WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: Reptilicus 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:07.800 Hey, you welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind, we have 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:10.640 a fun one here for you today. This one originally 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:15.040 published eleven, twenty two, twenty twenty four. It is the 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:20.319 early sixties Danish American co production Reptilicus. So we have 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:25.119 some excellent euro Kaiju action to dive into here. Let's 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:25.440 do it. 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:34.280 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:42.200 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:45.839 And this is Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House Cinema, 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:47.800 we are going to be talking about a movie that 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:52.000 has two faces, but one slimy toxic heart, and that 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:55.959 is the nineteen sixty two English language version of the 0:00:56.000 --> 0:01:02.280 euro Kaiju movie Reptilicus, directed by Sydney Pink. Now, one 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:05.320 thing to mention right at the beginning here is that 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.800 this movie is kind of weird. There exist two different 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:14.240 versions of the film, one in English and one in Danish, 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.520 and neither one is simply a dub of the other. 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:22.240 There were actually two different movies shot separately, but sharing 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.880 the same story and most of the same cast, but 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.680 with different lines in each language and two different directors. 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:33.279 So The Danish version you'll get was directed by Paul 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:37.480 Bong and the English version by Sidney Pink, the latter 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:39.199 of which, again is the one we're gonna be talking 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:43.080 about today. Both of these movies have the same basic storyline, 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:46.800 the same scenes overall. Both films are set in Denmark 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:52.640 and concern Danish paleontologists attempting to investigate the remains of 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:57.400 a giant frozen dinosaur tale uncovered from deep underground, which 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:01.440 eventually turns into a big dragon thing is named Reptilicus, 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:05.280 and then just goes nuts on Denmark, runs around eating 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:08.600 cows and attacking people at the beach, attacking the city, 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.079 attacking famous beautiful landmarks that you should visit by the way, 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:17.079 if you're ever in scene at Copenhagen. And yeah, and 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.440 so this is a giant monster movie like many others 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:23.200 we've talked about before, but with I don't know, some 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:25.799 interesting distinctions we can get into as we go along. 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:28.200 Yeah, So I guess you could say it's kind of 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:30.720 like the situation with nineteen thirty one's Dracula, where you 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:34.800 have the Mexican version that is shot on the same sets, 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:38.200 though that one doesn't have the same actors. This one 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:42.240 has almost exclusively the same actors. They're just we just 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:45.880 have them delivering their lines in different languages in separate shots. 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:50.280 Exactly. It would be like if the thirty one Todd 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:54.160 Browning Dracula and then the Spanish language version were It 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:56.800 would be like that situation if they used mostly the 0:02:56.840 --> 0:02:58.960 same cast, but not entirely, if. 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:05.440 They had been like okay, Bella, how's your Spanish, that 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:06.880 they went a different direction. Obviously. 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:10.760 Yes, Now we were talking about something before we came on, Mike, 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:14.600 which is that I think both of us really enjoyed 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:17.800 watching Reptilicus. But I do have to be honest about 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:20.919 this one and not over sell any of its individual merits, 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:23.200 because I don't think it has a lot of extreme 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:27.160 merits in any particular direction. I would not honestly be 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:29.840 able to say that this is a great idea or 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:33.079 a great script. I would not honestly. You know, sometimes 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:35.040 we can say, like the story's kind of weak, but 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:37.840 it's got a great cast, no offense to any of 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.000 the wonderful cast members involved here, but it is not 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:45.080 an especially stand out screen presence we're dealing with with 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:49.440 anybody here. The I would say even the special effects 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:54.000 are not really that impressive. They're they're enjoyable in a 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.440 certain way, but none of they're not even on the 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:58.960 level of Gorgo, which we'll get to in a minute. 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.160 So there is there's really no element of this movie 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:04.120 I can point to and say, well, at least that's 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:07.240 really great. And yet overall I love Reptilicus. 