Welcome back to another Friday night fantasy from the fertile mind of Jesus Franco! Tonight's feature from 1971 is entitled
"The Devil Came From Akasava," and has a knockout of a title card!! The exceptionally killer music is brought to you courtesy of two wild cats, Odón Alonso and Sigi Schwab! This is a very interesting pairing for a couple of reasons! Number one being that this was the first film that Odón ever composed for, and it was the last that Sigi ever worked on. One of my favorite bits of trivia is that Sigi Schwab also worked using the name Et Cetera!! Musically, what you got here is a sitar, extra fuzzy guitar, psych organ, harpsichord and a funky horn section all thrown together to a dance beat with jungle sound effects like a stoned Martin Denny in a not so quiet village! Shows you what kind of creative genius there once was in the world!
Okay, Let's All Go to Akasava!! Where the Hell is it, nobody knows, but it sounds very cool when you say it! There's kind of a mine/cave there where this guy, for some reason, knows where this mysterious rock dwells that can turn shit into gold, and peoples into zombies!!
Any normal person would probably understand that an ore with such miraculous properties would also be freakin' off the charts radioactive!! Well, if it's not a no-brainer before you find the stuff, it definitely is afterwards!
Meanwhile back in town, the joint is jumpin' to the innerstellar beat of the spacey "Jupimatic" juke box and it's top tunes of the week!!
Hey, what kind of a place
is this???
For me this film is essentially about two people, Soledad Miranda as the sensuous Jane Morgan and Siegfried Schürenberg as the frumpy Sir Phillip!
We've touched on the tragic story of Soledad Miranda here before. She was just really getting her career going with the aid of one Jess Franco, when she was denied further existence at the age of 27 because of a tragic car accident. Ironically, her husband, José Manuel Simões was a race car driver!
On the other hand Siegfried Schürenberg as Sir Phillip, was 71 years of age when this film was made! Siegfried Schürenberg had a great career reprising a role very similar to Sir Phillip, usually called Sir John, in a bunch of Edgar Wallace films! Sir Phillip/John is always very entertaining, as the fumbling, flustered character who is supposed to be in charge, but who always manages to get the job done somehow!
Jane Morgan is a secret agent working undercover as a stripper in the "Red Rose Night-Club" and she is quite talented!
Oh, Hell, I've already left out half the characters, but I will tell you one thing, this is one uncompromising postion for a dead assassin!!
Just like in "Yokai Monsters," the sub-titles pretty much explain exactly what is going on!!
Meanwhile, Jane Morgan is back on stage and lookin' good! Like many others, Soledad Miranda had more than one stage name, and was actually billed as Susann Korda in this film!
More obligatory questions!!
A.C.T.I.O.N!!!
SOLEDAD!!!
That's right,
YOU figger it out! It's your options, it's your choice!!
Really, this is such a great shot!! Thanx Jess!
The power is in The Box!!
Jesus Franco has a long history of weird zombies, and this film is no exception. The Euro-Zombies always have a trashy sophistication about them that is lacking in the American and Voodoo zombies!
Classic portrait of Dungeon hero and stalwart Howard Vernon, this time out as the valet Humphrey! If Howard Vernon is in it, we're watching it!
An extra added, but poignant statement leads to even more trouble!
It's not the end of the world, just The End to yet another great Jesus Franco moving picture!
"Ghidrah The Three Headed Monster" is a crazy movie, any way you wanna look at it! Whether it's Ghidrah or Ghidorah, or Glen and Glenda, whether it's really a Godzilla or a Gojira movie, or a Mothra or a Mosura movie, or a Radon or Rodan movie, doesn't make any difference, no matter which Kaiju is your fave, or how you wanna say it, there's something here for everybody!!
Some how it just works out that way, and I don't know why, but since there is plenty of the monster with three heads to go around, and in an effort to demonstrate how sick like minds work, here is the way Professor Grewbeard rolled recently..... "Three Heads Are Worser Than One!!"
Nice hand!! Three Queens! Unfortunately, the bad guys have all the Aces, and those Jokers are wild!!
I'll bet a person can make a good living working as an extra in Japan!!
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another exciting edition of 'WTF TV!'
And, of course, whenever Mothra is in town, those little Peanut Fairies aren't going to be far behind, making TV appearances etc. This would be the last reprisal of the fairy roles by the twins Yûmi Ito and Emi Ito!
I forgot all about the doily era in Japanese history.
Now here's a cool design for a phone you don't see that very often!!
Once these country guys hit the big city they sure turned into a big pack of Sleaze Weasels on the prowl!
Godzilla finally decides to make an appearance! Uh, Oh, he's got his old suit on!!
The Peanuts turn out the lights to keep the bad guys in the dark!
"Gosh, Look at the size of that thing!" "Oh, Boy, look at the thing!" Oh, my goodness!"
I love the footage of Ghidrah coming onto the scene straight out of a big ole ball of fire!!!
Hey! All you knuckleheads just get out of the way, me and Gojira got a score to settle here!!
Radon, is a short version of the Japanese word for Pteranodon, an extinct toothless flying reptile!!
The music for this, yet another Ishirô Honda epic, was composed once again by the ever so prolific Akira Ifukube!!
Originally King Ghidorah was supposed to breath fire, but they decided to go with the super destructive gravity rays instead!!
Can't we all just get along??
Here's Masaki Shinohara on the left as Radon, and Haruo Nakajima on the right as Gojira, in a nice shot to end this tale!!
