To be shown on TCM


Apparently, Turner Classic Movies will show The H-Man on March 31 as a part of an evening of scifi classics. It should show at 12:30 AM ET on the night of the 31st.

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I'm looking forward to it. I'm wondering if they'll be showing the Japanese version or the US dubbed edit. As long as its widescreen, I'm looking forward to either version.

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I'm sure it'll be the English-dubbed US version from Columbia, though it'd be a nice surprise if it isn't. I have the Japanese film and it's very different (and better), as I've written elsewhere on this site. I kind of hope it is the American version, as I haven't seen that in decades and would like to refresh my memory of it, vs. the original.

As to whether it'll be widescreen, the TCM Guide does not list it as being letterboxed. Surprisingly, it is not uncommon for TCM to run a widescreen film the first one or two times in a pan-and-scan version -- this has happened on a number of occasions, in particular with Columbia films. Why this is, I don't know. I hope it's widescreen, and the Guide is sometimes wrong on such things, but there's a very good chance it won't be.

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Well hobnob, eventhough it was released by Columbia, THE H-MAN is a Toho Production, and shot in Tohoscope, so we will see. Of course living in the West Coast, the advantage for us is that this movie will be shown during prime time!

If this will be introduced by Robert Osborne, I sincerely hope he doesn’t refer to this as a "rip-off" of THE BLOB, since both movies were being shot at the same time, and actually this film beat Steve McQueen's feature to the big screens.

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Hey Big G -- Another reason it'll almost certainly be the dubbed American version is that it's listed under its American title. As I wrote above, I would kind of like it if it were the US film, especially if it is shown widescreen. I never saw this in theaters and the only times I saw it on TV, many many moons ago (probably during the Johnson administration -- Andrew), it was of course broadcast in a pan-and-scan format. I'd love to see the dubbed American version, w-i-d-e-s-c-r-e-e-n for the first time, for old times' sake.

But you really do have to see the original, which is better and makes much more sense than the American reconfiguration. If, as rumored, Columbia does at some point issue dual-disc versions of this and other Toho films they distributed in the US (with the Japanese and American versions), I hope they include the original US releases and not new dubbed versions. Tokyo Shock did the latter with its similar two-disc editions, where for the English version they simply dubbed the Japanese film with new, American voices instead of using the original altered US versions with Japanese-accented dubbing and phony, spliced-in scenes with American actors. On the other hand, the Classic Media two-film discs used the original Americanized versions, which was much more fun.

Yes, you left-coasters do have the advantage here, getting to watch it at 9:30; but on the other hand I'm preparing for an enjoyable all-nighter, whetting the appetite a bit longer for all this stuff and stocking up on Cheez Doodles or whatever. The bad part for you guys is that I Married a Monster From Outer Space comes on at 5:00; on the other hand, the rarely-shown low-budget goodie, The Lost Missile, comes on at 12:45 your time, but not until 3:45 ours. Have you seen that one? Not bad at all, too ambitious for its budget, but different and with a surprisingly downbeat ending. Worth a look, or a recording for later.

We'll have to compare H-Man notes after Tuesday night. I'm also curious how flippant (or inaccurate, as he not uncommonly is) Bob Osborne will be in his intro -- and yes, he's still doing the intros at that hour. Plus I'm dying to hear his mispronunciations of the Japanese names! He'll probably sound like he's chewing Jujyfruits. (Sorry, Bob.)

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I hope they include the original US releases and not new dubbed versions. Tokyo Shock did the latter with its similar two-disc editions, where for the English version they simply dubbed the Japanese film with new, American voices instead of using the original altered US versions with Japanese-accented dubbing and phony, spliced-in scenes with American actors.

Of course I believe you are referring to THE MYSTERIANS. I heard the new English dub and found it atrocious! Better to watch it in Japanese or if you understand Spanish like I do, listen to the Spanish dub, which I thought was actually better than the English version.

And yes, hopefully it will be this year where Sony releases all of the Toho films you described earlier and in their original dub and Japanese language versions.

According to TCM's schedule, they are also giving THE 27TH DAY starring Gene Barry, right before THE H-MAN. That is another film I am looking forward to watch as I have never seen it before (never had a DVD release or probably even a VHS release either).

I'm also curious how flippant (or inaccurate, as he not uncommonly is) Bob Osborne will be in his intro -- and yes, he's still doing the intros at that hour. Plus I'm dying to hear his mispronunciations of the Japanese names! He'll probably sound like he's chewing Jujyfruits. (Sorry, Bob.)

Hey, I have the AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS DVD, which has an intro by Osborne. Of course, AROUND features the great Mexican comic Cantinflas, and Osborne completely mispronounces his name! If he has trouble with Spanish, imagine him pronouncing Japanese names!

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Yes, The Mysterians, but they also did the same with Varan the Unbelievable and Matango. What I love in The Mysterians is the English dubbing of the scene where the Japanese military and diplomats meet the American guys, and the interpreters translate the Americans' English into English for the Japanese, and vice versa! Absolutely hilarious, and ridiculous. I like the dubbing jobs they did in the 50s and 60s because at least back then they used Japanese and other Oriental (sorry if that's non-p.c.; but "Asian" is a broad, imprecise, geographically-based, misleading term) actors -- like George Takei, who dubbed voices in Rodan -- instead of standard American voices that make no sense whatsoever and sound idiotic.