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:10.720 Yeah, it's it's a charming picture, like it's a feel 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:14.160 good monster picture, and the areas where it's rough around 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.520 the edges adds to its charm. But indeed, it's hard 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:22.120 to recommend it to folks unless you are looking for 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:24.360 a picture like this. You got to be on board 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.080 for something that has this vibe. Yeah. 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:32.120 So maybe, despite not being stellar filmmaking in any particular direction, 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:36.680 Reptilicus has many appealing things. One of them is just 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:40.400 the word reptilicus, which is one of the most pleasing 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:43.560 words to say that I've ever come across. I discovered 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:46.039 before we came in to record. I was walking around 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:48.599 the house with my wife and I discovered that the 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:52.240 word reptilicus has the same stress pattern as the word America, 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:55.599 and then, for that reason, can be subbed into any 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:59.039 song lyrics containing the word America. So like you know, 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:03.440 Reptilicus the Beautiful. I'm proud to be a Reptilican. They've 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:07.160 all gone to look for Reptilicus and so forth. There's 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:08.719 been a lot of that going on at the house. 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:12.560 So you know, take Reptilicus into your vocabulary and use 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:15.920 it with whatever gusto you please. But I will say 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:21.600 another big appeal of Reptilicus for me is conceptual. For 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:26.000 some reason, audiences seem to have long reacted to this 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:30.440 movie with amusement at the idea of a giant monster 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:34.520 attack film set in Denmark, and I recall a similar 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:37.440 sense of fun in the way that people including us 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:41.120 reacted to another movie we covered earlier this year, Gorgo, 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:43.920 from nineteen sixty one, so right around the same time period. 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:45.880 I think these were produced within like a year of 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:49.040 each other, And Gorgo was a movie in which an 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:53.279 enormous rat like god monster emerges from the sea off 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:57.320 the coast of an Irish island, is captured and transported 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:00.560 for display in a London circus, and then triggers a 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:04.159 monster rampage in the streets of London, sort of a 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:08.520 rat god amphibious attack from the Thames. Yes, and so 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:12.560 of course no one language or culture owns the idea 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:15.560 of a giant monster. Giant monsters go back in you know, 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:19.800 literature of many different cultures, deep into history. But I 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:22.520 think it's safe to say that Japan in general, and 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:26.840 Toho Studios in particular, really grew and perfected the art 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:30.159 of the giant monster movie. Though of course the creators 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:34.200 of films like the nineteen fifty four Godzilla were inspired 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.520 at least in part by American films like RKO's King Kong. 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:40.239 So there's plenty of you know, trading back and forth 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:43.560 of inspiration and creative energy across borders, as there always 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:46.760 has been. But many of the greatest and most enduring 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:50.400 giant monster movies ever made are Toho productions from Japan. 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:53.599 And in the Gorgo episode, I think we had a 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:57.520 brief discussion about the question of why people seem to 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:01.560 think it's inherently funny or countering intuitive for a giant 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:05.880 monster to attack and crush office buildings in London or 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:09.080 in the case of today's movie, in Denmark in a 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:12.080 way that it's just not counterintuitive or funny for that 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.760 to happen in Japan, or for that matter in the 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:18.240 United States. So like a monster from the sea, giant 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:22.040 monster comes out and attacks Tokyo or New York. Yeah, 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:24.960 we buy that monster comes out of the copper minds 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:29.040 and attacks Copenhagen. That just makes people laugh. And I 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:32.000 feel this as well, but I don't quite fully understand it. 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:34.600 I was trying to think of reasons, and I was thinking, 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:38.160 maybe it's as simple as this is the only Danish 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.200 kaiju movie that I know of, so it's just unfamiliar. 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:43.239 If there were more of them, it would feel normal. 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:46.440 Or maybe it's something about the like the cultural or 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:50.200 geographic setting that just doesn't interface as naturally with the 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:53.640 soul of a beast like reptilicus. Could it be something 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:56.840 about I don't know, predominant styles of local architecture. I 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:58.680 really don't know the answer, but I do think it's 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:03.280 it's interesting that people quite consistently have this reaction, So 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:04.440 it's just something to think about. 