“It seems to deflect and control energy forces in its surroundings.”
Japan’s forage into space has brought it within reach of Mars. Several attempts at getting to the red planet have resulted in an alien UFO wreaking havoc on any spaceship that gets too close. The previous six ships and crews were lost. The latest attempt, the AAB Gamma ship and her crew of four are now on its way to Mars.
Suddenly the UFO appears and the space ship begins having problems. One crew member gets sick. When the UFO disappears as quickly as it appeared the captain diverts the ship to the Moon base to assess the sick man's health. With one crew member down a substitute is named. The final crew of the ship are; Captain Sano, Lisa, Dr. Stein and Miyamoto.
Leaving the Moon they head for Mars. When they get near the red planet they come across the alien ship again. The alien vessel looks like a round, flying Jamaican meat pie. It suddenly sprays the AAB Gamma with spores. Lisa and Sano take a spacewalk and remove the spores from the ship. A sample of the spores is put in a container and the AAB Gamma returns to Earth.
The spore grows into a giant, lizard-like creature that is named "Guilala". The alien monster is supposed to be some kind of space reptile. It is the rubber suit of rubber suit monsters looking as if it is wearing an ancient gladiator helmet and a pirate mutton sleeve shirt.
The monster begins a reign of destruction through Tokyo trying not to fall on its face. It spits fireballs and feeds on nuclear fuel. When it has absorbed all the energy it can it turns into a flying, burning sphere, and flies to the next supply of fuel. On the way it destroys all aircraft, buildings and tanks in its path.
“The X From Outer Space” was released in 1967 in Japan and 1968 to American television. It was directed by Kazui Nihonmatsu. It is a combination science fiction/monster movie.
The movie is a little on the campy side. OK it’s corny. We’re not talking TOHO here. There’s a lot of lame drama between the astronauts. Lisa is in love with the captain and so is a communications officer stationed on the Moon named Michiko. The Captain is clueless of both of them and Dr. Stein doesn’t want to be going to Mars at all. Miyamoto, the comedy relief, just wants to eat.
There is also a suspicion that Miyamoto is gay. How many astronauts have three male friends smile and wave good-bye to them when they go off on a voyage?
I don’t want to trash the movie too much. Yes, there were a few times I wanted to gag but then most of the time it was silly enough to be entertaining. And you learn a few things. I did not know you could plug a hole in your spaceship with your butt. Plus the miniatures were decent. I think that they figured out in the middle of filming the movie that they were not going to be able to pull it off and decided to just go for plain old wacky. In that way it works.
The film was produced by Shochiku Studios. This was their first and only monster movie. Go figure.
English dubbed
Japanese subtitled