained in the Criterion disk.
And I was disappointed that GIANT was not a kaiju. Today, however, I appreciate the movie and the subject (racism) that it tackles.
And getting back to HALF-HUMAN, I am sure I will see the original feature somewhere, someday (and I do hope Toho will ultimately change their minds).
Well, there's The Giant Behemoth, The Giant Claw, Giant From the Unknown, The Giant Gila Monster and, using its alternate title, The Giant Leeches, though we mostly know that one under its original title, Attack of the Giant Leeches. So lots of Giants to choose from, and only one to be disappointed by, in terms of monstrous subject matter.
We'll have to see what can be done to provide you with a look at Ju jin yuki otoko. As I've written, frankly, I cannot understand the opposition, whose alleged reasons for banning this wee bit of free expression are all factually erroneous. Stay tuned....
I will try to look for JU JIN YUKI OTOKO myself as well. Maybe I can get lucky somewhere.
And sorry to go off the subject again, but have you gotten the Criterion DVD of GOJIRA/GODZILLA? My thumbs are way up on this one! And you will be happy to know that in the commentary for GKOTM, David Kalaat does take aim at Donald Ritchie, while whose contributions of Japanese cinema to the West are important, never saw anything special in Godzilla (or kaiju for that matter).
I'm told Ju jin yuki otoko may be available on YouTube, but I've never looked. Also, it might not be subtitled.
My order of Criterion's Godzilla duet was shipped but has not yet arrived. I've been looking forward to seeing it and, among other things, checking its commentary (not a usual thing for me) so I can compare it to the Classic Media release. Will see you on that board in a few days, I hope. But I was disappointed to see that Stuart Galbraith IV, who I understood would be a co-commentator on the Criterion discs with Kalaat, is not after all included in the release. He's the anti-Ritchie, a man who knows and respects all genres of Japanese films and can comment on them fairly and intelligently. I'm very sorry he's not involved. But I'm glad to hear Kalaat puts Ritchie in his pretentious place. The only kaiju I recall his even deigning to speak about was Gojira, which he did perfunctorally and with the disdainful remark that that would constitute the sum total of his commentary on such films. So much for looking for his comments on Ju jin yuki otoko!