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:08.320 Yeah, I think part of it is that we from 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.480 very early on, we associate like New York City and 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:15.200 Tokyo with giant monster attacks, and it kind of sticks, 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:19.640 and yeah, it would we would maybe expect like Copenhagen 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.160 have its own thing like I don't know, like you know, 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:25.240 killer mermaids come out and attack Copenhagen. That tracks. 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:26.440 Oh that'd be great. 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.040 But I mean, but then from the Danish perspective, why 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:31.880 not Copenhagen, As we learn in this film, it's a 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:35.120 beautiful city with a lot to offer. That's all right. 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:40.199 I was not able to research this before we recorded today, 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:42.839 but I would love to know if, like the I 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:47.320 don't know local the Copenhagen Tourism board or something was 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:50.800 a producer on this film, if they put some funding 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:53.520 into it, because there is a segment in the middle 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:56.400 of the movie that is an almost too too good 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:59.959 to believe, just travel brochure for the city of covid. 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.000 Look at all of the beautiful local landmarks. You can 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:06.640 visit the swinging you know, nightlife district. Oh, check out 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:10.200 this gorgeous bridge and fountain. Great place to take the kids. 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:14.280 Yeah, everything that they say during this ten minute travel 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.439 brochure section of the film, you could easily imagine Rick 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.360 Steve's saying all of it in an episode of his 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:22.720 show or his podcast Love Rick Steves by the way. 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:24.880 But yeah, I can imagine him saying, like, you know, 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:27.480 many people say that Danes were born on their bicycles 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:30.600 and when you travel through Copenhagen and so forth. 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.720 It it ends with a scene of it's like two 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:38.240 military guys who are both on a date with the 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:42.200 same woman at the same time. That's what it's showing. 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:44.520 I don't know what that means, but they go out 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:46.320 on the state and they just go to a nightclub 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:48.680 and like watch a musical number and we watch too. 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:52.880 Here we are. But I love that the film felt 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:57.640 as if the film knew that American audiences might say, 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:01.520 why Copenhagen, and so here's the answer, Here's why Copenhagen. 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:04.920 Okay. Another thing to consider this also has come up 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:08.000 in past episodes where we talked about giant monster films, 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:11.920 the surprisingly sober themes that come out of some of 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:15.360 these movies. Now, many of them are just deliberately and 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:19.920 consciously silly, just some good, wholesome atomic beast rasslin, but 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:24.080 other Kaiju movies have some pretty serious ideas in mind, 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:26.400 at least in the back of the mind. I think 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:29.520 it's well known that the original fifty four Godzilla obviously 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:33.280 had nuclear weapons on its mind. Later Godzilla films have 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:37.480 some pretty clear environmental themes like the idea that we 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:40.280 have polluted the earth, and the Earth is striking back 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.280 in the form of an embodied monster, a sort of 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:47.200 meat form immago of the very real but sometimes more 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:51.600 invisible and diffuse human consequences downstream from pollution, pollution of 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.600 the air and water, and destruction and natural habitats and 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:58.120 so forth. So I was wondering does Reptilicus fit into 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:02.280 this picture. Does rep Tilicus have any serious themes in mind? 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:04.600 I'm not sure, but we could come back to this 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:05.320 question later. 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:08.040 Yeah, if they're there, it's a very and we can 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:10.760 only speak to the American version here. Something like this 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:14.520 could be more stressed in the Danish version. But I 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:20.079 got maybe mild vibes of the importance of international cooperation 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:27.959 against threats regenerative threats, but it's very shallow if it's 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:28.480 there at all. 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:30.760 Okay, should we hear some trailer audio? 