WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Evil Brain from Outer Space 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:12.760 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:16.720 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:20.040 And this is Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House Cinema, 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:22.520 we are going to be talking about the nineteen sixty 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:27.520 six Japanese sci fi adventure Evil Brain from Outer Space, 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:33.159 starring Kin Utsui as the intergalactic superhero Starman, or at 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:35.720 least that's what he's called in the English dub. In 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:41.120 the original, his name translates to super Giant, So Evil 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:43.879 Brain from Outer Space is a type of movie that 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:45.879 I thought would be interesting to talk about because I'm 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:48.760 not sure we have done one like this on Weird 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:51.960 House Cinema before. It is a movie that was made 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:57.760 almost entirely out of repurposed footage, which originally belonged to 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:03.200 several different episodes of a nine part Japanese serial called 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:06.920 Super Giant, which ran from nineteen fifty six to nineteen 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:11.559 fifty nine. I was trying to think if we'd done 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:13.479 another movie like this, and I don't think we have. 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:18.720 We well, the idea of some repurposed footage came up 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:22.320 in a few episodes, like when we covered Queen of Blood, 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:26.160 which was a nineteen sixty six AIP sci fi horror 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.600 production directed by Curtis Harrington. That was the one that 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:33.480 had John Saxon, Basil Rathbone, and Dennis Hopper, and it 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:35.959 was like where the plot was like astronauts go to 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:39.080 pick up a green vampire woman alien. I think she 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:43.280 was supposed to be like an ambassador from another alien species. 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:45.039 But they pick her up and bring her aboard the 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:47.640 ship and she just starts drinking their blood, you know, 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:49.240 blood of the crew, one by one. 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:51.440 Yeah, it's a fun flick. I enjoyed that one. 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.160 So Queen of Blood did have its own original story, 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:57.440 and the majority of the movie was new footage based 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:01.200 on the original script, but efigant chunks of the film, 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:05.440 primarily special effects shots, were just lifted wholesale from two 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:09.680 pre existing Soviet sci fi movies. One was called mechde 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:13.240 NEVSTRETCHU from nineteen sixty three and another was called Battle 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:17.000 Beyond the Sun from fifty nine. So Queen of Blood 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.840 was an original story, but they cut costs and padded 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:24.520 the movie out with special effects from other movies. And 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:26.480 I was thinking about it, I wonder if it's notable 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:31.120 that they selected these things from foreign movies, which American 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.960 audiences would be less likely to have seen before anyway, 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:37.440 So that was Queen of Blood. Evil Brain from Outer 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.080 Space is not like that. It's not like an original 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:44.720 story that just lifts a few special effects shots. Instead 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:48.239 as a movie as a single narrative, it is a 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:53.160 holy synthetic product made by editing together scenes from three 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:58.040 different episodes of the Super Giant TV serial, using voiceover 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:01.320 narration as a kind of duct tape that holds everything 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.520 together and tries to make sense of the narrative to 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:06.320 varying degrees of success. 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:09.960 It's like if you were to take the first three 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:14.200 iron Man movies and then, in order to introduce iron 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:17.840 Man to a market that for some reason had not 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:21.079 experienced iron Man yet, you just take first three movies 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:23.240 and cut them into a single picture. 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:26.320 Right, and you try to make it feel like it's 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:28.720 all the same story by having a narrator come in 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:32.359 every now and then and like, explain why the villain 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:35.160 you're looking at now looks nothing like the villain from 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:37.840 the previous scene, and they're like, right, they can disguise 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:41.080 themselves in any form, so now they look like this 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:42.840 you know now it's sky Pierce. 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:45.840 Yeah, but instead of just I guess the idea here 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:48.320 would be too. It's like, imagine this Iron Man scenario, 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:52.080 but you still work things out so that Jeff Bridges 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:54.320 is the villain that he fights at the end of 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.560 the overall picture. So it's not just like sequential, like 0:03:57.640 --> 0:03:59.440 let's speed it up and do part one, part two 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.800 and part three. No, we're gonna mix and match, yeah, 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:07.320 and create this broad sort of a plot that ties 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:07.960 everything together. 