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Post by Xenorama ™ on Sept 16, 2007 9:22:49 GMT -8
Ryo Ikebe ... Maj. Ichiro Katsumiya
Kyôko Anzai ... Etsuko Shiraishi
Koreya Senda ... Professor Adachi
Minoru Takada ... The Commander
Leonard Stanford ... Dr. Roger Richardson
Harold Conway ... Dr. Immerman
Yoshio Tsuchiya ... Iwomura
Hisaya Ito ... Kogure
Nadao Kirino ... Gravity Man
Fuyuki Murakami ... Inspector Iriake
Malcolm Pearce ... Dr. Achmed
Leonard Walsh ... Thomas Sheldon
Kôzô Nomura ... Rocket Commander
Ikio Sawamura ... Lantern Man
Tadashi Okabe ... Newscaster
this is one of the few Toho movies i never saw growing up, and really wish i had. Earth vs. Natal = good movie. spaceships vs saucers in battle = better movie!
it so deserves a nice US DVD release.
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Post by hman on Sept 16, 2007 11:40:23 GMT -8
I saw this as a kid on TNT (insert cliche remark about when TNT was a good channel). Actually, I taped it and then taped over it some time later. I think that was one of the stupidest things I ever did, taping over that film. But luckily, I have Godzilla Fantasia on my comp and can watch some of the highlights.
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Post by Gwangi on Sept 16, 2007 21:33:42 GMT -8
I am with David. I never saw this growing up either. Heck, I didn't even know this movie existed until 1989, when I check out Leonard Maltin's movie book and found the title (and a very undeserving *1/2 rating). I had a friend record it for me when they showed it on TNT in the 90s, and I finally got a chance to view it.
I don't think the story is much, but the visuals are just beautiful and amazing. They carry the movie and just makes it so fun to watch.
I also wish this was on DVD. Heck, I never thought a movie like "Latitude Zero" with all of it's legal situations, would actually beat it out on DVD availability. Come on Sony. Release this, "Mothra" and "The H-Man" as soon as possible!
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Sept 16, 2007 23:13:05 GMT -8
and amazingly enough, Tanaka-san didn't insist on adding a giant moon monster (not that that would have been a bad thing, it would have fit better than Mogera or Magma or even Manda).
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Post by RedKing on Sept 27, 2007 5:32:41 GMT -8
Like David and Gwangi, I also never saw this film until i was an adult. I got the widescreen japanese version(unsubbed-this was before the days of Video Daikaiju and other bootleg subtitlers) and absolutely loved it. I didn't see the english version for several more years and was disappointed that they cut Ifukube's splendid battle marches and replaced them with stock music.The replacement music is not bad though, and one theme used in the final space battle was also used for several of Santo and Blue Demon's mid 60s black and white adventures made for Cinematografica Vergara! Like THE MYSTERIANS, this movie serves up what US "alien invasion" films of the same time frame only hinted at, with spectacular full color and widescreen destruction, flashing rays and space dogfights. Heck, it wasn't until INDEPENDENCE DAY in 1996 that an alien invasion came close to what was shown in this movie. I always though ID4 stole more than a little from BATTLE, and judging from that film, i remember actually thinking the US Godzilla would be pretty cool with the same team doing it!! Amazing just how wrong you can be sometimes!  |
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