AKA - Frankenstein Conquers the World

Frankenstein Conquers the World is the international version. Frankenstein vs Baragon is the Japanese version. The one that I saw was in Japanese with the octopus ending.


I have a question for the Kaiju experts out there. If Frankenstein can grow back an arm or a leg, how come he is missing a front tooth in this loony tune Kaiju film? What drugs were Toho, Ishiro Honda and scriptwriter Takeshi Kimura taking to come up with this one? I want some for my next lonely Saturday night. This is nuts. Charmingly so, but still wacko. They had clearly reached a stage with the Kaiju films that they had no idea what to do next. Before this one, they imported King Kong to fight Godzilla. Now Frankenstein? Initially, it was going to be him and Godzilla duking it out - but probably because Frankenstein is the good guy, they needed another villain - so Baragon!


This was a co-production with United Productions of America being run by Henry Saperstein. Saperstein had primarily been involved in TV shows - producing the Mr. Magoo cartoons - but he had ambitions to get into feature films and so struck a deal with Toho to finance 50% of a few monster films and have a lot of say in the final product and to bring in American actors. It was Saperstein who asked for the octopus ending even though filming was over - they all had to come back to shoot that scene - and then neither Saperstein nor Toho used it. But thankfully it has made it to video releases and is in truth the cherry on top of this chocolate sundae. Saperstein also picked Nick Adams for this film as well as for Invasion of Astro-Monster. Also, on Saperstein's resume is hiring Woody Allen to "direct" What's Up, Tiger Lily.    


There is some strange history here. One bit absurd, the other unsettling. It is 1945 and Germany is on the verge of collapse. A crazy scientist with bubbling test tubes all over is interrupted in his work by a knock on the door. It is the Nazis. They want Frankenstein's brain that this scientist is keeping in a box. Very convenient. Why do they want it? To save Germany? No, too late for that. Instead, by submarine they transfer it to another submarine from Japan. A Japanese crew member asks, "Is it Hitler's brain?".  No, sorry that was on its way to South America per They Saved Hitler's Brain. Where do they then take it? Hiroshima of course. Bad luck. For the entire city and just as they open the box and one of the scientists says Frankenstein can never die, America drops the big one. It is a horrifying moment even in a goofy film like this.


Jump ahead fifteen years later and our hero Nick Adams is a doctor in Hiroshima along with his girlfriend doctor, the magnificent Kumi Mizuno. The two of them were an item in the real world. At one point she says to him, I don't get American humor. But I like it when you barbecue hamburgers. A feral boy is running around the neighborhood scaring people and eating food. Kumi takes pity on him and he naturally takes a liking to Kumi. She takes him in and they discover that this boy is immune to radiation. Now he is a science project. And he is getting bigger. And bigger. And bigger. They conclude that he might be Frankenstein, somehow from that brain and the radiation. Another doctor (Tadao Takashima) wants to cut off his arm because if it grows back, it will prove he is Frankenstein. Adams is amenable to this but Kumi says no and Adams does what Kumi says. So would I. But not the sneaky Tadao.


But Frankenstein breaks out of his chains leaving a moving hand behind and roams Japan growing ever larger and they debate whether to kill him. The film is very talkie. I mean meeting after meeting with bureaucrats, generals, scientists. Should we kill him? And then at about the one-hour mark that damn Baragon decides to put in an appearance by poking his head out of the earth. Sort of a giant mole like creature with a horn and a taste for human flesh. But who do they blame for the missing people? Frankenstein. Who saves a town, the sneaky doctor and of course Kumi.


The fight between Frankenstein and a guy in a rubber suit is basically a wrestling match and in truth pretty awful. Not as much destruction of buildings as we are used to - most of it takes place out in the country. This was clearly done with a smaller budget than previous films - which explains all that talking. But then the octopus makes it all worthwhile.


Kumi, "Did Frankenstein die?"

Tadao, "No, Frankenstein will never die"

Adams, "Perhaps the best thing would be for him to die. After all, he's only a monster".

What the hell! Only a monster? The whole point of the film is that he wasn't a monster. Just a big lug.  Baragon did survive apparently as he returns in Destroy All Monsters (1968) and Giant Monsters All Out Attack (2001).