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is a 1969
tokusatsu is a Japanese term for live action film or television drama that makes heavy use of practical special effects. ''Tokusatsu'' entertainment mainly refers to science fiction, war, fantasy, or horror media featuring such technology but is someti ...
science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interste ...
directed by
Ishirō Honda was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 44 feature films in a career spanning 59 years. The most internationally successful Japanese filmmaker prior to Hayao Miyazaki, his films have had a significant influence on the film industry. Honda enter ...
, with special effects by
Eiji Tsuburaya was a Japanese special effects director and cinematographer. Known as the he worked on 250 feature films in a career spanning 50 years. He is regarded as one of the co-creators of the ''Godzilla'' series, as well as the main creator of the ' ...
. An international co-production of Japan and the United States, it stars
Joseph Cotten Joseph Cheshire Cotten Jr. (May 15, 1905 – February 6, 1994) was an American film, stage, radio and television actor. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original stage productions of '' The Philadelphia Story'' and ''Sab ...
,
Cesar Romero Cesar Julio Romero Jr. (February 15, 1907 – January 1, 1994) was an American actor and activist. He was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years. His wide range of screen roles included Latin lovers, historical figures in c ...
, Akira Takarada,
Masumi Okada was a professional actor, singer, stand-up comedian, and film producer. Also known by his nickname "Fanfan", he was born in Nice, France, to a Japanese father, Minoru Okada, who was an artist, and a Danish mother, Ingeborg Sevaldsen, who was ...
,
Richard Jaeckel Richard Hanley Jaeckel (October 10, 1926 – June 14, 1997) was an American actor of film and television. Jaeckel became a well-known character actor in his career, which spanned six decades. He received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominatio ...
, Patricia Medina, and
Akihiko Hirata (December 16, 1927 – July 25, 1984), born , was a Japanese film actor. While Hirata starred in many movies (including Hiroshi Inagaki's ''Samurai'' trilogy), he is most well known for his work in the ''kaiju'' genre, including such films as ' ...
.


Plot

Three men - Dr. Ken Tashiro, Dr. Jules Masson, and
journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
Perry Lawton - are trapped in a bathysphere due to seismic activity. They are rescued by the crew of the supersubmarine ''Alpha'', captained by Craig McKenzie, who they learn is over 200 years old (and that the ''Alpha'' was launched in the early 19th century). McKenzie takes them to Latitude Zero to heal Dr. Masson's injuries. Along the way, they are attacked by a rival supersubmarine, the ''Black Shark'', captained by Kuroi, who works for a rival of McKenzie's, Dr. Malic. Using super-technology, McKenzie gives the ''Black Shark'' the slip. The crew of the ''Alpha'' soon return to Latitude Zero, a super-advanced
utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island societ ...
hidden fifteen miles below sea level at the intersection of the
Equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can al ...
and the
International Date Line The International Date Line (IDL) is an internationally accepted demarcation on the surface of Earth, running between the South and North Poles and serving as the boundary between one calendar day and the next. It passes through the Pacific ...
, populated by people from all over the world reported missing in accidents at sea. It has existed since the 19th century, as none of its inhabitants age or die, and greed and political divisions plaguing the surface world are unknown here. It also surreptitiously assists mankind's technological and cultural advancement. Malic, however, wishes to destroy Latitude Zero using superweapons and artificially grafted monstrosities like giant rats and
anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...
bats. He kidnaps a Japanese physicist allied with McKenzie, Dr. Okada, and his daughter Tsuruko, and forces Okada to assist him in his schemes. Moreover, after a cruel experiment grafting the wings of an
eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, jus ...
to a lion, he removes Kuroi's brain and places it in the creature as punishment for her failures. Upon receiving an emergency signal from Okada, McKenzie organizes a rescue expedition. Tashiro, Masson and Lawton, Latitude Zero physician Dr. Anne Barton, and Kōbo volunteer to help. Equipped with
James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
-style devices and rendered resistant to physical harm by a special bath, they infiltrate Malic's island base, Blood Rock, fight their way to the enemy control center, and rescue the Okadas. As the team escapes, Malic enters the'' Black Shark'' and fires an onboard laser at them, but Kuroi turns against Malic and attacks the laser. The weapon collapses the island's cliffs onto the submarine, destroying it and killing everyone aboard. Of all the visitors to Latitude Zero, only Lawton wishes to return home. He is picked up by a US Navy vessel and discovers that all his knowledge of Latitude Zero's existence has disappeared. Just as he is about to resign himself to the idea that his adventure never occurred, the ship receives a message stating that a cache of diamonds has been deposited in his name in a safe deposit box in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, and the ship is ordered to change course to Latitude Zero.


