Reptilicus

Giant reptilian monsters, often awakened by nuclear weapon testing, were all the rage in the 1950s and into the following decade, a time of international paranoia about nuclear power and its potential for worldwide destruction. Creatures like Godzilla, Rodan, and Gamera rampaged throughout Japan, destroying everything in their wake and creating a lucrative market for numerous sequels and spin-offs that found great success in the U.S. and other countries, regardless of the increasing cheesiness of the productions. It was only natural that other countries should want a piece of this action, and as the 60s began, the nation once known for the masterly cinema of Carl Theodor Dreyer and for Europe's greatest early silent film star, Asta Nielsen, jumped on the bandwagon, with unintentionally hilarious results. Danish miners working in Lapland dig up a piece of giant reptile tail from the frozen ground. It's taken to an aquarium in Copenhagen to be studied. The door to the chamber where the tail is kept frozen is carelessly left open, and the piece begins to thaw. Displaying a complete misunderstanding of the regenerative abilities of reptiles, the screenwriters have the appendage grow into a fully formed giant monster that goes on a tear through the Danish countryside and the streets of Copenhagen causing widespread panic and destruction of famous landmarks. The colossal fiend is finally killed with poison, but the team of scientists and military units who take it down neglect to destroy its foot, which sinks to the bottom of the ocean, setting up the possibility for further regeneration and a hoped-for sequel. Yeah, that was probably never going to happen. Although it eventually developed something of a cult following in its home country, Reptilicus was held back from stateside release for nearly two years, even with the backing of American International Pictures, the studio that was exploitation central for the period, churning out low-budget drive-in movie fodder for the youth market, encompassing juvenile delinquent melodramas, rock-and-roll pictures, and monster movies. AIP entered into a co-production agreement on this project with Denmark's Saga Films, and two versions were shot with many of the same cast members performing in both Danish and English. The Danish version was directed by Poul Bang, known primarily (and aptly) for comedies, including a version of the old American stage and screen cross-dressing standby Charlie's Aunt. The American version of Reptilicus was directed by Sidney Pink, who had just scored a hit as producer of The Angry Red Planet (1959). Pink hired that production's director and screenwriter, Ib Melchior, a Dane and son of famed Wagnerian tenor Lauritz Melchior, as his co-writer on this "terrifying" tale of what the trailer ineptly called "an annihilating mastodon," completely ignoring the fact that mastodons were vegetarian mammals hardly big enough to destroy Copenhagen's Langebro bridge as the reptile does in this movie. When Pink brought his cut back to AIP, studio executives found it appalling and unfit for release, which is saying quite a lot coming from the company that brought us The Astounding She-Monster (1957) and The Diary of a High School Bride (1959). The studio turned the film over to Melchior, who reworked the script, shot new scenes, and over-dubbed the Danish actors' sing-songy English dialogue. An angry Pink took legal action but soon dropped his lawsuit. The redone version jettisoned the scenes involving Danish comedian Dirch Passer, star of ten other comedies directed by Bang and one of the country's most popular performers of all time. His appearance here as a comic-relief lab assistant can only be chalked up to his long and fruitful relationship with the director and an astute calculation with an eye on the Danish box office. The same reasoning was likely behind the inclusion of popular singer Birthe Wilke, who appears in one scene as a Tivoli Gardens nightclub chanteuse. A comic book based on the film was published in 1961, ahead of its theatrical release, by Charlton Comics but lasted only two issues. Charlton tried to revive the story (aka rip it off) by renaming the monster Reptisaurus the Terrible, but that fared only slightly better, running six issues until its demise in late 1962. After the big-budget remake of Godzilla (1998), Pink wanted to re-do his monster epic but failed to get it off the ground before his death in 2002. But Reptilicus has achieved a kind of dubious immortality as a source of humor with a clip incorporated into an episode of South Park and as the featured movie in the first episode of the 11th season of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Director: Sidney Pink Producers: Samuel Z. Arkoff, Sidney Pink Screenplay: Sidney Pink, Ib Melchior; original story by Sidney Pink Cinematography: Aage Wiltrup Editing: Sven Methling, Edith Nisted Nielsen Visual Effects: Kai Koed Music: Les Baxter Cast: Bent Mejding (Svend Viltorft), Asbjorn Andersen (Prof. Otto Martens), Poul Wildaker (Dr. Peter Dalby), Ann Smyrner (Lise Martens), Mimi Heinrich (Karen Martens) By Rob Nixon