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:11.640 And you know, as a result, I will say that 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:16.200 this movie is a really mixed bag in terms of 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:20.719 quality and how entertaining it is, even within the same 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:23.320 production elements. I don't know if you felt the same way, Rob, 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:26.560 but I felt like some of the sets and costumes 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.640 are ten out of ten, like the robot elders of 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:33.000 the Emerald Planet, some of the space monsters, especially the 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:36.600 bat mutant that we'll talk about later, those are awesome. 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:40.640 Other sets in costumes quite terrible. In fact, I'm not 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:43.960 even a big fan of Starman's costume. I could use 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:47.279 some work. It doesn't look the coolest. Same thing with 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:50.800 like some of the fight choreography, like some is incredibly fun. Again, 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:53.240 I think the best stuff is the bat mutant, like 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.080 very acrobatic fight scenes that are fun to watch, whereas 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.320 in other scenes the fights aren't. Some of the worst 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:02.400 I have seen on film, like the one where Starman 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:04.880 is punching the bandits in the woods. 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:09.839 Yeah, I mean, it's essential to note that this movie 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:15.440 has very strong vibes of American nineteen thirties and nineteen 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:19.599 forties action serials like the really old Batman, the really 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:24.200 old Superman shorts. These were you know, these have been 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:27.680 riffed by the riff Tracks crew, for example, and they 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.560 are a lot of fun, but they are they're slow, 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:35.719 they're terrible there, and they were not intended to be 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:40.839 viewed you know, episode episode like one after another. This 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:42.719 was something you would go and go into the theater 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:44.640 every week. You'd watch a bunch of stuff and you 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.240 would watch, Hey, what's happening this week on Batman, what's 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.080 happening this week on the Phantom Creeps, that sort. 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:54.200 Of thing, And so it produces also a sort of 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:58.760 rhythm of plot developments in this movie that's very repetitive. Like, 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:01.640 so some of the best in the movie is just 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.680 texture based. It's like, I love this costume. I love 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:08.159 this set. You know, the robot Elders again, the bat mutant. 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:11.520 That's all great stuff. But essentially the movie is just 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:19.480 a long series of seemingly unrelated but thematically repetitive sequences 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:23.400 where like, someone gets in peril, starman appears, starman beats 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:26.120 up the bad guys, bad guy runs away, the person 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:29.000 is saved, and then repeat again and again, with different 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.120 types of bad guys and people in peril. 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:33.920 Yeah, but not significantly different types of bad guys in 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.800 some cases, because it's like, again, it's like the serial energy. 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:41.000 You have your mad scientist, you have your villains and hoods. 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:43.880 You know, these are just like staples of the genre 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:46.880 at that time, and these were, for the most part, 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:48.680 effects that were pretty easy to pull off. 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:52.360 So I was trying to learn more about exactly how 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:55.040 this movie came together, and I was reading about it 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.360 in a book called Outer Limits, The Filmgoer's Guide to 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:02.000 the Great Science Fiction Film by a British film critic 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:05.160 named Howard Hughes. He seems to have written a lot 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.719 about spaghetti westerns, but this is a book about sci fi, 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:09.840 and I don't know if he's holding this up as 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:13.880 like the titular great science fiction films. It's more sort 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:17.600 of in the context of like great Japanese movies and 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:20.400 Godzilla Toho movies and stuff like that. 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:24.160 Yeah, it's not understanding super Giant is a key figure 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:28.760 and understanding like the evolution of superhero and superhero type 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:30.720 figures in Japanese culture. 