DanTheMan 2
"We must work to turn tragedy into eternal peace and happiness in the future."
Original Japanese Version
The first of three US/Japanese co-productions with Henry G. Saperstein Enterprises and released the same year as one of my personal favourite Godzilla films, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Frankenstein vs. Baragon or Frankenstein Conquers the World is a delightfully strange movie and feels like it was made by Honda for those who thought the original Godzilla was too subtle in places.
Near the end of WWII, Germans transport the immortal heart of Frankenstein's monster to Japan, where it is seeming lost in the bombing of Hiroshima. Years later a wild boy is found, born from the immortal heart and he begins growing at an alarming rate as another monster terrorises the Japanese countryside...
The film opening with Nazi troopers smuggling Frankenstein's heart to a Japanese submarine followed swiftly by a recreation of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima feels very fulfilling in a weird way. The event that kick-started the Kaiju genre is extremely potent, unfortunately, the film then slows right down after this excellent opening but does at least pick up once again after the halfway mark.
Honda's direction is as always a winner and the bonkers nature of the plot serves his style well with many beautiful shots of the Japanese countryside. The effects by Eiji Tsuburaya are all well done, there's the odd occasional shot which hasn't aged very well, but the creative spark is still there. The shot of Baragon standing in the mine where his horn is only visible in the darkness is a brilliant moment, speaking of Baragon, despite him being a real afterthought to the main plot he does deliver as a monster. Of course, he's played by Haruo Nakajima who commits 100% but equal praise should go to Koji Furuhata who portrays Frankenstein. Akira Ifukube's music is suitably eerie and plays up the horror of Frankenstein quite well, Baragon's theme is equally great even if some of the music is a lot of repurposed Varan score.
It's as far away as a traditional retelling of the Frankenstein story as you could get but the crew at Toho studios put a brave and unequivocal spin on the original narrative. It does feel like Honda initially wanted to explore more of the science-gone-wrong aspect of the film's plot but instead, we are left with a more beauty-taming-the-beast-styled story, that's not to say it's bad or anything but the film does hit many of the beats you'd expect from that style of narrative.
In terms of the cast, there are many likeable characters here and decent performances. It's nice to see Nick Adams headlining another kaiju film once again, but like in Astro-Monster he is dubbed by Gorō Naya in the Japanese version and it's rather obvious how much Naya doesn't fully commit to the same emotion that Adams brings. Most notably for me at the 49-minute mark where Adams' character Dr James Bowen, slams a table and yells in frustration, Naya delivers the lines in a very calm and collected manner. The onscreen chemistry that Kumi Mizuno and Nick Adams shared in Astro-Monster is once again on full display here despite the language barrier. The rest of the cast all perform their roles with a suitable flair.
Overall, Frankenstein Conquers the World is a wonderfully bizarre kaiju movie that delivers a visually striking affair and one of Toho's best monster showdowns ever let down by some off-kilter padding that slows the film to a crawl at points. I'll probably go watch the US version in a while to see how it compares.
"Frankenstein will never die."
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
08/25/23
Full Review
J L
Frankenstein and Nick Adams are great in this film but, it isn't as fun as its sequel. The monsters don't tear at each other like Sanda and Gaira did.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
08/21/23
Full Review
brian c
From the famed Japanese movie company, Toho, comes this entertaining 1960s monster romp. This cult-classic which puts a modern atomic age spin on the classic Frankenstein mythos stars American actor, Nick Adams, and a solid cast of Toho's stable of actors of the time. Directed by the great Ishiro Honda (Gojira, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra). This fun (if at times somewhat campy) thriller pits a giant irradiated Frankenstein Monster against a underground dwelling, fire-breathing prehistoric monster named, Baragon. Which has been terrorizing the Japanese countryside. If you enjoy classic Japanese monster fare like I do. I recommend checking out this fun sci-fi, horror thriller from the studio that created Godzilla.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
delysid d
kind of cool kind of dumb
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/02/19
Full Review
Audience Member
If you stitched together "King Kong", "Godzilla", Boris Karloff's "Frankenstein" you would probably get something akin to one of the strangest giant monster movies and strangest interpretations of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: "Frankenstein versus Subterranean Monster Baragon" a.k.a. "Frankenstein Conquers the World". You don't know how crazy this movie is until you hear the plot: I'm just going to dodge a bullet right away and say that in the film, they call the Frankenstein monster "Frankenstein", so we'll just go with that. In Nazi Germany, during the final days of World War II, the heart of the legendary Frankenstein monster is brought over to Japan via submarine. We are informed that although Frankenstein has been killed many times, his heart is immortal and, given proper nourishment, will grow itself a new body in time. Japanese scientists hope to study the heart to learn its secrets... just as Hiroshima is bombed by Allied Forces and the lab it is stored in is buried under rubble. 15 years later, Dr. James Bowen (Nick Adams, who you will recognize as "Glen" from "Godzilla vs. Monster Zero") and his girlfriend/assistant Sueko Togami (Kumi Mizuno) spot a mysterious feral boy roaming the streets and it turns out to be Frankenstein! With his irradiated heart, the boy begins growing to titanic size until an accident causes him to escape. The monster (Koji Furuhata) is friendly, but scared and runs away to the countryside, where he is hounded by Japanese military. You see, at the same time as this Frankenstein plot is going on, we have the emergence of a gigantic dinosaur, Baragon (Haruo Nakajima). This creature, who has remained alive for millions of years underground is going on a rampage in the countryside and the damages it causes is being attributed to Frankenstein. It all works itself up to a big showdown between Frankenstein and Baragon.
