Reptilicus (1961)

 

Director: Poul Bang and Sidney W. Pink

Screenplay: Ib Melchior and Sidney W. Pink

Cast: Bent Mejding as Svend Viltorft; Asbjørn Andersen as Prof. Otto Martens (as Asbjorn Andersen); Povl Wøldike as Dr. Peter Dalby (as Poul Wildaker); Ann Smyrner as Lise Martens; Mimi Heinrich as Karen Martens; Dirch Passer as Petersen; Marlies Behrens as Connie Miller (American version); Carl Ottosen as Gen. Mark Grayson; Ole Wisborg as Capt. Einer Brandt

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #190

 

No, he has three eyes and a moustache.

It is an early warning sign when you find blood, meat and fossil stuck on your mining drill, thus beginning a film which is held as infamous. It is curious in context that, with Japan (especially Toho) developing a legacy of monster films from the fifties to this film's birth, and the United States with their own in the previous decade too, a Danish production attempted to join in.

It is a film whose production is fascinating. This was a Danish-American co-production to be precise, between American International Pictures and the Danish Saga Studio, with the added curiosity that they had the original Danish version, than remade this effectively for the English language market. To American International Pictures's credit, when it came to this, they did not hide the Danish origins, even getting the same actors if they could speak English to replay themselves. Certainly, this is a curiosity, as Denmark is the least expected place for a giant lizard attack to transpire within. That said, uncovering a frozen tail of an unknown giant species, no one expects Reptilicus, especially when even a defrosted tail can regenerate into a full sized version that runs amok.

How much do we actually know about Danish cinema anyway whilst on this subject? That came to mind in terms of horror, the only big examples commonly known being Haxan (1922), a film of Benjamin Christensen, and Lars von Trier's genre output, who is an outlier himself and between them. Even in terms of Danish cinema, which like many countries is not as known as much as it should, it is an irony that more people might have see what is perceived as a Danish Godzilla rip-off than anything else, which even has the creature spit green avid in comparison to Godzilla's radioactive breath, especially after it was included in Mystery Science Theatre 3000. That there are two versions, the English language version more likely to be available (and what I saw), this is even more peculiar as an irony.

Certainly Reptilicus the beast is quite a grotesque creation - a tail, when a scientist accidentally sleeps on the job and leaves it to thaw, begins to heal and became a giant reptile close to a bastardised version of a Chinese dragon, gangly and (made from whatever the production had for the puppet) failing around in spasms as a mad monstrosity and smashing model buildings. Truthfully, when you get to the finale, the final thirty or so minutes when the Danish scientists, and an American general who originally was invited there, have to stop the creature the film loses its momentum. Bizarrely, I was much more interested in this world's set-up than the monsters. The world populated by Peterson the goofy caretaker, who prats around by the electric eel tank, and warns you why never to put your own food under the microscope to scrutinise whilst eating it. A disgruntled American general who grows happier going around Copenhagen, only to become a trigger happy figure who the scientists have to convince to search for non-bomb related solutions to Reptilicus, or Sven the meek ladies' man, a miner who finds himself in the middle of the main scientist's two daughters whilst gaining angst because he helped this beast appear by finding its remains.

I also suspect Reptilicus was funded for the Copenhagen tourist board as, established to go relax after arriving in the country ratty and annoyed he is even there, the scenes of the US general lead to footage of all the sights of this Scandinavian country, from its tourist attractions to an early sixties music club, all quaint and a time capsule of the country just into this decade. All the more striking for a Reptilicus to spew green acid slime over, or to have a Danish beach, evoking beach films, being interrupted by navy ships dropping bombs into the sea; some horror tropes, no matter how cliché and gauche nowadays in the future, gain new light if you imagine them in the least expected of places, and a monster film in any Scandinavian country, let alone Denmark, would have been fascinating as here.

Again, when the film becomes pure action, soldiers trying to stop the beast, it does become generic, scenes that pass of fleeing crowds and useless gunfire from soldiers which blur together for me. Far more interesting are the early attacks, where there is still plot building, entirely because of its cheese, be it devoured cows or crude early green screen to show a patriarch of an idyllic Danish countryside rural home being attacked and shown swallowed by the monster puppet. That cheese has been used to brush irony onto Reptilicus, but it is charming because of this, a curiosity that plays like other monster films American International Pictures may have released. Not the best, and really not a film I can discern a greater richness with, but even its existence amuses me and has a fondness, definitely felt of its culture even if now there is the enticing thought of seeing the Danish language release.