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:34.520 Yeah. So this book is from twenty fourteen, and according 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:37.960 to Hughes, it goes like this. So, the original Super 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:41.400 Giant serial had nine chapters. It ran from fifty six 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:45.400 to fifty nine, and it was co directed by taruo Ishi, 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:50.520 Akira Mitsua, and kore Yoshi Akasaka. This was all at 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:54.240 the Shintoho studio. This was a studio that worked mid 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:57.560 century in Japan. It produced a number of things you 0:07:57.640 --> 0:07:59.840 might have heard of. It made the famous Japanese he 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.320 old movie Jigoku in nineteen sixty one, just before it 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:04.160 went bankrupt. 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:08.120 Yeah, I've seen Shintoho described as like the non union 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:09.679 offshoot of Tote. 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:15.200 Yeah. So super Giant or Starman in the English version 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:19.120 is kind of like Superman. He wears tights And I 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:21.120 said it originally a cape in the notes here, but 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:23.520 it's not really a cape. He's got like these kind 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:26.560 of flaring things that come off of his sleeves and shoulders. 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:30.120 He has various superpowers. He has bulletproof, he can fly, 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:31.080 and so forth. 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:32.960 Yeah, he has kind of like underarm wings to a 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:36.880 certain extent. Yes, Yeah, but he's also a robot, right, 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:40.160 so this kind of makes him really more like Marvel's 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:44.480 vision who wouldn't come along till nineteen sixty eight. And incidentally, 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:48.280 there's also a Marvel super villain named super Giant, but 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:51.640 this one is a female character and it's like a 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:53.960 telepathic parasite who serves Thanos. 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:57.600 Okay, so no relation, unrelated. Yeah, that is a weird 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:00.160 thing that he is a robot, and will come back 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:04.720 to that later. So, this nine episode serial was apparently 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:10.360 purchased for syndication by Walter Manley Enterprises. I think we'll 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:12.360 get into Walter Manley in a bit when we do 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:17.280 the connections where it was re edited into four English 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:20.600 dubbed feature films that were meant to run on US 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.640 TV in the mid sixties, and Hughes writes that all 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:28.360 four movies begin the exact same way. We always see 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:32.040 these sort of starfish robots and the High Council of 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:36.000 robot elders of the Emerald Planet deciding that Earth is 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:38.960 in peril, and then they send Starman to Earth to 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:41.679 save it, and according to Hughes, in each case they 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:45.320 specify it's also to quote save Earth from contaminating the 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:49.240 universe with nuclear fallout. Each time we get introduced to 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.600 Starman and then we learn about his special gadget that 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:55.600 gives him his powers. It's called the globe Meter, which 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:58.280 it looks like a wristwatch, except instead of a clock 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:01.240 face on it, it has a an image of the Earth. 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.040 It's got a globe with the continents, and it gives 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:07.680 him three special powers, the ability to fly, the ability 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:11.600 to detect radiation, and the ability to speak any language. 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:16.640 Interesting selection of three things. But I guess he already 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:20.160 has some intrinsic powers like the wristwatch. He doesn't need 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.640 to make him bullet proof. He's intrinsically bulletproof. 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:27.400 Right, and he's already an excellent hand to hand combatant. 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:31.920 Yeah, that's right. So the four films cobbled together out 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:35.080 of the original nine episodes of the series go like this. 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:40.680 Hughes says, One is Atomic Rulers. This is a spy thriller, 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:43.880 in which Starman has to track down a secret nuclear device. 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.400 Hughes in the book says that some of the sets 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:51.040 and props in this movie actually anticipate villain layers that 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:53.600 would appear in later James Bond films, so that's kind 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:57.880 of interesting. One is called Invaders from Space. This is 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:03.280 where Starman fights the Salomon men of Koulaman, who exhale 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:08.480 radioactive gas and attack Earth with engineered viruses and sonic weapons. 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:12.600 Hughes mentions about this one that there is one villain 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:16.120 with a horrifying grin that resembles some depictions of the Joker, 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:19.960 and he also mentions there is a scene probably much 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:23.400 too scary for younger viewers, where children are menaced by 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:27.280 a witch from outer space. And he also mentions that 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:31.720 basically all of the Starman stories have children in the plots. 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:34.640 Maybe this is to make the stories more appealing to kids. 