I do understand Spanish but never contemplated risking that dubbing! Maybe I'll check it out. German? French? Slovenian?

I'll be curious about your reactions to The 27th Day. I'll say only it's interesting, and gets better as it goes along. But it is available on DVD from Sinister Cinema, in a pretty good print. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns up on a studio DVD sometime, as Columbia is once again releasing its library. One of their obtusely-named "Martini Movies", no doubt.

Oh, by the way -- I just checked, and yet another reason I'm sure this is the American version of The H-Man is that the running time given by TCM is 79 minutes -- the US running time. Actual length of the original is 87 minutes. Another reason the original makes a lot more sense in its plot than our revised domestic variant.

Anyway, we'll all find out this evening. (Yay!) Meanwhile, as Bob Osborne said, quoting Kenji Sawara..."Adios, H-Man san!"

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Sadly, it's the 4:3 pan and scan dubbed version.

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Sadly, but not surprisingly.

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I have a theory about all of this. Since it looks like this movie will be released on DVD some time later this year (maybe), I’m thinking that Sony and even Toho told TCM, not to show the widescreen or even Japanese language versions, because that will ultimately be introduced in the DVD package. Hence, why I think Sony or Toho sent or only gave permission to show the pan and scan version. It was too bad though.

I did see the beginning of THE 27TH DAY, but I had to tend to other things, but luckily I TiVo’d it.

Surprisingly, Robert Osborn was not condensing towards this movie, and it was nice of him to mention Ishiro Honda (and not mispronounce his name!). Of course, I just knew he would throw out the Kurosawa card, and mention Honda’s association with him, but hey, it was all true anyway.

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I started watching "The 27th Day" about halfway through only to fall asleep, and wake up the "The H-Man".

What a great movie - the blood curdling screams from the victims are the best I have heard in any movie!

I now wish I TIVO'd it!

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Don't worry, pkillam -- it appears this film will indeed be released on DVD, in a dual-disc edition (both Japanese and US versions) sometime later this year. No dates or details yet, but this has just been reconfirmed by Sony/Columbia. I have a brief thread on this elsewhere here.

The Japanese version, which has long been available (see yet another thread!), is much better.

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Yeah, I figured Bob O. would "legitimize" Honda by stressing -- really stressing -- his friendship with Kurosawa. But let's face it, Kurosawa's belief that Ishiro Honda was a great visual director was right and a nice validation of his work. In fact, Honda declined Kurosawa's insistence that he (I.H.) be given credit as co-director on Ran and Kurosawa's other later films because Honda thought his renown as a "monster movie director" would diminish his friend's work. So they came up with "Associate Director", a first.

But -- I just posted an update on my thread about a possible Sony release of the Japanese and US versions of this film. Apparently, this and a couple of others will indeed be coming out sometime later this year. Still no details, but it looks firmer and firmer.

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Yes, you will see some close-knit bonds between two famous directors. Spielberg and Lucas come to mind. But Honda and Kurosawa were practically like brothers! And both helped each other out late in their careers, when the film industry thought they were just too old.

Really looking forward to THE H-MAN DVD, and the Japanese language version.

Finally had a chance to watch THE 27TH DAY. It was interesting (and of course, we got to see a Harryhausen saucer!). Though I thought that the ending wrapped things up a little too conveniently, it did a fairly good job looking at paranoia. And of course, it was not shy in telling us who the villains were! Gene Barry, I thought had the best line when he and Valarie French were hiding out from the government. “We have all the disadvantages of a married couple, but not the advantages!”

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I always thought the coolest scene in that movie (27th) was the scientist opening the capsule while in the raft, and disintegrating immediately. For a low-budget film, that was pretty effectively done.

That whole part of them hiding out at the racetrack I found dumb and dull, but otherwise the movie at least had an adult point of view, though not always executed too well. Columbia released it as the second feature on a double bill with Twenty Million Miles to Earth. I guess both having "20s" in their titles made them seem kind of, you know, symbiotic-like.

I wonder who else besides Commies died at the end? I mean, I guess Vice President Nixon was still around, thank you, aliens. (Interestingly, one film scholar noted years later that the President of the United States was never seen again after all the bad people died!) I've read that in the novel from which the film was derived (the author wrote the screenplay), he did indeed have a few seemingly "good" people die -- an archbishop, some western politicians, a few ordinary people -- not just the simplistic notion of Communists-only. (I suppose some fugitive Nazis would've bought it too.) Also, some people who had some badness within them but were not totally opposed to world peace got headaches and such but didn't die, a warning to wise up, I guess. Sounds neat.

Anyway, we should probably transfer over to the 27th Day site if we're gonna continue this discussion. Or, we could resort to speaking about disintegrating H men. Hey! Maybe that's what happened to that scientist on the raft! Lots of water around. Dearth of showgirls though.

Speraking of which , THM was the sexiest Japanese sci-fi movie I've ever seen...those showgirl outfits were pretty scanty for 1958, especially to make it into the conservative US cut!

