Customer Reviews

Reptilicus

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Imagine what an Ed Wood movie would be like if he had a large budget and government support, including shutting down a major city and the used of the Armed Forces. Yes - THIS is what you'd get!

Sid Pink got his ticket punched when he made "Angry Red Planet", which single-handedly saved AIP's bacon. Sid travelled to Europe looking for distributors for "Angry Red Planet", and met Danish film wheeler-dealer Henrik Sandberg, who invited him to Copenhagen, and the rest is history. His AIP bosses gave him the go-ahead for a monster pic that would feature the "beauties of the Danish countryside". Pink also had permission to block off Copengahen's main square whenever he wanted, plus all the unpaid extras he could use. (In one scene, a local bicyle club rides their cycles off of a raising drawbridge for no other reason that it would look neat!) Even the Danish Army and Navy were at Pink's disposal: tanks, cannons, and a cutter throwing live depth charges.

Just to keep interest up, a Danish-language version was filmed at the same time as the English. Ann Smyner, a Danish actress, got top billing but SHE looks ridiculous in a jaw-dropping array of "country girl"-style dresses that make Mary Ann look like Ginger. Mimi Heinrich, another Danish ingenue, comes across MUCH better. Carl Ottosen, a Dane whose English was about as good as my Uzbek, plays the American general who takes over the Danish military (obviously HE got dubbed in). The entire cast seems to have learned their lines phonetically, giving them the aspect of having been recently thwacked in their collective heads by a two-by-four. But all this pales when the marionette "Reptilicus" comes into it's own. Only "The Giant Claw" can boast of a sillier-looking monster - this thing is downright pit-i-ful.

And yet - how can anyone resist this glorious mess? An entire scene devoted to a local singer belting out "Tivoli Nights" as the monster approaches the city, not as filler, but because Pink was so much in love with Copenhagen! A dirt-dumb janitor who decides to stick his arm in an aquarium just to see if that eel really *is* electric (and yup, it is....).

You can catch scenes of this astonishing movie in old episodes of "Beverly Hillbillies" and "The Monkees", among others. In it's way, it came to symbolize the entire zeitgeist of 60s drive-in/cheapo monster movies, but I assure you, it wasn't for lack of money or logistical support. This one must stand as perhaps the purest example of NO TALENT.

Riff away!

I didn't even know that Denmark had a film industry! If you like cheesy sci-fi films (and I do, especially when I am on summer vacation), this will be right up your alley. The fact that almost everyone in it looks Nordic and speaks with a heavy Danish accent and that you get a mini-travelogue of Copenhagen in the middle of the movie, only adds to its uniqueness. The Danish janitor does a scandinavian equivalent of stepin fetchit, complete with bug eyes. There are actually a few impressive scenes, such as thousands of Danes running throught the streets from the monster. As movies go, it stinks. As bad movies go, it is fun. Check it out.

Well, why not? In 1951, Manhattan and Coney Island in NYC met "THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS", Tokyo met "GODZILLA" in 1955, "THE GIANT BEHEMOTH" and "GORGO" visited London in 1959 and 1961, so why can't Copenhagen and "REPTILICUS" celebrate Tivoli Nights in 1962?

ANSWER: They can and did, but no one seems to want this pairing on their dance card.

Sidney Pink, direct from his astronomical epic adventure hits of the previous 5 years ("The Angry Red Planet" and "The Seventh Planet"), was poised for a meteoric launch into movie-making and the right atmosphere was provided by Denmark, particularly within the city of Copenhagen. It was even filmed in Pathe Color, following Pink's oddball effect of having everything in red for the Martian scenes of "The Angry Red Planet", but something was a bit off.

OK, everything was a bit off. The American General running the show was Danish actor Carl Ottosen who for some reason angrily barked every line he had without any apparent reason. The whole production looked dubbed-in -- because it was. Reptilicus was found in an arctic mountain copper prospecting rig in the lapland, yet the lush vegetation and the prospectors' lack of the usual arctic attire said otherwise.

