Number 44: Prince of Space (1959)
Back on track now with my original list after a detour and
it’s a Japanese sci-fi/superhero movie from the 1950’s. It seems like an age
since I last watched some science fiction on here, so God help me I was
actually looking forward to this.
Japanese cinema isn’t all about gory horror films and men in
giant rubber monster suits (though ironically there is one here). They also
make rubbish sci-fi movies.
And this is a rubbish sci-fi movie.
Aliens are invading Earth as humans are about to test a new
rocket fuel that will allow them to travel into deep space. This is quite
common theme in sci-fi where aliens don’t want humans travelling out from there
planet. Usually this is because of mankind’s destructive attitude but in this
case they just want the rocket fuel formula. Not sure why since they can
already travel between planets but hey ho.
So the aliens show up to take over but get chased off by a
mysterious man in a costume, known only as Prince of Space. The alien’s weapons
are useless against him and he defeats them with ease. This is the pattern for
the whole movie and happens three times throughout. Aliens attack, Prince of Space turns up, they run away with their tails between their legs. The aliens are pretty
useless.
Speaking of the aliens, they have an odd look to them. They’re
people with long pointed noses that makes them look like birds. Their leader is
General Ranchor (say that five times fast) who has a laugh that reminds me of
The Penguin from the Batman TV
series. I wouldn’t be surprised if Burgess Merideth had done the English dub
but I can’t verify that.
Prince of Space usually shows up when some kids get
themselves in trouble with the aliens and he has to come and rescue them. The
children are very prominent in the story despite doing absolutely nothing of
worth other than get themselves caught.
The identity of the Prince of Space will come as surprise to
no one but where he got his suit, weapons and space ship from is never
revealed. Is he an alien himself? Did he make this stuff like Batman? This
stuff bothers me. It’s like the writer is saying it doesn’t matter how this guy
has technology that can fight off an advanced alien civilisation when man’s
best weapons have failed, he just can. Sorry but it does matter, you want me to invest in this character but you give me no reason too.
The PoS eventually beats Ranchor for good by going to his
home base, killing his giant guardian creature (who reminds me of Dobby from
the Harry Potter films) and blowing
up his base.
Now this film is very poorly produced with alien ships on
strings levels of special effects. It all makes me wonder if Ed Wood ever spent
any time out in Japan.
The Prince comes over as being a little too powerful, so it
never feels like he is ever in any peril which in turn makes the aliens seem
weak and difficult to take their threats seriously, even when they claim to
have enough power to wipe out an entire city in an instant. These guys couldn’t
beat an egg, in fact they would probably run from it.
Still, it’s always fun to watch 50’s Sci-fi regardless of
what country it is from. There are major plotholes, cheap special effects,
under-developed characters, poor direction and stiff acting. But apart from
that it’s perfect.
Number 43: Track of the Moon Beast (1976)
I like to try and find interesting angles for these films
but it’s not always easy.
I looked at the cast and for many this was the pinnacle of
their careers. This was the only film Richard Ashe ever directed. The most
interesting thing I’ve been able to find out is that one of the writers Bill
Finger, apart from having a funny name, convinced Bob Kane to change the design
of his superhero Birdman into a bat instead. I wonder if anything ever became
of that character?
So after that career high, comes this career low. I’ve
mentioned before that studios love making horror films as they are very cheap
to make and require little to no effort. They money they make can then be funnelled
into making the more expensive films the studios actually want to make.
An asteroid collides with the moon which causes a meteor
shower to fall to earth. There’s a scientist called Paul (a mineralogist I
believe they said) who gets hit by the debris and has a particle of meteor
lodged in his brain.
Soon people start turning up dead, killed in brutal savage
ways. Paul begins to suspect he’s responsible and has this confirmed by his
native Indian friend John Longbow (yes, that is his name) when he keeps him
restrained overnight. So it’s your basic werewolf movie set up. Except it’s not
exactly a werewolf. It’s implied throughout its more like a dinosaur. A
wereraptor if you will.
Paul decides the best course of action for him is to go out
to the mountains and kill himself. Chief Longbow decides he should go out and
kill him by shooting him with an arrow tipped with bits of the meteor.
Apparently, as regular bullets have no effect, this will cause a reaction that
will cause his cells to break down. It makes no sense and all the audience can
see is the moon beast flashing red.
There is a romantic subplot going on but it’s
really not that important and makes no difference to the overall enjoyment of
the film.
It has all the trademarks of 70’s low-budget movies: cheap
film, bad actors, sterile sets, that hissing sound you often get making the
dialogue inaudible, slow plodding pace because they only have 30 minutes of
real material but they need to stretch it out to make it feature-length.
Oh, and we get a song too. Absolutely no need for it but it
seems to be an emerging theme that bad movies have bad songs in them. Just to
cement how bad a movie it is.
It goes without saying this was bad but to be fair it never
had a chance. Supposedly the script was written in one weekend.
I find it hard to believe that much time was spent on
writing this.
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