Unlike most Toho films, Varan just doesn't have much subtext. He's not a "walking nuclear firestorm" or even a pterodactyl version of the WW2 aerial attacks (RODAN). He shares some of Mothra's qualities . . . natives do revere him as a God . . . but unlike Mothra whose devotion to her human charges and pheonix-like ability for rebirth edge her into the "maybe she really IS a GOD" category . . . well, Varan is pretty much revealed to be an confused prehistoric survival once he emerges from his watery home.
The film starts when an unusual butterfly is discovered. Researchers head to the"Japanese Tibet" and are killed in a mysterious accident - - - could it be a landslide or is it something else?
A second group, this time a lady reporter and a photographer (characters soon to become a central item of many Toho monster films) join the scientists. When a child breaks the village taboo . . . er, don't go near the lake . . . to find his dog, the villagers and priest-headman give him up for dead. But the visitors break the taboo and save the little boy.
Well, Varan emerges . . . a prehistoric survival of the Varanopod family . . . and wrecks the village. The military is sent in and basically succeed in making Varan angry and sending him on a second rampage. Towards the end of the first battle (and if you've only ever seen the Myron Healy version, this will be new to you), Varan spreads his arms to reveal membranous wings. Stretched between his upper arms and legs, this led some reviewers to consider him a mutated flying squirrel, but he is clearly supposed to be a dinosaur.
After flying away, Varan participates in a number of battles at sea, which climax when he comes ashore at Haneda airport. Most of the footage is original - but there are some out-takes of military hardware, and even one shot of a tail smashing a building, which are from GODZILLA. These, plus the score by Akria Ifukube which features both old themes and music that would come to be associated with the Godzilla series, give one a pleasant sense of deja vu.
The original North American VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE, edits in Myron Healy as a U.S. Navy Commander on Kunish Hiroshima island doing anti-saline experiments in a salt-water lake. This version is one of the poorest "reedits" of all time. Probably the ONLY reason to watch it, is to prove to yourself that - comparatively - the Raymond Burr re-cut of GODZILLA is a fine work of art . . . sustaining dramatic tension, keeping the integrity of the characters, and delivering most of the message of the film. In comparison, Myron Healy and friends act superior to the Japanese, do nothing suspenseful, and occasionally gaze in the direction of stock footage.
The new DVD of Varan on Media Blasters Tokyo Shock label, does not include the Myron Healy curiosity, but features a pristine print of this widescreen black and white feature from 1958, and extras that include a (very) cut-down version that was originally made to air on television, a commentary by creature-suit maker Keizo Murase, and also a terrific show on molding and casting in which Mr. Murase shows Godzilla suit-maker (and Varan fan) Fuyuki Shinada how Varan's skin texture was made.
I'm in the part of the audience that would gladly pay the price of the disc just to watch this special.
Varan is, after all, a GREAT monster. Very convincing walking on all fours or standing upright, Varan is just a monster with a lot of personality.
However, as Toho monster films go, Varan is very much a lesser effort and seems strangely - well - American. Apparently the idea was that the finished film was going to be sold to an American television network, but the network pulled out so that the film could be made as a theatrical release.
Oddly, that makes VARAN historically interesting. Since the film was made for the American market it follows a very set pattern. People disappear, a monster is blamed, more people search, the monster appears, monster fights Army, scientist thinks of solution, monster is killed. It's the story featured in THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS and crystallized in any number of later 50's SF films.
And it's this pattern, without the subtext and poetry of most Japanese monster films, that makes VARAN an oddball Toho film.
If there is any subtext in the film, it's that all of this mess was created by the scientists who ignored the traditional village priest in the first place. Varan had apparently lived in his lake for hundreds of years before the scientists decided to break the village taboos. Let one kid and a dog sneak past a fence and . . . before you know it . . . you're bringing in tanks, battle cruisers, and death from above.
However, this really doesn't seem to be the overt message of the film, as our villagers are pretty much forgotten once VARAN heads south to the big city.