There was too much of such unbelievable stuff and mindless dialogue, including distracting, over-the-top physical comedy by a maintenance man [Peterson]. Peterson [film name & real name] was in the film while Reptilicus was in an "embryonic incubating state" for the purpose of warning the police when Reptilicus made his inevitable dramatic escape. This midnight escape occurs during a thunderstorm which, according to the scientists, may have "electrically charged the air" leading to an acceleration from Reptilicus's "embryonic incubating state" into his Godzilla state. With all the commotion and build-up, what we finally saw was a Reptilicus that looked like a child's rubber bathtub toy --not a rubber ducky, but a rubber Reptilicus with funny little water wings. It was kind of cute, actually. Until this point, however, we the viewers could forgive the weak plot, dubbed-in actors, and renditions of Tivoli Nights which played like a rejected "I LOVE COPENHAGEN" commercial. But a dinosaur monster movie needs a believable dinosaur to help the viewer suspend his/her disbelief. When I saw the "Rubber Water-Winged Reptilicus", I knew that was not to be.

What followed was actually what one would expect. They chased the dinosaur around until American General Grayson [Carl Ottosen] scared Reptilicus back into the sea by donning a hand- held flamethrower after artillery and tanks had failed. Then we waited while they went to Tivoli for some very boring entertainment and renditions of "Tivoli Nights".

Again, this Godzilla wanna-be did have some new and improved dino-monster tricks. He regenerated himself after he was hurt so you could not just whistle up a squadron of R.A.F. bombers and turn him into a Tivoli Fish-Fry because you would have lots of Giant Rubber Water-Winged Reptilicuses in just two weeks. Also, he had an "acid-slime" which he vomited at people who were shooting at him. Then they were simply covered with animated slime and run out of the picture.

It was after his second return and regeneration that I noticed our "Rubber Reptilicus" had yet to be in a frame with any people. The animation and puppet-scale monster really made this effect quite difficult and certainly would have looked ridiculous. Still, it really hurts the movie when the monster and the people are not in the same shots.

Once again, they have some useful ideas like destroying the monster by first putting him to sleep and then worrying about destroying him in one piece later. Ottosen again helped out, this time toting a bazooka with the sleepy-time stuff inside the warhead. We even watched the General make it himself! A shot in the mouth is what this overtired lizard needed, for apparently that is the only place the bazooka would penetrate Reptilicus. I guess they saw "THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS" but it was a wound in the neck made by a Bazooka in that monster flick that did the trick, paving the way for a rifle grenade loaded with radium. Probably if the Danes had the neat subtitle- or language-option feature that their DVD now has they might have gotten that one right.

Anyway, you'll have to see this epic to see how it all ends and whether there are ever any scenes where Reptilicus and people are in the same shot.

ABOUT THE DVD: The cover is pinkish so that you won't lose it and you won't forget Sid Pink who directed, produced and wrote the story and screenplay. The transfer is actually excellent and they give you the usual "Scene Selector" feature and a decent "Reptilicus" Trailer. The disk plays in English or French and you can add French or Spanish subtitles. This is a Region 1 DVD [made for U.S. machines] with a Dual Layer transfer and it does look and sound very sharp.

I have watched this movie since it came out in 1962 probably fifty times, although I can't recall having seen it in the theatre. It is for me, a die-hard monster movie fan, a must-have rather than a must-see. The other dino-monster movies I mentioned earlier are all much better than this one in almost every way, but if you have not seen this one it won't hurt and it will only take 82 minutes. There is no profanity or gore. Simply put, if you like the old creature features, then this is a great DVD transfer of a sub-average film of this rather petite genre.

REPTILICUS is a classic of '50s horror schlock, being Denmark's unfortunately memorable contribution to the "Radiation is Coming to Get Us" giant monster movie genre. Lest we forget.

Produced in 1962 (as with 1961's GORGO, the fad for rubber man-eating reptiles crossed the Pond a bit late), REPTILICUS represents the literal and figurative tail end of this category of movie.

In terms of storyline, script, casting, acting, special effects, and production values, REPTILICUS is an embarrassment primarily because it's so obviously supposed to be a serious entry into the monster movie canon. The Danes no doubt wanted to make their own version of THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS. Sadly, what they got was REPTILICUS, courtesy of American International Pictures.