Cast

*
Joseph Cotten Joseph Cheshire Cotten Jr. (May 15, 1905 – February 6, 1994) was an American film, stage, radio and television actor. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original stage productions of '' The Philadelphia Story'' and ''Sab ...
as Captain Craig McKenzie, Captain of "Alpha"/Commander Glenn McKenzie *
Cesar Romero Cesar Julio Romero Jr. (February 15, 1907 – January 1, 1994) was an American actor and activist. He was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years. His wide range of screen roles included Latin lovers, historical figures in c ...
as Dr. Malic, Scientist of Blood Rock/Lt Hastings * Akira Takarada as Dr. Ken Tashiro, Oceanographer *
Masumi Okada was a professional actor, singer, stand-up comedian, and film producer. Also known by his nickname "Fanfan", he was born in Nice, France, to a Japanese father, Minoru Okada, who was an artist, and a Danish mother, Ingeborg Sevaldsen, who was ...
as Dr. Jules Masson, Geologist *
Richard Jaeckel Richard Hanley Jaeckel (October 10, 1926 – June 14, 1997) was an American actor of film and television. Jaeckel became a well-known character actor in his career, which spanned six decades. He received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominatio ...
as Perry Lawton, Journalist * Patricia Medina as Lucretia, Lover of Malic * Kin Ōmae as Kōbo; Crew of "Alpha" * Linda Haynes as Dr. Anne Barton, Doctor of Latitude Zero * Tetsu Nakamura as Dr. Okada, Japanese atomic physicist * Mari Nakayama as Tsuruko Okada; Daughter of Dr. Okada *
Akihiko Hirata (December 16, 1927 – July 25, 1984), born , was a Japanese film actor. While Hirata starred in many movies (including Hiroshi Inagaki's ''Samurai'' trilogy), he is most well known for his work in the ''kaiju'' genre, including such films as ' ...
as Dr. Sugata; Doctor of Latitude Zero  * Hikaru Kuroki as Captain Kuroiga ("Black Moth", Captain of "Black Shark" *
Susumu Kurobe (born ; 22 October 1939) is a television, film and stage actor from Kurobe, Toyama, Japan, widely known for his portrayal of Shin Hayata, the first Ultraman in the '' titular character series'', a role he has played since the original series in ...
as Chin; Crewman of "Black Shark" * Andrew Hughes as Sir Maurice Poeley *
Haruo Nakajima was a Japanese actor best known for playing Godzilla in 12 consecutive films, starting from the original ''Godzilla'' (1954) until '' Godzilla vs. Gigan'' (1972). He also played various other giant monsters in ''kaiju'' films, including ''Mothra ...
as
Griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back ...
, Giant Rat, Bat Man * Harekichi Nakamura, Yu Sekida as Bat Men *
Teruo Aragaki is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. Debuting in the 1965 film '' Gamera, the Giant Monster'', the character and the first film were intended to compete with the success of Toho's ''Godzilla'' film ...
, Nakamura Harekichi as Giant Rats


Production


Writing

In 1967, Toho was struggling to get two ambitious projects off the ground. One was an adaption of Sakyo Komatsu’s manga ESPY and the other was The Flying Battleship, a spiritual sequel to '' Atragon''. That same year, Toho executive Masami Fujimoto went to America where he met with Don Sharpe, head of Ambassador Productions, about doing a series of co-produced special effects films. One of Sharpe’s projects was a film adaption of Ted Sherdeman’s
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are ...
radio serial Latitude Zero, which Sherdeman had been trying to get adapted into film for the past several years. Ted Sherdeman’s radio serial was broadcast in 1941 by NBC. The first episode of Latitude Zero concerned three crew members of the old vessel “Hope,” who discover a futuristic submarine after surviving a storm in the Bering Sea near the Arctic Circle. The submarine, called the Omega, was launched in 1805 and Captain Craig MacKenzie is incredibly old despite his appearance. His bodyguard, Simba, has incredible strength and cannot be harmed by bullets. Serialized stories relate to their adventure as they battle the enemies of the underwater world of Latitude Zero (in particular, the evil Lucretia). The plots of the other episodes (17 in total) have been lost to time though the first episode has been preserved somewhere. The Japanese version credits Shinichi Sekizawa as the screenplay adviser, a role described by
Stuart Galbraith IV Stuart Eugene Galbraith IV (born December 29, 1965) is an American film historian, film critic, essayist, and audio commentator. Early life and education Raised in Livonia, Michigan, Galbraith first worked professionally as a film reviewer and ...
as writing the Japanese version.


