16. A Tokusatsu Horror Film

Latitude Zero is a futuristic utopia that lies hidden fifteen miles below sea level at the intersection of the Equator and the International Date Line. There, people from all over the world — many of whom were reported missing at sea and have now aged — have lived since the 19th century, assisting humanity in their development. Their lead vehicle, Alpha, is commanded by Captain Craig McKenzie (Joseph Cotten). He rescues three scientists, Dr. Ken Tashiro (Akira Takarada), Dr. Jules Masson (Masumi Okada) and journalist Perry Lawton (Richard Jaeckel) from a bathysphere accident, narrowly avoiding the henchmen of Latitude Zero’s enemy, Dr. Malic (Cesar Romero).

Alright, I already love this movie two minutes in.

Malic has kidnapped Dr. Okada (Tetsu Nakamura) and his daughter Tsuruko (Mari Nakamura), using them to create new monsters to attack his enemies. One of these is a lion with condor wings, into which he has placed the brain of the disgraced henchman Kuroiga (Hikaru Kuroki). Or human bats and kaiju rats.

Along with Latitude Zero scientist Dr. Anne Barton (Linda Haynes), the crew attacks the evil base of Blood Rock as this movie goes from giant monsters to Eurospy. By the end, everyone has joined the crew, except Lawton, who soon finds that any memories he has of this adventure are fading away. At the last moment, he charts a course back to Latitude Zero.

Based on the NBC radio serial Latitude Zero, which only had seventeen episodes, this was directed by Ishirô Honda and filmed in English. It was a co-production between Toho and the American television production company Four Star Productions. After having flown out the American cast to Japan, Four Star’s owner, Don Sharp, declared bankruptcy and pulled out of the contract. Toho made the movie anyway and ensured that everyone was paid.

I wish they made ten of these. Seriously, what a wild, strange and wonderful movie.