Evil Brain from Outer Space

Evil Brain from Outer Space

Alpha Video DVD cover art
Directed by Koreyoshi Akasaka
Akira Mitsuwa
Produced by Mitsugi Okura
Written by Akira Mitsuwa
Ichiro Miyagawa
Starring Ken Utsui
Junko Ikeuchi
Minoru Takada
Distributed by Walter Manley Enterprises Inc.
Release dates
 1964
Running time
 78 min. (USA)

Evil Brain from Outer Space is a 1964 film edited together for American television from films #7, #8 and #9 of the Japanese short film series Super Giant filmed in 1958.

Synopsis

The film concerns Starman's efforts to save the Earth from the followers of Balazar, an evil genius from the planet Zemar whose brain has been preserved after his own assassination.

American adaptation

The nine Super Giant films were purchased for distribution to U.S. television and edited into four films by Walter Manley Enterprises and Medallion Films. The three original Japanese films which went into Evil Brain from Outer Space (The Space Mutant Appears, The Devil's Incarnation and The Poison Moth Kingdom) were 45 minutes, 57 minutes, and 57 minutes in duration respectively. The total 159 minutes of the three films were edited into one 78-minute film. Since the three original films were self-contained stories, three different plots had to be edited together, and a considerable amount of all three films dropped. The result has been called, "an alternately mind-blowing and mind-numbing adventure... a non-ending cavalcade of characters, chases, captures, rescues and fight scenes."[1]

Contributing to the difficulties of editing these three films together was the fact that the first film was in the older 4:3 ratio, while the latter two films were shot in widescreen format. This necessitated the use of pan-and-scan methods to make the three films match.

DVD releases

Evil Brain from Outer Space is currently available on two DVD releases. Something Weird Video with Image Entertainment released the film and the other Starman film, Attack from Space on a single disc on December 10, 2002. Alpha Video also released a budget-priced disc of the film on July 27, 2004. The film is also available on two multi-film compilations from Mill Creek Entertainment: Nightmare Worlds and Pure Terror.

See also

References

  1. ↑
    • Ragone, August. THE ORIGINAL "STARMAN"
Bibliography

External links