Some of the script elements here would be reused to better effect in KING KONG VERSUS GODZILLA . . . the little kid who has to be rescued by the village from the monster, the lone girl who is almost trampled by the giant monster and only just saved by her scientist girlfriend . . . even the trip to the village of people who worship a monster God. These similarities are made even more evident by sections Ifukube's score for KING KONG VERSUS GODZILLA that were clearly built upon pieces from VARAN.
The film starts when an unusual butterfly is discovered. Researchers head to the"Japanese Tibet" and are killed in a mysterious accident - - - could it be a landslide or is it something else?
A second group, this time a lady reporter and a photographer (characters soon to become a central item of many Toho monster films) join the scientists. When a child breaks the village taboo . . . er, don't go near the lake . . . to find his dog, the villagers and priest-headman give him up for dead. But the visitors break the taboo and save the little boy.
Well, Varan emerges . . . a prehistoric survival of the Varanopod family . . . and wrecks the village. The military is sent in and basically succeed in making Varan angry and sending him on a second rampage. Towards the end of the first battle (and if you've only ever seen the Myron Healy version, this will be new to you), Varan spreads his arms to reveal membranous wings. Stretched between his upper arms and legs, this led some reviewers to consider him a mutated flying squirrel, but he is clearly supposed to be a dinosaur.
After flying away, Varan participates in a number of battles at sea, which climax when he comes ashore at Haneda airport. Most of the footage is original - but there are some out-takes of military hardware, and even one shot of a tail smashing a building, which are from GODZILLA. These, plus the score by Akria Ifukube which features both old themes and music that would come to be associated with the Godzilla series, give one a pleasant sense of deja vu.
The original North American VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE, edits in Myron Healy as a U.S. Navy Commander on Kunish Hiroshima island doing anti-saline experiments in a salt-water lake. This version is one of the poorest "reedits" of all time. Probably the ONLY reason to watch it, is to prove to yourself that - comparatively - the Raymond Burr re-cut of GODZILLA is a fine work of art . . . sustaining dramatic tension, keeping the integrity of the characters, and delivering most of the message of the film. In comparison, Myron Healy and friends act superior to the Japanese, do nothing suspenseful, and occasionally gaze in the direction of stock footage.
The new DVD of Varan on Media Blasters Tokyo Shock label, does not include the Myron Healy curiosity, but features a pristine print of this widescreen black and white feature from 1958, and extras that include a (very) cut-down version that was originally made to air on television, a commentary by creature-suit maker Keizo Murase, and also a terrific show on molding and casting in which Mr. Murase shows Godzilla suit-maker (and Varan fan) Fuyuki Shinada how Varan's skin texture was made.
I'm in the part of the audience that would gladly pay the price of the disc just to watch this special.
Varan is, after all, a GREAT monster. Very convincing walking on all fours or standing upright, Varan is just a monster with a lot of personality.
However, as Toho monster films go, Varan is very much a lesser effort and seems strangely - well - American. Apparently the idea was that the finished film was going to be sold to an American television network, but the network pulled out so that the film could be made as a theatrical release.
Oddly, that makes VARAN historically interesting. Since the film was made for the American market it follows a very set pattern. People disappear, a monster is blamed, more people search, the monster appears, monster fights Army, scientist thinks of solution, monster is killed. It's the story featured in THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS and crystallized in any number of later 50's SF films.
And it's this pattern, without the subtext and poetry of most Japanese monster films, that makes VARAN an oddball Toho film.
If there is any subtext in the film, it's that all of this mess was created by the scientists who ignored the traditional village priest in the first place. Varan had apparently lived in his lake for hundreds of years before the scientists decided to break the village taboos. Let one kid and a dog sneak past a fence and . . . before you know it . . . you're bringing in tanks, battle cruisers, and death from above.
However, this really doesn't seem to be the overt message of the film, as our villagers are pretty much forgotten once VARAN heads south to the big city.
Some of the script elements here would be reused to better effect in KING KONG VERSUS GODZILLA . . . the little kid who has to be rescued by the village from the monster, the lone girl who is almost trampled by the giant monster and only just saved by her scientist girlfriend . . . even the trip to the village of people who worship a monster God. These similarities are made even more evident by sections Ifukube's score for KING KONG VERSUS GODZILLA that were clearly built upon pieces from VARAN.