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:37.800 I do think about like the later Godzilla or basically 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:40.920 later Kaiju movies of all kinds that are often working 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:41.520 in kids. 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:44.520 Yeah, yeah, I mean, gotta get some kids in the 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:47.000 adventure and make you feel like kids are interacting with 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:50.400 this wild sci fi world. By the way, I've looked 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:52.439 up Invaders from Space. I had to see what these 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:55.800 creatures look like. And these creatures look pretty awesome as well. 0:11:56.840 --> 0:12:00.400 They are. They're hard to describe, a little bit like 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:04.440 an insect, a little bit like a a brain monster. 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:08.240 Ye know, it's a little different from anything I've seen before. 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:11.880 It's an if they made it of the brain mutant 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:17.280 from This Island Earth and butterball cinobite. Do you see 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:20.240 it the glasses, Yeah, they're exactly the same. 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:23.079 Yeah, oh man, and I looked up the witch. The 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:26.040 witch from this movie is also indeed quite terrifying and 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:29.480 has the kind of like the weird nose that we'll 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:31.679 get back to, like where it's a very like angular 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:33.079 artificial nose. 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:35.959 Is it the same witch as the witch in Evil 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.439 Brain from Outer Space? Because Evil Brain also has a witch. 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:42.120 I think they may have repurposed the nose, but otherwise different, different, 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:45.040 different colorization. All right, I just sent you an image 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:48.040 of this shoe. Yeah, different witch, possibly, same nose. 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:52.120 Interesting, different witch. More, this witch looks like they put 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:54.720 more work into this witch than the witch in Evil Brain. 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:00.000 I would say kappa esque in many respects. 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:04.720 Yeah, a little turtally Yeah, Okay, so that's first two movies. 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:07.760 Third movie is called Attack from Space. This is where 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:12.959 some aliens called the Saphurians engage in further menacing of Earth. 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:15.800 You know, this time they're menacing Earth with a big 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:17.960 missile that is going to be launched from a space 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:20.360 station and Starman has to go up to their space 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.000 station and beat them all up. And then that gets 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:25.920 us to Evil Brain. So each of the previous three 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:30.040 films was made out of two episodes of Super Giant 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:34.040 edited together. The fourth movie, the one we're talking about today, 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:37.520 Evil Brain from Outer Space, was made from three episodes 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:40.920 of Super Giant, and Hughes says that this is easily 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:42.720 the wackiest of the series. 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:44.360 This is the. 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:46.800 One where Earth is menaced yet again, this time by 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:50.840 a brain in a suitcase. As well as radioactive Batman 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:55.880 who attack with weaponized germs. There are these aliens who 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:59.120 use throwing what he was called throwing weapons that resemble 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:03.800 cocktail sticks. They are kind of like toothpick darts. And 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:08.760 Hughes really calls out the overflowing abundance of weird villains 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:11.760 in this one as a special selling point. So I 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:14.760 don't think anybody out there really thinks that the the 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:18.560 Starman movies edited out of the Super Giant cereal are 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:21.280 like some are like the best movies ever made, but 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:25.520 they did kind of lay some groundwork and they they 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:30.360 provide a kind of inspiration for things to come. So 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:33.920 Hughes writes, quote Starman was dubbed in English by Bernard Gordon, 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:36.360 and at the end of Evil Brain, he returns to 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:40.680 the Emerald Planet. The seeds of many cinematropes, from Jharr 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:44.400 to Japanese gangster movies to star Wars can be found 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:46.800 in these refreshingly inventive yarns. 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:49.360 Yeah, like I said, I think I read that Super 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:54.560 Giant was the first theatrical Japanese superhero. I think there's 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.520 some other caveats. There's another Golden Bat may have been 0:14:57.520 --> 0:14:59.880 the first, and then there was another air that may 0:14:59.880 --> 0:15:03.000 have been on TV but not in cinemas any way 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:05.080 you cut it though, like this is this is an 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:09.200 important figure in Japanese sci fi superhero pop culture, and 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:12.560 a lot of what comes after and is still emerging 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:18.320 ultimately has its roots in this picture, in this era. 