In between Godzilla's last appearance in "Godzilla Raids Again" (1955) and his reappearance seven years later, Toho Studios tried their hand at immortalizing other giant movie monsters. In America in the 1950's, movies about invaders from space were incredibly popular, so Toho decided to create their own alien bastards with which to torment the good people of Earth.
The Mysterians (1957)
Dr. Shiraishi has a theory. He believes that the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter was once a highly populated planet named Mysteroid, but the warlike inhabitants blew themselves up with powerful nukes almost 1,000 years ago. The survivors escaped to Mars, where they managed to eek out a living for a time while wearing large, colorful helmets. Then the population began to die off - exposure to massive radiation has left the Mysterians sterile, and now they must look to a neighboring planet to halt the extinction of their species. This was Dr. Shiraishi's theory, thought to be nonsense by the scientific community - until he disappears after an entire Japanese village sinks into the earth. He soon reappears as a figurehead for his new friends - the Mysterians, who demand a tiny tract of land and a few Earth women. If their demands aren't met they will send their giant utilitarian robot, Moguera, to cause untold havoc, and then they will take the women by force!
Well, we aren't going to stand for something like that, so the nations of the Earth (under Japan, of course) unite to battle the Mysterians. Based out of the "Defence Force of the Earth Head Quarter" (actual spelling), we send out the military en masse to deal with the invaders - turns out the Mysterians also have a space station in orbit ready to lay down some holy hell on us. But, wait! Guess what we have! Marcalite Farps!! Yeah, you heard me! Marcalite Farps (a.k.a. giant electricity guns)! Damn straight! Soon enough, Dr. Shiraishi realizes what a dillweed he's been and sacrifices himself to help the people of Earth kick those horny alien jerks back to Mars.
Made by the exact same filmmakers who made the original "Gojira" (Honda, et al) and featuring nearly the same exact cast (plus Kenji Sahara from "Rodan"), "The Mysterians" is a preposterous but fun little sci-fi flick. Inspired heavily by such films as "War of the Worlds" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (with a high dose of Japaneseness), the story is admittedly a hodge-podge of deja-vu, but the addition of a kaiju (giant monster) flavor gives it that special Toho feeling. Moguera, the giant robot chicken with drill arms and spinning antennae, would appear again in "Godzilla vs Space Godzilla" (1994), where he would only be 37% less silly.
Battle in Outer Space (1959)
Okay, this one isn't technically a kaiju film, but I'm quite fond of it nonetheless. Plus, it's kind of a sequel to "The Mysterians", and the musical themes composed by Akira Ifukube for this film would become signature themes used in the later Godzilla entries. So it counts. Yes. It does.
The film opens with the Mysterians' old space station, still in orbit but now under human control, getting blown away by a new batch of alien A-holes. Soon enough, other disasters occur around the planet, caused by a reverse-magnetism weapon. Well, fellow Earthlings, it's time to unite! Again! Aliens from the planet Natal want to enslave all humanity. Supposedly their attacks originated from the Moon, so the united people of Earth (accidentally referred to, one time, as the "Untied Nations") build two high-powered rocketships to do a little lunar recon. They soon discover the aliens' secret Moon base, as well as the aliens themselves (diminutive, squeaky toy-sounding dudes) and take it out, but not before one of their fellow crewmen (under alien mind control) takes out one of the rocketships. With the help of his friends, the traitor breaks the alien control and sacrifices himself so that the last rocketship can escape. Barreling towards Earth at high speed and followed closely by the alien armada, a couple of brand spankin' new super Earth-made spaceship prototypes swoop to the rescue and engage the fleet from Natal.
The characters in this movie are absolutely inconsequential, though solidly played by the cast. Having said that, it's a hell of a lot of fun, one of my favorite alien invasion movies from the 50's. There's a definite "Star Wars"-like feel to the space battles, and lots of energy to the (okay, yes, silly) narrative which makes for a great party movie. Plus, the Ifukube score is just plain classic. It's the same filmmakers who made "The Mysterians" (that pesky Ishiro Honda guy, again), and the effects work by Tsuburya is pretty stellar for the time period. And, like I said earlier, there are no giant monsters in this movie, but many elements from "Battle in Outer Space" (originally released in Japan as "The Great Space War") would turn up in future Godzilla movies. One of my favorite of all Toho movies. Here's a trailer (it's in black and white, unfortunately) -
Join me next time for the triumphant return of the king himself - Godzilla!
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