Ready to take on Ebirah, eh?
Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966)? What can it be? Why don’t we get to see Ebirah in the deep, but only at the surface? Does it keep a messy domicile? Are there human bones – shish kebabbed, to judge from Ebirah’s habits on the surface – scattered about?
And who are these classic Japanese villains running around on the island? They’ve kidnapped an indigenous tribe from another island, or at least some of them, and conveyed them to their island to make … Ebirah-repellent?
Maybe go to a different island, instead, and live in peace there? Or does Ebirah have a grudge against the bad guys?
And then there’s this pack of rescuers – not of the tribe, mind you, but from modern-day Japan, looking for the brother of one of them. Another is a lock breaker and the original thief of the boat, from whom the others thieved the boat. Our morals need a boost.
And then there’s guest star Godzilla, clomping his/her/its way through the landscape, aping for the camera, as it were. OK, it was supposed to be King Kong, but Godzilla had to step in at the last moment while King Kong attended to his mistress. Or financial matters. The record’s a bit cloudy on the matter.
And, just for fun, there’s yet another guest star. Ebirah’s outnumbered, but, see, it has this big ol’ claw. Yeah, the shish-kebab claw.
It’s all a mess, but it moves right along and almost makes a sort of sense. In a way, it’s another anti-nuclear story, but so subtle that it may not affect today’s audience, at this far remove from –
Oh, wait. Ukraine. Maybe it is relevant.
So it’s a bit of fun, a good pace on it, and a kaboom at the end is threatened. Maybe we care. Maybe we don’t. But, in today’s weather here in Minnesota, the thought of residing on a warm, South Pacific island is quite alluring.
Go for the island and the views!
And can you imagine the Disney ride? Wheeeeeeeeeee– gulp
