THE MYSTERIANS (1957)

THE MYSTERIANS (1957)

Tagline: From behind the moon they come...to invade the Earth! Abduct its women! Level its cities!

(Sci-Fi, Family, The Robot With The Pointy Nose) [G]

Note: This movie was never given an MPAA, but if it came out today, it would be a [G]. 

Strange things are happening behind the moon!

In this one, a giant robot shows up and immediately starts jacking up the first city it runs into. It doesn’t take long before the scientists of Japan are summoned to a spaceship and basically told they are helpless to fight them. They explain that they are from the planet Mysteriod and are pretty much going to annihilate the planet if they are attacked and that the giant robot was a demonstration of their power. They also want 5 earth women and about 3 kilometers of land. No biggie. Their race is slowly dying due to genetic birth defects, so they feel this is the only way they can survive.  

Oh man, one thing I love about Toho, is that all you need to have an alien race is some face paint, or not. If you want to paint some alien faces and don’t want to paint other ones, it’s totally fine. Then you need some serious sunglass and the goofiest space helmet you can find. If you can’t find one, it’s no problem; the sunglasses will do just fine. Of course, you also need something giant, because giant stuff is awesome. 

Directed by Ishirô Honda (GODZILLA) we get several of Toho’s more famous actors. The one that stood out the most to me was Akihiko Hirata who plays Ryoichi Shiraishi. He has also been in several Godzilla films including TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA, GODZILLA, and KING KONG VS. GODZILLA. We also get Momoko Kôchi as Hiroko Iwamoto. She does a decent job in this but doesn’t get much screen time. She was in everything from GODZILLA VS DESTROYAH to HALF HUMAN. Aside from that, Kenji Sahara is good as Joji Atsumi. He shows up in GODZILLA VS MECHAGODZILLA, GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH, and GODZILLA: FINAL WARS among others. 

The giant robot Mogera in the movie was meant to look slightly reptilian or dinosaur with metal spikes on its back and a tail. Apparently, Mogera was crammed into the script just because the producer felt it needed one. That producer was freakin right. There isn’t a single movie ever made that wouldn’t benefit from a giant monster or robot or turtle or spatula showing up. 

Effects wise this one is pretty goofy and it’s just epic. We get rockets that look like they were part of a toddler art project, and we get an alien base that looks like it might be a lamp stolen from an antique shop. The giant robot clearly has vinyl pants. It’s absolutely glorious. I will say that some of the interior light mechanisms inside the alien ship are really cool to look at. I am guessing quite a bit of the budget was put into some of those more detailed touches. The lasers are all Toho animated, but they look fine because it’s what we expect in this type of movie.

The score is good and when we do get action sequences they are also pretty cool. Where this one gets off the rails is in a really slow second act and the fact that if they cut another 35 minutes out of this thing, it wouldn’t have changed much at all. 

Overall, however, this is one of TOHO’s gems and I have to give it a 5 out of 7 just for being a lot of fun once it really gets going. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF TOHO COMPANY AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Purchases made at Indy Planet for any issue of DARK 30 will go towards funding the next issue.