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:21.800 Yeah, so I have not seen the other three movies 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:23.920 cut together from Super Giant, but I will say that 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:27.920 Evil Brain is as wacky as advertised. Overall, it does 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:33.640 not disappoint, but it succeeds largely because of the wackiness 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:36.960 and strength of its best elements. There are parts of 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:39.920 this movie that drag. There are parts that just kind 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:42.920 of get confusing, where they're introducing more and more characters 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:47.080 and situations that don't really go anywhere, and it does 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:49.800 have a kind of repetitive structure of just like Peril 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:54.840 Starman Saves People repeat. And also, as I said earlier, 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:58.640 the element the individual film elements are of I think 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:02.960 widely varying quality, but overall it's a pretty fun ride. 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:06.000 Yeah. I do want to add a caveat here that 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:09.720 I found it increasingly difficult to try and piece together 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.600 what was sourced from which film and which director. And 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:16.560 one of the challenges here is that the original movies, 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:20.360 as far as I can tell, have never been released 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:25.560 at least outside of Japan in their original formats, and 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:30.080 other streaming possibilities were not forthcoming either, So it's hard 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:32.480 to really go back and like sort of cross check 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:36.040 what we have in Evil Brain from outer Space with 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:40.360 actual super giant pictures. But I get the strong sense 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:43.680 that everything they really wanted to put out there for 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.840 this movie was in and I believe the seventh Super Giant, 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:49.880 the one with the awesome bat creatures, because these, in 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:52.040 my opinion, are the best parts of Evil Brain from 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:55.520 outer Space. Some of the other inserts really bogged things 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:58.680 down or confused matters. But I also noticed that Super 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:02.120 Giant Part seven only has a forty five minute run time, 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:04.919 And now that run time is certainly aokay with me. 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:07.640 I think we need more forty five minutes. I five films, 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:11.239 But I can see where distributors wanted more for a 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:14.720 you know, full blown theatrical presentation for the US market. 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:18.560 Yeah, yeah, I as we've said on the show many times, 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:22.040 I embraced the ethic of the drive in movie. You know, 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:25.040 you can make a sixty three minute movie that's okay, 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:26.399 that counts as a movie to me. 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:31.520 Again, I feel like there's there's a strong feeling of 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:36.439 nineteen thirties and forties action serials to this particular picture. 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:38.880 You know, in the combat and the costumes and even 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:42.000 in the pacings. You can you can play a game 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:44.840 of bingo with it, you know, hooded criminals, mad scientists, 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:49.040 punch ups. I was reminded a lot in a few 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:52.280 different ways. Of the nineteen thirty nine serial The Phantom 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:56.960 Creep starring Bella Lugosi, which is a wonderfully bonker's tale 0:17:57.040 --> 0:18:00.480 of a mad scientist with like an invisibility device a big, 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:05.840 weird looking robot that is unfortunately four point five hours long, 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:09.080 spread across twelve chapters. So I've never made it through 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:12.359 all of that, and it's again simply not intended for 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:16.119 viewing outside of a weekly movie theater setting. However, in 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:19.199 a similar exercise to what we're talking about here, it 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:23.119 was later cut into a seventy eight minute film that 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:25.720 was released in nineteen forty nine. So that's one we 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:28.359 may come back to. But it's another case of taking 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:32.080 pre existing releases and then re editing it into a 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:33.600 different cinematic product. 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:35.800 Oh yeah, so if we cover that on the show, 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.560 would be interesting to compare it to Evil Brain here. 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:41.439 Yeah, Like, it may be silly, but it's also not 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:43.399 going to be four and a half hours long and 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:47.879 kind of drag in these in certain ways, and you know, 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:52.879 always lead up to some sort of cliffhanger, sometimes a 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:57.080 literal cliffhanger. Of course, that in the original format was 0:18:57.080 --> 0:18:59.560 supposed to be consumed the next week and not immediately. 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:02.679 It's interesting that this Phantom Creep said it is seventy 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.639 eight minutes, because Evil Brain is also seventy eight minutes. 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:08.760 I wonder if that's a coincidence and may yeah, may 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:10.720 have just been more or less the standard of the day. 