The Secret of the Telegian
Director: Jun
Fukuda
Year: 1960
Rating: 6.0
Aka - Denso Ningen
Dubbed in English
When Toho wasn't making Kaiju films, they
were often producing sci-fi films. Over time these have never gained the
reputation or fandom of their Monster films but they are good fun. What they
had in common was Ishiro Honda in the director's chair and Eiji Tsuburaya
providing the special effects. The sci-fi films generally dealt with aliens
invading but this film was one of three in what are termed the Human Mutant
series; the other two being The Human Vapor and The H-Man. Honda was initially
to direct this but he was called off to direct another film. So they handed
it over to Jun Fukuda in only his second film. He went on to direct a number
of Kaiju films
This stars two of my favorite male actors
- Akihiko Hirata who appeared in many of the Kaiju films and Koji Tsuruta
who would go on to a great career in the samurai and yakuza Chivalry genre.
The film begins with a man entering a carnival Horror Tunnel and ends up
dead with a knife in his stomach. Detective Kobayashi (Hirata) and news reporter
Kirioka (Tsuruts) work together to investigate the murder. Fortunately for
the viewer, they stop off to snoop in a nightclub where a woman painted in
gold dances on the stage while male customers drink and frolic with pretty
girls in sailor outfits. I didn't want them to leave.
What a strange story it turns out to be.
A man (Tadao Nakamura) long thought dead is back to kill a foursome who thought
they had killed him 11 years previously. Shooting him multiple times and
dynamiting a cave to bury him will normally do that. But he has been biding
his time for revenge. Time to build a matter-transmitting machine that allows
him to go anywhere! With a blade and murderous intentions. He is mad certainly
but then who can blame him. It is really a suspense film with sci-fi aspects.
The only special effect is him fading away. The perfect murders as he was
miles away as an alibi. There has to be a woman in the film of course and
she is played by Yumi Shirakawa who had been in Rodan, The Mysterians and
The H-Man
