November 15, 2004
Tuesday November 16, 2004

Savant's new reviews today are

Ragtime Paramount
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? MGM
Made for Each Other MGM and
Broadway's Lost Treasures II Acorn Media

The fun news this week is that January 25 will reportedly bring a release of Savant's nostalgic favorite The Mysterians to DVD in an enhanced widescreen version, full Toho length and in the original language supported by an English subtitle track. It's to be released by Tokyo Shock/Media Blasters. That's great news for fans who have had to make do with pan-scanned, cut and English dubbed VHS tapes; the movie is a colorful kid's delight on a big screen.

According to the Tokyo Shock/Media Blasters publicity communiqué they have also acquired the U.S. DVD rights for more prime Toho fantasy and Kaiju Eiga. Daikaiju Baran from 1958 is an atmospheric monster epic that was only partly used for the 1962 American release version Varan the Unbelievable. Stuart Galbraith told me that he thought it had been made as a nonstop destruction show to better facilitate foreign version recutting. Dogora was only shown here cut and pan-scanned on television as Dagora, Space Monster; it's a weird combo of diamond heist spy nonsense and a very weird 'space jellyfish' that reaches out with tentacles to wreck bridges and steal the world's coal supply with suction tornadoes. I once got to see the intriguing Matango thanks to correspondent Darren Gross, and it turned out to be a surprisingly effective drug-oriented movie about desire and gruesome transformations. The American TV version Attack of the Mushroom People was a bad joke, but the Japanese original is up there with Gorath (not part of this deal) as Ishiro Honda's most mature effort. The one picture in the announcement that I haven't seen is Space Amoeba, or Yog, Monster from Space. The press release didn't give release dates for the other four titles but I hope we don't have to wait too long.

Perhaps somebody can clue me to another rumor (rumor!), that someone has indeed acquired the DVD rights to the original Japanese Gojira released theatrically last year by Rialto. The later Toho output (starting with some titles around 1967 or so) gets kind of tedious but we can't get enough of the classics 1954 through 1966. I'm even willing to sit through a Gargantua or two, should they find their shaggy way to DVD.

Thanks to the readers who tipped me off about this (for me) major announcement. Glenn Erickson

Posted by DVD Savant at November 15, 2004 09:55 PM