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:12.680 I also want to say that it reminds me of 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:16.840 the Phantom Creeps because more than one character in this 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:21.439 film has strong Bello Legosi vibes, including our hero, like 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:23.240 I would see him walking the screen like, oh man, 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:26.719 he's really got He's got like this Bella look going on. 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:29.320 I've got a couple of screenshots in our outline where 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:31.600 he looks a lot like Bela Lagosi, certainly when he 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:36.320 wears like the suit and tie and the bowler hat. Yes, yeah, 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:39.199 and oh here's another selling point of this movie. I 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:42.520 hope you like hearing the word brain because they say 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:46.080 it approximately five to six times per minute of runtime. 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:49.360 There is so much talking about brains. 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:53.200 I love it all right, Joe, what's your elevator pitch 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:54.760 for Evil Brain? From outer space? 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:59.320 A brain inside a briefcase threatens Earth. Our only hope 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:01.640 is a man with the wristwatch that allows him to fly, 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:04.119 detect radiation, and speak any language. 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:07.439 All right, Now, as far as I could tell, I 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:11.040 could not find a trailer for Evil Brain from outer space, 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:16.000 or any kind of a trailer for the super giant 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:19.560 films that are utilized to make it. So I think 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:21.320 instead we're just going to maybe have a little bit 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:24.639 of that opening narration from Evil Brain from outer space. 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.600 All the planet seemar far within the moving galaxy, a 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:36.240 decontrolled robot assassinated the omnipotent Balasar was known to possess 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.600 the most brilliant mind in the universe. So powerful was 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:42.920 Balasa's genius that as he lay dying, his brain or 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:45.680 it built a mechanism which would keep it alive even 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:49.520 though his body was destroyed. And now Balazar's brain seeks 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:53.399 universal conquest. But here on the Emerald Planet, the highest 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:57.119 council in the market galaxy considers the terrible immediate menace 0:20:57.160 --> 0:20:59.679 to the Solar System of Earth and to the planet Earth. 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:04.679 That'sa Blazar's brain leads the infiltration of Earth, preparing it 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:07.880 for the attack forces which will follow. That attack will 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:11.919 be with nuclear weapons, the flood of radioactivity which inevitably 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:15.600 will spill out into space is what primarily concerns these 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:20.400 Emerald planet creatures. High radioactivity. The Emerald creatures realize we're 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:23.639 poisoning even the distant breaches of outer space. As a result, 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:26.280 it is possible that in time other planets such as 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:29.679 this will become uninhabitable. The Council now is deciding what 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:33.600 must be done. 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:36.520 Now, if you want to go out and watch Evil 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:40.640 Brain from Outer Space before proceeding with this episode, Luckily 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:43.240 for you, this one is widely available. You can rent 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:45.320 it or buy it on digital platforms. I think I 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:48.200 watched it on Prime. It has come out on disc 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:52.240 a number of times, including as part of Something Weird 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:56.560 videos Starman Volume one, Attack from Space, Evil Brain from 0:21:56.600 --> 0:22:02.320 Outer Space, and Allied Vonn's Japanese Superheroes Starman three Pack again. 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:05.920 As far as I know, though, the films, the source films, 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:08.639 the original Super Giant films have never been released in 0:22:08.680 --> 0:22:12.879 their original forms outside of Japan. And even then I 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:14.840 did a little bit of looking on Sometimes you can 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:19.360 find evidence of, like, you know, cool Japanese disc releases, 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:22.560 and I nothing was turning up there. So I would 0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:24.760 love to hear from anyone out there who's more like 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:29.200 embedded in like the Japanese media world or films from 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:32.159 this era. If you have any additional insight on ways 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:34.000 to enjoy super Giant right. 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:36.520 In, maybe it's like those Highlander two cuts you can 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:37.640 only get on laser disc. 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:49.560 Yeah, all right, let's get into some of the people 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:51.879 behind this one. This is gonna be a little different 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:54.800 compared to other connections that we've looked at, because, on 0:22:54.800 --> 0:22:58.320 one hand, a lot of the actors don't necessarily have 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:02.199 a lot of like deep connections that are really going 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:04.879