THE HUMAN VAPOR (1960)
Tagline: Half Human! Half Beast! It Destroys! It Kills!
(Sci-Fi, Crime, A Lot of Shooting Through Vapor) [PG]
Note: This movie was never given an MPAA rating, but if it came out these days, it likely would have landed a PG rating. This movie was also known as THE FIRST GAS HUMAN. What the cow? This review is for the original Japanese version.
This isn’t a joke! You’re just a journalist.
In this one, a regular librarian has an experiment done on him that ends up turning him into a “human vapor”. Rather than sticking to being a librarian, he decides it’s time to start robbing banks and killing people that get in his way. Apparently, that is just way better than telling people where books are and telling them to shut up all day. Can anyone stop the madness of THE HUMAN VAPOR?
First off this film was directed by Ishiro Honda who directed an impressive 78 films and was also involved in writing GODZILLA (2014) among a host of other kaiju films. Having said that, he also did a lot of this kind of stuff as I mentioned in my THE H-MAN review. This is another one along those lines, but it’s far superior to that film. As a side note, vapor man is never referred to as vapor man in the film. They always call him "gas man". That kind of makes him sound like he should team up with Spleen from MYSTERY MEN.
Acting wise Tatsuya Mihashi (TORA! TORA! TORA!) is very good in this as Detective Okamoto. There are a few lines in this where he is kind of asserting his own importance, but the banter between him and Reporter Kyoko is actually pretty charming. Kyoko is played by Keiko Sata (GORATH) who was only in 6 movies but does a fantastic job here. The other big stand-out for me was Kaoru Yachigusa who plays Fujichiyo Kasuga. She might be best known for MADAME BUTTERFLY. This wasn’t my favorite performance from Yoshio Tsuchiya but I think he’s purposely playing the role of vapor man with a stoic demeanor. Tsuchiya was well known for appearing in a number of Godzilla films including GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH.
There are several great things about this flick, but the score in particular is outstanding. I also liked that we had another strong woman in this. Kyoko takes no crap and she even pays the bill at the bar in one scene. I think she would give Nikki Nicholson (another witty strong female character) from THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD a run for her money. When it comes to the effects, how things are handled is pretty effective, but I think it would have worked just as well if there were no shots where invisibility was used because the vapor effect is perfect. Maybe back then they had to do it that way? They do kind of overdo the vapor for his head, but it’s fine, it adds a bit more “sci-fi menace” to the events of the film.
The storytelling is well done. First, we find out what vapor man can do, then we get the backstory on how he became who he is and why. The tale is pretty sad but the concept is found in quite a few sci-fi films so it’s not all that unique in that sense. I also liked that the chamber where the experiment happens looks like it might have inspired nearly everything to do with Judge Doom’s lab in WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT.
Overall this thing is pretty outstanding. I suggest the Japanese version if you don’t mind subtitles or if you speak the language. I give this one a strong 5 out of 7. It’s a well-crafted tale of mad science, good intentions gone bad, and super expensive dance recitals.
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