A Quick Look: THE "LEGEND OF DINOSAURS" (1977 - color)

   THE "LEGEND OF DINOSAURS" is legendary in bad movie circles. Filmed in 1977, it was Japan's answer to JAWS. The plot (if it can so be described) tells the discovery of an ice cave near Mt. Fuji. There's a heatwave hitting Japan, and this has caused the cave to begin melting, which naturally exposes some viable dinosaur eggs. From one egg comes a massive, flesh-hungry water monster that takes up residence in one of the local lakes. From another egg hatches (twice, apparently) a pterodactyl. For some reason, the reviving dinosaurs cause natural disasters, including massive earthquakes and the eruption of Mt. Fuji! Nothing here makes sense, and the dialog is astoundingly bizarre. The film didn't hit the States until about a decade later, when Sandy Frank imported the film as part of Celebrity Video's Just For Kids line (which included a number of Japanese genre films, including a few of the Gamera movies and the infamous TIME OF THE APES). THE "LEGEND OF DINOSAURS" was a bit rough for the supposedly kid-friendly series, including as it does some mild gore and even a tiny nude scene. The film has recently been released on DVD under the title "The Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds" -a direct translation of the Japanese title. This presents a nice scope transfer, which helps greatly and gives the film a tad more polish. It's still literally insane, of course, but it's prettier than it was when I saw it as a kid!

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A Quick Look: MOTHRA (1962-color)

   MOTHRA was one of those uniquely Japanese concepts, a film more fairy tale of the Atomic Age than outright science fiction. In the film, some shipwreck survivors are rescued from an area heavily contaminated by radioactive fallout from recent tests conducted by the mythical superpower of Rolisica. The survivors show absolutely no signs of exposure to radioactivity, and even tell of natives on the officially uninhabited island where they washed ashore. This prompts an investigation, and sure enough the island is found to be populated by primitive natives and killer plants. Most extraordinary is the discovery of twin girls, standing less than a foot high! Corrupt Rolisican showman/gangster Nelson returns to the island and abducts the girls to appear as a theatrical attraction. Unknown to Nelson, during the nightly performances the girls sing a song of rescue to Mothra -the indestructible giant insect the natives worship! Soon enough, Mothra is headed toward Japan, and no weapon of warfare seems able to stop it! Entertaining stuff, provided you never try to put too much thought into it. Mothra would go on to be one of the major players of the Toho monster universe, returning a couple years later to take on the Big Blue Dinosaur in GODZILLA VS THE THING. Following that, Mothra became a series regular through the end of the decade. Mothra was revived again for the 90's cycle of Godzilla movies, and was then spun-off into a colorful-but-goofy trilogy of it's own. Mothra seemed to re-surface periodically after that, even making it into the new American Godzilla series.

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