As much grief as I gave King Kong from "King Kong vs. Godzilla", I have to say that of all of the monsters in the "Godzilla Universe" (because this film does tie into the Godzilla franchise) Frankenstein is the worst one. Say what you will about people in rubber suits fighting each other in front of the camera, but this guy, with his exaggerated overbite, messy hair and huge forehead looks ridiculous. You don't even have any of the trademark Frankenstein icons on him. No stitches around his wrists or electrodes coming out of his neck He's just a giant ugly guy running around. Faring much better is Baragon, the subterranean monster. This is a pretty cool creature (one that would interact with Godzilla a couple times over the years) with some interesting abilities and a unique look to it. The suit is well made and the moments where the two monsters are fighting are the best parts of the movie. The rest of the film though, it's a mess. Baragon just appears out of nowhere, is absent for most of the film and despite being seen by a principal character is not acknowledged at all until he begins attacking the countryside. Frankenstein is even more ridiculous. Why, for instance does he only begin growing so big when in the care of Dr. James and Sueko? If the monster is growing huge because of the radiation from the atomic bomb, then shouldn't he have been a giant baby, then a giant teen instead of going from a regular-sized teen to a gigantic adult? There is also a human character that is straight-up insane in this film that I need to bring up, Dr. Ken'ichiro Kawaji (Tadao Takashima). For a doctor/ scientist, he has some really questionable ideas. For instance, a problem early on in the film is that the Frankenstein monster is eating so much that they have to put him in a cage to prevent him from roaming around and devouring everything in its path (well, they said it's for its own protection, but they chain him up so I think they were just lying) so he proposes that they cut costs by sending the creature to the zoo! This guy becomes obsessed with the monster. He desperately wants to study it in order to unlock its secret of immortality, to the point where he comes up with this plan where he will personally blind the monster by throwing grenades at its face and then cut out its heart and brain in order to study it. His validation for this is that the military is planning on killing it anyway, so that's pretty much the same thing.
When it comes to what you want to see in a giant monster versus movie, it's a mixed bag. Like I said, Baragon looks terrific, but Frankenstein looks pretty bad. In terms of destruction, we don't get to see either monster really go on a rampage in the middle of Tokyo or any other major city so the amount of destruction is pretty weak. If you love seeing monsters throw rocks though (something that seems to have become really popular in these monster movies) there's a lot of that. Some of the miniatures, like the scaled cars and boats are well done, but the movie also has some really terrible miniature animals (a horse and a boar) that look like cheap toys. When it comes to the monster fight itself, with Baragon and Frankenstein ducking it out, the battle begins well. Frankenstein is much quicker than the dinosaur (which makes sense considering one of the actors is in a bulky suit and the other is trying to move quickly so we can never recognize who is under that makeup) but it's hard to get a feel for who is winning. The fight eventually begins to drag and then just ends, it's nothing special really.
As an entry in the Godzilla series, the only people who will really get a kick out of "Frankenstein Conquers the World" are that small margin of people who need to see every single movie or who just can't get enough Baragon. Frankenstein's monster never appears again in any Toho films (there is technically a sequel to this film, but that's a whole other story we'll get to in a couple of days) so you're not really checking this movie out for him. Fans of Mary Shelley's novel will find this way too silly for their tastes so that audience is out. Even with its tie into "Destroy All Monsters" and some other later movies, with the conclusion of this movie being what it is and the lack of an introduction for Baragon, the next time it shows up it might as well be a whole new character. The movie is a novelty, something so crazy you can watch and brag about it to your friends, but it isn't very good and it's a lot more fun to talk about it afterwards than it was to watch it. (English Dub on Dvd, April 8, 2014)
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
02/08/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A definitive B-movie in all respect. The titular monster is a tragic creature, just as Godzilla and other kaiju are. It offers more personal relations between monsters and humans---something that other monster films lack.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/15/23
Full Review
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