Dickens/Serling

 

 (imdb)

CAROL FOR ANOTHER CHRISTMAS-1964-An updated version of Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol written by Rod Serling for The United Nations. 

A man, Daniel Grudge (Sterling Hayden) left bitter by the death of his son in the war is visited by 3 ghosts, Past (Steve Lawrence), present (Pat Hingle) and yet to come (Robert Shaw). In the H-bomb devastated future, Imperial Me (Peter Sellers) tries to make survivors think only of themselves while Grudge's butler (Percy Rodrigues) tries to unite humanity and is ridiculed. 

This all-star TV special also features Ben Gazzara, Eva Marie Saint and James Shigeta. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz a year after the colossal flop CHEOPATHRA.

Thanks for reading!

Bugs In Japan

WAR OF THE INSECTS-(GENOCIDE)-1968-A huge swarm of insects causes a plane carrying a hydrogen bomb to crash. Jozi, a philandering jerk who tells his wife Ukari he’s out collecting insect samples when he’s really cheating with Annabelle (Kathy Horan), a white woman who loves insects and hates humans. Jozi is accused of killing 3 pilots who had survived the plane crash. Dr. Nagumo tries to help him. A coroner says the men were bitten to death by insects but the rude Fascistic American commanding officer disagrees. When Jozi escapes the police with the help of Yukari (she’s pregnant) he hides out with Annabelle who it turns out is a Nazi concentration camp survivor and a spy who uses bees to get the lone survivor pilot Charly to talk. Annabelle wants to spread poison insects all over the world and wipe out mankind. After Jozi and Yukari escape Annabelle's henchmen (along with a lady MD) they help Nagumo with an experiment. He wants to be bitten by one of the deadly bugs to feel it's effects! He has a weird psychedelic vision where insects tell him they fear nuclear destruction more than humans. While Jozi and Yukari search for the H-bomb, Annabelle plans her own experiment on Nagumo but when the insects escape she's killed. In the end evil America explodes the lost H bomb and everyone dies except pregnant Yukari. 

Kind of crazy revisionist propaganda sci-fi film from Kazui Nihonmatsu, director of THE X FROM OUTER SPACE.

Thanks for reading! 

Godzilla Follow Up

RODAN-1956-After a “cheery” intro about the H-bomb, a narrator named Shigeru Kawamura (Kenji Sahara) tells us what's happening in the mines of Kyushu. After his future brother in law Goro (Rinsaku Ogata) has a fight, he talks about the uneasiness of the miners on that day and how mine #8 was deeper than any of the others. After a flood in the tunnel, they find one miner “hacked to pieces”. Goro is the other missing miner who's found and blamed for the death. A police officer and two miners investigate and are killed. Goro's sister (and Shigeru's main squeeze) Kiyo (Yumi Shirakawa) doesn't have it easy as everyone thinks her brother is a murderer. A giant insect invades a village. Rodan shows up with his mate and although they destroy several cities and kill many people their deaths are quite poignant. 

Keye Luke provides the dubbed voice of Shigeru and other well known voices are provided by Paul Frees, Art Gilmore and George Takei. Following up his success with GODZILLA, director Ishiro Honda shot this in color with most of the “Big G's” personal behind him.

Thanks for reading!