CHILLER THEATER MONTH: Dagora the Space Monster (1964)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Dagora was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, April 22 at 1:00 a.m. and December 16, 1967 at 11:20 p.m., Saturday, October 16, 1968 at 11:20 p.m., Saturday, May 16, 1970 at 11:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 24, 1971 at 11:30 p.m.

Giant Space Monster Dagora, directed by Ishiro Honda with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, is a kaiju movie that I would have hated as a child. It’s mostly a cops-and-robbers movies about diamonds, then it’s all about scientists. Dagora only randomly shows up, and it’s a floating jellyfish that seems like one of the Lovecraft Elder Gods. As an adult, the strange look of this kaiju is precisely why I enjoyed this movie.

When several TV satellites launched by the Electric Wave Laboratory go missing, it’s discovered that they have collided with unidentified protoplasmic cells. While that’s happening, Inspector Komai (Yosuke Natsuki) is searching for the thief who is stealing diamonds all over the world, which leads him to a crystallographer named Dr. Munakata (Nobuo Nakamura).

Meanwhile, Mark Jackson (Robert Dunham) is dealing with diamond smugglers as an undercover agent of the World Diamond Insurance Association. They all soon learn that the diamonds — and other sources of carbon — are being consumed by Dogora, which is the form that the cells have taken. And you’ll never guess what defeats the creature. Artificial wasp venom.

Dagora is only in this movie other than as a still at the beginning of Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, but it has shown up in several video games, including Godzilla: Monster of Monsters, Godzilla: Heart-Pounding Monster Island!!, Godzilla: Trading Battle and Godzilla Generations.

This was syndicated by American-International Pictures as part of two of its TV packages, Amazing 66 and Sci-Fi 65. In their prints, all of the cast and credits are removed, as there’s a jump cut from the main title to the first scene.

Take a look at the movies in these packages!

Amazing 66

Sci-Fi 65

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