Before Frankenstein Conquers the World, there had been no official collaboration between America’s Hollywood and Japan’s Toho studios, which had each been churning out their own giant-radiation-induced-monster films. Often, Japanese films were bought ready-made by the American film industry, and modified with new scenes filmed in Hollywood, drastically re-edited to shorten them, and dubbed in English. In 1965, Henry G. Saperstein, creator of United Productions of America, travelled to Japan to set up a co-production with Toho, proposing to put up half the production cost, provide a recognizable American actor, and distribute the films in the United States. The result was several films Saperstein would produce in Japan, the first of which was Frankenstein Conquers the World, starring Academy Award-nominated actor Nick Adams.
The story begins at the closing of World War II, when the still-beating heart of Frankenstein is being shipped to Hiroshima via submarine. Once at the clinic, the army scientist (Takashi Shimura) explains his theory that Dr. Frankenstein’s experiments in cell regeneration could be used to replace damaged cells or even restore limbs in the human body. The elderly scientist does not have time to put that theory to the test as the Enola Gay passes over Hiroshima on the morning of August 6, 1945. After the blinding flash of light and flame engulfs the city and ends World War II, it is assumed the heart of Frankenstein is finally destroyed.
Alas, it is not so simple. Fifteen years later, in a rebuilt Hiroshima, American scientist Dr. James Bowen (Nick Adams) has dedicated his life to help those suffering from the lingering effects of radiation. Assisting him are Dr. Seuko Togami (Kumi Mizuno, who we also encountered in Matango) and Dr. Kenichiro Kawaji (Tadeo Takashima). As time passes, there are reports about a strange looking child who has allegedly been killing animals and eating them. Eventually, Dr. Bowen and Dr. Togami persuade the wild boy to come with them to their hospital where he proceeds to grow at an alarming rate, leading them to put him in a large cage. In addition to his growth rate, his facial features begin to resemble Frankenstein’s monster. It is unclear whether the heart has formed into this strange being as a result of nuclear radiation or if the boy, orphaned by the nuclear blast, has eaten the heart of Frankenstein. Eventually, Frankenstein (now the height of an apartment building) escapes from the lab and lives off the land in the Japanese mountains. Mysterious earthquakes near an oil drill eventually release a huge lizard, Baragon, who proceeds to go on its own rampage for which Frankenstein takes the blame. Before long, the two meet and with a spectacular Eiji Tsuburaya-directed special effects display, battle. After defeating the lizard, Frankenstein, in some versions of the film, battles a giant octopus. This requires some explanation.
The story behind the making of this film is almost more strange than the film itself. Initially, Willis O’Brien, special effects man responsible for King Kong, decided that the ape had been ill-served by the shoddy sequel, and started having ideas for a third Kong film. The idea O’Brien came up with involved a Frankenstein-type monster that was to have been made from mixed-and-matched animal parts, which would (of course) fight Kong. Sadly, he was unable to get financial backing for the film and sold the idea to John Beck, a freelance producer who at some point worked for Universal, who then sold it to Toho, in whose hands the project mutated into King Kong vs. Godzilla. O’Brien’s original screen treatment had somehow made the rounds at the Japanese studio, and its giant patchwork monster inspired Toho producer Tomoyuki Tanaka and screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa to try their hands at a Frankenstein movie. Initially, Sekizawa attempted to work the monster into a sequel to The Human Vapor, but nothing came of the plan. Nothing came either of ideas to pit Frankenstein against Mothra or even Godzilla. In 1965, finally, three writers cracked the code and managed to ‘patch together’ a Frankenstein script that satisfied the Toho executives. Work began quickly, with the assistance of Saperstein, on Frankenstein vs. the Giant Devilfish. This is where the giant octopus comes in. A “Giant Devilfish” and “The Subterranean Monster Baragon” are decidedly dissimilar. Baragon seems to always have been in the movie, but originally, the final battle was to have been against a giant octopus. Other stories claim that Saperstein had requested that an additional monster be added to fight Frankenstein after the battle with Baragon, specifically for the American version of the film. So a new ending was shot in which Frankenstein battles a giant octopus. However, after viewing the footage, he decided that the octopus prop didn’t stand up to the scene in King Kong vs. Godzilla (in which a live octopus was used) and the scene was dropped. Yet, we somehow watched Frankenstein battle a giant octopus. This can be attributed to the fact that, according to Honda, “an alternative print with that ending was accidentally aired on television surprising many Japanese fans.” The ending with the octopus doesn’t show up in any official print of the film, including the original Japanese version. And neither does anything which could remotely be construed as Frankenstein conquering the world.
Toho’s team really gave Frankenstein the full kaiju treatment: an atomic origin story, gigantic size, a city-wide rampage, and an epic battle with a man-eating lizard/dinosaur at the end. Frankenstein Conquers the World remains one of the most demented kaiju movies ever made. Even with an American producer looking over their shoulders (who must have had some idea about what exactly a Frankenstein movie is meant to be), the Japanese creative team somehow managed to infuse this film with the impossibility and nonsensical “charm” typical of a kaiju film.