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:33.360 Sure? Sure? My? Oh my elevator pitch. By the way, 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:36.839 is springboarding off? Is something you said, is they're coming 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:42.040 to Reptilicus today. I'm not going to sing it, because 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:44.760 I don't know if we get pained for that anyway. Yes, 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:46.599 the US trailer for this is pretty fun. Let's have 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:47.000 a listen. 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:53.600 Somewhere in the Forbidding Tundra mountains of Lapland, high above 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:57.160 the Arctic Circle, a group of mining engineers were prospecting 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:00.320 for copper. But what they on earth was a story, 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.040 a story that was to terrorize the whole world. 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:04.560 Fossil bones. 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:23.920 I have never seen bone fragments like this before. 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:27.760 I'll work with the army through Captain Bratt, Commandersvencent, you'll 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:30.679 stand by for any naval action required. As chief of police, 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:37.400 I'll rely on you to handle the population. Handel Grayson 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:47.640 where day out of his way? How long do you 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:49.600 expect me to continue this hill? 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:57.040 All right? 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:00.239 If you want to go out and watch Reptilicus yourself, 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.760 we encourage you to do so. The Vinegar Syndrome blu 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:06.920 ray is clearly the best choice here, features a restored 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:08.880 cut of the American version of the film, as well 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:12.600 as the original Danish version or I guess it's the original. 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:15.720 I will say it's the original version, but anyway, both 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:17.320 English version and Danish version. 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:20.560 I own this Blu Ray set from Vinegar Syndrome and 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.079 it is gorgeous. I highly recommend it. 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:26.839 Yeah, they do great work. Sadly this version was checked out. 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:29.000 When I went to rent in at Video Drome, they 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:32.120 were very apologetic. They were like, they were like, I'm sorry, 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:33.120 you're not gonna be able to watch it in the 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:36.240 best quality possible. And I was like, it's fine, this 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:40.640 is a time constraint situation and so forth. So I 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:44.439 had to rent an older DVD of the American cut 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:48.000 of the film, which was fine. I thought the quality 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.040 was certainly watchable, though I did have French subtitles that 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:53.360 I could not make go away, but that did not 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:54.960 get in the way of my enjoyment of the film. 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:58.439 What was the movie that we watch that had hard 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:03.760 burned Dutch subtype titles? Was that the Hawaiian Werewolf movie? 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:06.600 It was, Yes, there was a TV movie, so we 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:10.720 were having to watch like a YouTube cut off it, 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:13.640 YouTube up load of it that had been like ripped 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:16.040 from television over there. 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:17.520 Yeah, with a verk beast. 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:22.160 Yeah, Death Moon. Death Moon is the motion picture. Someone 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:23.720 needs to put it out on Blu ray. Someone make 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:34.880 that happen. All right, let's get into the connections here, 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:39.920 starting with the director we already referenced. This is Sydney W. Pink, 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:45.240 director of the US version producer I believe of both reptilicuses, 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:49.240 and one of the credited writers. He lived nineteen sixteen 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:51.840 through two thousand and two. American director and producer, often 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:56.200 singled out for his contributions to three D cinema. In fact, 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.560 he was an ap on the associate producer on the 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:04.520 first widely released feature link three D film, Bwana Devil 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:07.000 in nineteen fifty two, a film we mentioned in our 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:10.920 previous Weird House Cinema episodes talking about three D pictures. 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:14.920 He also gave us the cinemagic technique in nineteen fifty 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:18.400 nine's The Angry Red Planet, in which a pink red 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:21.080 tint is applied to black and white film to give 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:23.640 us the surface of Mars. To take us to the 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:26.840 surface of Mars. He also directed Journey to the Seventh 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:30.360 Planet right before this picture in sixty two, starring John Agar. 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:35.560 There you Go. Also, I'm Always into a good I 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:39.160 was a title that always catches my interest. So I'll 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:41.800 just point out that his first film, both as a 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:44.440 director and a producer was nineteen fifty three's I Was 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:47.920 a Burlesque Queen, which also had three D dance sequences 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:48.160 in it. 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:50.840 I Was a teenage reptilicus. 