VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE —–ah, the mighty (and mighty bad) Varan: rarely has a title waxed so accurate. From monster-swamped Japan in 1958 came a scaly 87-minute black & white creature feature, Daikaiju Baran, title-changed and re-worked to 70 minutes, adding reliable American character veteran Myron Healey for a US release in 1962. Whichever version you see, they’re both unbelievable.
My God, those poor villagers…
Directed by Ishiro Honda (Godzilla, Rodan, The Mysterians, Mothra, King Kong Vs. Godzilla, Atragon, Ghidrah the 3-Headed Monster–to name a few) this giant awakened from his slumber resists all manner of projectile, knocks things down, the usual Toho trample, just not as much fun as the others.
With Kozo Namura, Ayumi Sonoda, Fumida Matsuo. Hisaya Ito, Tsuroko Kobayashi. I always liked Myron Healey (1923-2005), recognizable back in olden days from 140 film parts, plus three serials and scads of TV shows. He has 316 credits listed from 1943 to 1994. No doubt he got a few wry laughs out of this job.
Flies, too. Why not?