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I wonder who else besides Commies died at the end? I mean, I guess Vice President Nixon was still around, thank you, aliens.

Oh great! I was reading that and drinking something at the same time, and of course, I had to laugh at it and all came out! Hobnob, I’m sending you the dry cleaning bill! (Interesting perspective though!).

Speraking of which , THM was the sexiest Japanese sci-fi movie I've ever seen...those showgirl outfits were pretty scanty for 1958, especially to make it into the conservative US cut!

Indeed. I don't recall someone like Rita Hayworth wearing something like that! Ahh, the wonderful Hayes Code!

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Sorry about that! Just forward the bill to the Columbia legal department. They haven't had a good case since screwing Cliff Robertson over the David Begelman affair in the 70s.

Speaking of dry-cleaning, who do you suppose took care of scooping up and laundering all those clothes left lying around the streets of Tokyo? Not to mention the fact that, given Japan's restrictive immigration policies, the cleaners would certainly not be either Chinese or Korean.

My most vivid early memory of The H-Man was the gangster firing at the H that slurped up through the window in the back of the night club, with that skimpily-clad showgirl standing there screaming but not trying to actually get out of the room! (Idiot. Guess that's why she had to find work as a showgirl.) Anyway, it was the shot of the goo slithering up her bare leg that for some reason really made an impression!

Too bad we never get to see Yumi Shirakawa in one of those costumes. She looked exquisite, but, given that the club was clearly hot and stuffy, I'd have liked to see the poor girl given a break by management and afforded the opportunity to wear something less constricting so she could breathe.

A long way from her simple-village-girl get-up in Rodan!

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Speaking of dry-cleaning, who do you suppose took care of scooping up and laundering all those clothes left lying around the streets of Tokyo? Not to mention the fact that, given Japan's restrictive immigration policies, the cleaners would certainly not be either Chinese or Korean.

That is both funny and clever, that I'll leave it at that!

In regards to Yumi, yes, she looked sensational!

Hollywood will probably want to remake this with Britney Spears as the lead and maybe Jack Black in the Kenji Sahara scientist part. And of course with globs of CGI! Hey, it was made before the 1990s, so it has to be remade!

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Yummy Yumi over Brittle Britney any day.

Kenji Sahara will give Blackjack his just "deserts".

(Yes, and JB had such success with the second entirely necessary remake of King Kong!)

One glob of H is more effective than a roomful of CGI. Imagine needing three letters where one sufficed before!



Ladies and gentlemen...I give you...Approximate H-Man-san!

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Yes, both Yumi and Kumi Mizuno over Britney any time!

And I don't think it was an accident that Toho featured their two beautiful actresses in bathtub scenes! Yumi in THE MYSTERIANS and Kumi in a bubble bath in GORATH (talk about another Toho movie I wish was available on DVD here in the States).

(P.S. I know Kumi Mizuno has nothing to do with this topic, but couldn't help to bring her up! ).

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Well, the bath is a traditional Japanese art and social form, so what could be a cleaner topic?

For me, it's also Toho's two big eye candy stars of the 60s, Akiko Wakabayashi and Mie Hama. Both in the Bond thriller You Only Live Twice, but in movies like The Three Treasures and other Eiji Tsuburaya-fantasy films as well as straight stuff.

But good news -- you can get Gorath from Video Daikaiju. That one was a real revelation to me. I'd only seen a part of it decades ago until I bought a copy from them the other year...a terrific film, one of their best, but seldom seen because for some reason it didn't have a major studio as its releasing agent in the US. Their DVD is color, widescreen, uncut, the works. Plus the "missing" giant walrus scene (which Tsuburaya opposed doing, but the studio insisted they had to have a gratuitous monster, so...). No harm, but utterly pointless, though not tuskless.

See my review/comment on the film on the Gorath page. It's really a find (the movie, not my review -- please!). As always, on IMDb it's listed under its Japanese title, Yosei Gorasu, though typing in either title will of course get you there. Sounds like you know it, but maybe only the cut US version -- the original is a must.

I may be off for a couple of days. Happy Easter and Passover!

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I caught snippets of the showing on TCM.

I remember seeing the US version of "THE H-MAN" on a local television station back in the early 80's. I caught it on video during the early 90's. I eventually "discovered" how the US and Japanese version were different. About a year ago, I purchased a two DVD set at a comic book/collectible convention from a dealer selling DVDs of various sci-fi movies from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, etc.

The first DVD was the US version (i.e. VHS) and the second DVD was a letter-boxed, Dolby, English sub-titled with original Japanese dialogue, etc. version that was apparently taken from the Japanese laserdisc edition of the movie. What a difference in the film compared to the US version.

It also came with a short documentary about the making of the film in Japanese dialogue only with subtitles.

I hope that Sony releases THE H-MAN as an official two disc set with the US and the original Japanese version, but I doubt they'll do it justice because films like this is catered to niche market.

While on this topic, I'm surprised the concept/idea of a H-MAN re-imaging/remake/sequel was never pursued in the US or by TOHO.

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sht I missed it



When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...

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