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:55.360 All right. The other writing credit goes to an individual 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.520 who's come up on the show before. It's Ebe Melchior, 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:03.200 who lived nineteen seven team through twenty fifteen, Danish American 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:07.080 screenwriter with some impressive credits. We previously referenced him as 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:10.440 one of the writers of Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires. 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:12.440 Oh, I knew I recognized the name. 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:15.600 Yeah, I mean, it's a name that stands out. He 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:19.280 wrote and directed The Angry Red Planet fifty nine, Time 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:23.640 Traveler sixty four, co screenwriter on Robinson Crusoe on Mars 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:26.440 and sixty four, and his nineteen sixty five short story 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.480 The Racer was adapted into the nineteen seventy five Corman 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:32.760 producer Paul Bartel directed movie Death Race two thousand. 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:36.240 Ooh, yeah, man, I haven't seen that one in many years, 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:39.400 but I have some fond memories about it. Is it 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:43.600 as good as I remember? I don't know Frankenstein Frankenstein, Yeah, Oh, 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:45.400 that's the Chardine character, right, yeah? 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:46.200 Yeah? 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:49.040 And what's Stallon's in it? 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:49.320 Right? 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:51.960 Cass like one of the villains. He's like machine Gun 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:53.440 Joe v Turbo or something. 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:56.080 I don't remember. Him. I just remember Frankenstein, Yeah, but 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:59.160 I also remembered as being fun, all right. Now, getting 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:00.880 into the cast, there are a lot of folks that 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:04.800 kind of fade into the background here performing various bureaucratic 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:08.199 kaiju fighting duties. This is often the case in some 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:12.960 of these older giant monster films. You have governmental bodies 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:17.000 in organizations responding to the threat. And so there's a 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.080 lot in this movie and other movies of like folks 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:22.560 setting around having meetings and smoking cigarettes, and it can 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:25.560 get a little boring. It can be also incredibly thrilling, 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:28.600 as we know from films like Shin Godzilla. Yes it's 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:32.320 not an inherently boring idea, but it can be boring. 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:37.320 Yes, Reptiloicus has many pleasures, as we've said, but I 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:40.000 do not think it is a highlight in the stretches 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:43.080 where we're just like watching military men stand around a 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:46.080 table and like you know, talk about their strategy. They're like, 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:47.720 we're going to have to flesh them out here, we 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:52.399 will position our artillery. It's not very thrilling. 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:55.879 All right. So I'm not gonna have as much to 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:58.760 say about some of these actors because a number of them, 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:02.240 like almost almost did not exclusively work in Danish cinema, 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:05.520 And if there's more to add about some of these 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:07.760 folks that we don't get into, if you were familiar 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:11.120 with Danish cinema, if that's like your area of expertise, 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:14.639 or if we have any Danish listeners or listeners of 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:18.399 Danish heritage out there and you recognize these names right in, 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:21.640 we'd love to hear from you. So let's go through 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:23.879 some of the names here. We have Karl Ottosen who 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:27.640 lived nineteen eighteen through nineteen seventy too, playing General Mark Grayson. 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:30.520 He was a Danish actor. He was also in Journey 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:33.120 to the Seventh Planet. This is the dark haired general guy. 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:34.200 He is. 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:36.800 I think it took me a while to realize this, 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:39.960 but he's like the voice who's narrating at the beginning 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:42.040 of the movie and then he shows up halfway through. 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:47.120 Okay, yeah, all right. Then we have Anne Smyrner playing 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:51.560 Lisa Martins. She lived nineteen thirty four through twenty sixteen. 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:54.880 Danish actress who appeared in a handful of Sydney Pink movies. 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:58.440 Mostly worked in German cinema, though until her retirement from 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:01.639 acting in the seventies and then we have Mimi Heinrich 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:06.960 as Karen Martin's. She lived nineteen thirty six through twenty seventeen, 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:11.439 Danish actress who was also in Journey to the Seventh Planet. Oh, 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:16.760 and then we have Asjorn Anderson as Professor Otto Martin's. 