Frankenstein Conquers the World may be an odd Japanese-made international co-production, but 1969's Latitude Zero is twice as strange. The Toho release used an American writer and a number of Hollywood name stars, all for a lavishly appointed fantasy pitched at a numbingly juvenile level.

The resulting hybrid is a mass of special effects both excellent and laughable, goofy art direction and characterizations two notches above kiddie shows by Sid & Marty Krofft. The color and scope film played for a few weeks in 1970, had a run in television syndication and then promptly disappeared for thirty years, allegedly due to legal entanglements.

Media Blasters / Tokyo Shock's two-disc presentation is essentially a DVD re-premiere with two versions of the film plus something new in extras -- actual special effects camera outtakes from behind the scenes at Toho.





Drs. Ken Tashiro, Jules Masson and reporter Perry Lawton (Akira Takarada, Masumi Okada & Richard Jaeckel) are lost when the lifeline for their diving bell snaps, but they're rescued by the undersea ship Alpha, captained by the benevolent Craig McKenzie (Joseph Cotten).

The Alpha's doctor Anne Barton (Linda Haynes) nurses Masson's head injury and McKenzie calls off his investigation of an underwater volcano to return to Latitude Zero, a secret domed Utopia resting on the ocean bottom at the intersection of the Equator and the International Date Line.

The Alpha survives an attack by the Black Shark, the wicked submarine commanded by the evil Dr. Malic (Cesar Romero). Malic hates Latitude Zero. At his own fortress, Blood Rock, he conspires with his paramour Lucretia (Patricia Medina) to kill McKenzie. Masson recovers while the others take in the wonders of Latitude Zero, where brilliant scientists have relocated to build a future world of peace and harmony.

McKenzie is arranging to help the Nobel Prizewinner Dr. Okada (Tetsu Nakamura) and his daughter 'disappear' so that they may be spirited to their new home, but Malic kidnaps them first. The three outside scientists and Dr. Barton volunteer to take the Alpha to Blood Rock and set matters straight. But Malic has set a trap for them, laced with acid rivers, giant rats and giant bat-men!

... a ver si me tiro al ruedo y hago algún post y a lo mejor me atrevo hasta a hacer alguna traducción.