Filming

Unlike other 1960's Toho productions starring American actors, Latitude Zero was filmed entirely in English. The Japanese actors, including Akira Takarada and Akihiko Hirata, deliver all of their lines in English. During the start of production, there were plans to film the movie in 70mm Panavision but the equipment wasn’t available to Toho, so the format was switched back to
CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...
. In his autobiography ''Vanity Will Get You Somewhere'', actor
Joseph Cotten Joseph Cheshire Cotten Jr. (May 15, 1905 – February 6, 1994) was an American film, stage, radio and television actor. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original stage productions of '' The Philadelphia Story'' and ''Sab ...
stated that the American producer Don Sharp sent the American cast to Japan just as his company was about to go bankrupt. Cotten noted that
Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the produce ...
picked up most, if not all the film's production budget. Dr. Okada was originality played the esteemed Takamaru Sasaki (''
Throne of Blood is a 1957 Japanese ''jidaigeki'' film co-written, produced, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film transposes the plot of William Shakespeare's play ''Macbeth'' from Medieval Scotland to feudal ...
'' (1957), '' The Sword of Doom'' (1966) but he became ill and was replaced by Tetsu Nakamura, necessitating Honda reshoot all scenes involving the character. During shooting, there were two major points of consideration: the first involved the bath of immunity. At the time, the Motion Picture production code had just been lifted in America and Lewis wanted to take advantage by showing Lynda Haynes breasts as she entered the bath. Ishiro Honda refused to film such a shot and this included the idea of an alternate version just for her to appear naked, though she wasn’t really. Haynes remembered this topical matter like so: “They wanted me to be nude when getting out of the bath scene… I was told. ‘Well, in Japan, that’s no big deal.’ But I refused to do that, and they even put some kind of skin-colored foam rubber over by breasts to get me to do the scene - must have been a long shot.”


Special effects

The immense wall of smoke and flames which erupted from the explosion of the underwater volcano was created using a small water tank against which a camera was secured upside down beneath the water line. A sky backdrop was placed behind the water, and colored paints were poured into the water, creating billowing, smoke-like clouds. This same method was also used in '' Atragon'' (1963) and '' Dogora, the Space Monster'' (1964).


Release

''Latitude Zero'' was released in Japan on July 29, 1969 with a print that was dubbed into Japanese. It received a release in the United States by National General Pictures. Akira Takarada and
Akihiko Hirata (December 16, 1927 – July 25, 1984), born , was a Japanese film actor. While Hirata starred in many movies (including Hiroshi Inagaki's ''Samurai'' trilogy), he is most well known for his work in the ''kaiju'' genre, including such films as ' ...
speak English in the English-language version and are not dubbed. The film received a test screening in Dallas in July 1969 and received a general theatrical release on December 1970. The film was re-issued theatrically in Japan in 1974 on a double bill with '' Mothra''.


Reception

In contemporary reviews, ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film) ...
'' reviewed the film at the
Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...
's buyer's market, referring to it as a "campy fun helped by sober playing and some deft underwater work, gadgets and movement." The story, however, is the weakest element in "Latitude Zero."
Roger Greenspun Roger Greenspun (December 16, 1929 – June 18, 2017) was an American journalist and film critic, best known for his work with ''The New York Times'' in which he reviewed near 400 films, particularly in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and for '' ...
(''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'') found ''Latitude Zeros plot to be "the weakest element", while noting that "The real virtue of the film lies in its charming and careful models, its ingenious special effects, its fruity interior décor, its elaborate network of television screens" The ''
Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...
'' stated that "it is a sad fact that the special effects are notably variable, and the model work in particular looks extremely shoddy" and the review concluded that "Toho studios seem to have employed their specialized talents and resources to produce an outlandish and expensive leg-pull."


References


Bibliography

* * * *


External links

* * {{Ishirō Honda 1969 films 1960s science fiction films 1960s monster movies Japanese fantasy adventure films Japanese science fiction adventure films English-language Japanese films Films about immortality Films directed by Ishirō Honda Mad scientist films Science fiction submarine films Toho tokusatsu films Films scored by Akira Ifukube American science fiction adventure films American fantasy adventure films Underwater civilizations in fiction 1960s American films 1960s Japanese films