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:19.879 This is the he's also the parent of the character 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:22.520 I just reference. This actor lived nineteen oh thirty through 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:26.159 nineteen seventy eight, Danish film actor and director who plays 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:29.080 one of the more memorable parts here as the kind 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.119 of l Ron Hubbard looking professor who is studying the 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:37.400 rise of Reptilicus. He mostly worked in Danish cinema, but yeah, 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:40.280 he's mimorable here. I do like him a lot. 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:43.120 The movie plays him like a hero, but he's kind 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:46.280 of low key the villain of the movie. You know, 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:48.880 he's like, yes, let's grow Reptilicus some more. 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:52.280 Yeah. Yeah, he's not presented like a mad scientist, but 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:54.000 he does mad science for sure. 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:55.000 Yeah. 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:59.919 All right. We also have Bent Midging playing Svend Vitrolof. 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:03.320 He lived nineteen thirty seven through twenty twenty four. This 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:06.640 is our slim, blonde, sort of leading man type. He's 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:08.919 the guy who goes in parties on the Beach, played 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:12.280 by award winning Danish actor here only in his third 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:14.320 film role, but he would go on to have a 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:16.879 long career in Danish cinema. So this is definitely, I 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:19.159 think one of those names where if Danish cinema is 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:21.760 your sweet spot, you know this guy and you can 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:23.359 tell us all about it. Yeah. 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:27.000 For most of the runtime, he is completely superfluous to 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:30.760 the plot, which makes me think that originally this movie 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:33.960 was just written to be about like the old scientists 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:37.879 and the military guys, and the producer might have been like, 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:40.360 what is going on, Why don't you have any young 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:43.399 attractive characters in here? So they just wrote in like, 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:46.320 oh yeah, there are just like several good looking people 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:49.240 in their twenties who are standing around in whatever scene. 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:52.439 So that's when we get Svinn and Lisa and Karen 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:54.719 and that problem solved. 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:58.159 Oh yeah, and then also we have Connie here. The 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:01.520 character of Connie I think was probably brought in for 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:06.760 the same reasons. Almost definitely played by Marley's Barons born 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:11.879 nineteen thirty nine. You know, occasionally, a former nationwide beauty 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:15.080 pageant winner pops up in the movies we watch, and 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:17.840 including Miss Mexico's. I think we've had a few different 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:21.280 Miss Mexicos pop up, and so I was not shocked 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:25.359 at all to read that this majorly attractive minor character 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:28.880 in this film was played by Miss Germany nineteen fifty eight. 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:31.760 Now, wait a minute, is this the actress who plays 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:34.320 this role in the American version or in the Danish version, 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:37.200 because I believe this role is the one that where 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:40.000 they's actually swapped out the cast, wasn't it. 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:42.520 This is yes, you will only find her in the 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:46.000 English cut of the film because the actress who plays 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:49.520 Connie in the Danish version apparently she couldn't do the 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:51.960 English lines, so they needed someone else to play the 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:55.880 character in the English version. Okay, she didn't appear in much, 0:21:55.920 --> 0:21:59.160 but yeah, her presence here kind of highlights some aspects 0:21:59.160 --> 0:21:59.760 of the filmmaking. 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:03.439 Prom Well, yeah, as I was saying, this movie is 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:07.479 full of characters who there's no plausible reason that they 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:10.520 would actually be in the place where this scene is happening, 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:12.640 but they're just standing around to sort of like fill 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:15.359 out the cast. So it's not just you know, General 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:19.280 Grayson standing there being sad and like, oh, we gotta 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:23.119 fight Reptilicus. So let's just have Spinn and Lisa and 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:25.639 Karen and Connie and everybody kind of pile into the 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:29.560 shot and they'll be like, what's happening with Reptilicus? 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:33.040 All right? But as far as the cast goes, we 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:35.960 save the best for the last, in my opinion, because 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:39.720 we have, for my money, the most visually stimulating performance 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:43.959 in this film. It's not another former Miss Germany, but 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:48.600 rather the legendary Danish comedian and character actor Dirtsch Passer 0:22:48.960 --> 0:22:51.600 who nineteen twenty six through nineteen eighty. 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:54.280 He is the true star of the film. He only 0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:56.000