Just finished Reptilicus and.....heh, I'm not sure how to talk about this. On the one hand, its a terrible movie. The acting is over the top, the women cling to the men in a very sexist man-hungry way, and Reptilicus himself? Yeouch. One of the worst monster puppets ever put on screen. I will *NEVER* talk negatively of Showa Manda again.
On the other hand, its exactly those things that make it kind of enjoyable. Case in point, I present to you the best thing about the movie:
Peterson!
Peterson, the most recent hire here at the scientific aquarium of aquatic research and science investigation for the purposes of scientific science dressed in lab appropriate bib overalls. Don't worry. Peterson's just the local country bumpkin who's here as a caretaker despite the fact that us scientists are here all the time at all hours. Now Peterson, make sure you watch that dial and that the temperature doesn't rise above freezing! Fooled you, viewer! Its not Peterson who thawed out the monster tail!
Reptilicus is some kind of self regenerating reptile who's been frozen in ice until a copper miner unwittingly unearthed his tail. So naturally once the tail's thawed out and the scientists see that its healing itself, they do the only logical thing: feed it nutrients at an accelerated pace! So eventually the expected unexpected happens and Reptilicus has a growth spurt to full monster size: head, brain, internal organs, limbs, skeletal structure and all!
The monster effects here are pretty awful. Manda is a Ferrari compared to Reptilicus's Pinto. There's some kind of weird slow motion going on with most of the monster footage where I'm thinking that the special effects guy knew that the Toho movies did *something* with the camera to make the monster appear large and lumbering but weren't exactly sure what that was. Not that it matters anyway because the puppetry is clumsy at best. The best Reptilicus scenes are when he's lying at the bottom of the ocean apparently lifeless as he regenerates and explosions jolt the puppet body around.
The inserted animation of the only human in a Reptilicus scene.
The concept of the movie actually isn't terrible for a typical late 50's/early 60's monster movie. If we had Toho style monster scenes, I would have a completely different/better opinion of this movie. I like that Reptilicus is similar to the Gargantuas in that you can't just blow him up or else you run the risk of those blowed up bits regenerating into full blown monsters. I also like the acid slime that Reptilicus spits
The End......or is it?
They never do explain why Reptilicus has wings.
Edit: I totally forgot about my favorite scene! The bridge operator! He sees the people running over the bridge. I'm pretty sure he sees Reptilicus too. What does he do? HE RAISES THE BRIDGE!
Then he turns away disgusted with himself at the approaching horror. It isn't until the miner and the army general show up to lower the bridge that the day is saved!