There's nothing worse than an unintentionally campy movie. To be honest there are few movies worse than REPTILICUS. Still, I recommend it if you just love this sort of thing. REPTILICUS has always been a "C" movie cult favorite, and was the usual television fare at the Clampetts' and the Monkees'.

REPTILICUS suffers right from the outset from its improbable premise. Copenhagen, after all, doesn't strike anybody as the type of place a monster would want to attack. Maybe if this movie had been set on the south side of Chicago it would have had a fighting chance.

A group of prospecting Danish oilmen recover the frozen tail of a mysterious creature from beneath the ice. Taken back to Copenhagen (nobody is sure why) the tail is allowed to defrost and begins regenerating into the monster. Reptilicus manages to escape, and goes on a happy rampage through Denmark's quaint capital city.

The gravest danger to Copenhagen is that the Danes may all laugh themselves to death at the sight of this silly-looking creature, a swaying rubber snake's head with little angel wings on a broomstick, usually seen in the distance. (Reptilicus' grandson appeared in Andy Sidaris' HARD TICKET TO HAWAII without the wings.) Unforgivably poor animation of the beast spitting green acidic slime is mated with atrocious sound quality and none-too special effects. The monster's roar is reminiscent of banging tin cans. Reptilicus proves he's one bad dude by eating a farmer, or at least a badly-drawn transparent cartoon of a farmer, somewhere along the way. Reptilicus' mouth never moves during the process.

Copenhagen's population is comprised of a horde of blonde girls just waiting for macho American men to rescue them from the monster and the local males who are all, well...so, so blond in this movie.

The casting is the high point of REPTILICUS. Nobody anybody knows is in this movie. Let us give thanks it stayed that way. Voluptuous Danish actresses make this film well worth watching if your taste runs to the Nordic. Thank heaven for their nifty accents and bustlines.

Thank heaven as well for the corny, mostly dubbed, thickly accented dialogue that is just so much fun to pick apart. None of the all-Danish cast could speak English. Since REPTILICUS was slated for an American audience, the actors learned their lines phonetically. As a result, the cadence, pronounciation, and emphasis of the dialogue was utterly incomprehensible. AIP, belatedly realizing they'd made a mistake, hired English speakers to voice-over the cast. The result is the worst dubbing in film history, hands down. The dubbed voices just could not be synchronized with the overwrought facial contortions of people trying to speak unnaturally, and so the cast looks as if they all suffer from uncontrollable tics. (The Director sued AIP for this, claiming they'd ruined his movie.)

The acting is downright terrible. I haven't seen so many stiffs outside of a morgue. The American general (played by a dubbed Dane) suffers from a behavioral impulse disorder and is manic depressive. He practically strangles a Danish scientist who disagrees with his "Blow It To Hell" strategy for dealing with Reptilicus. None of the men on camera seem to be able to figure out what to do, either with Reptilicus or with the script.

Director Sid Pink interrupts the action at this point to edit a full-length official government "Come To Denmark" travelogue filmstrip into the picture, just in case you've suddenly decided that you can't wait to visit the Tivoli Gardens, big-breasted blondes, or Reptilicus' house after seeing this movie.

Suffering cramps from too much belly laughter the Danes decide they can't cope with this unnatural disaster (the monster, not the picture...well, yeah...) on their own and call in the UN for military backup. We are then treated to a few minutes of stock footage of a tank battle.

The military does get the drop on Reptilicus eventually. Shortly after blowing off one of Reptilicus' stumpy little arms, the still-unstrangled Danish scientist realizes that any Reptilicus fragments will regenerate into other Reptilicuses (or is it Reptilici?).

So the order is passed: No More Shooting At Reptilicus, Boys. Of course, blond moment, nobody bothers to go searching for the missing limb, which starts to regenerate into Reptilicus II.

Eventually, Reptilicus commits suicide after attending the premiere of this film. The stump of Reptilicus II joins a cult, turns his back on the Hollywood life, and eventually reemerges to publish a healthy lifestyles book, THE HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN DIET (not available anywhere; unfortunately, the same can't be said for this ridiculous flick).

THE LITTLE MERMAID it ain't!

Oh well.

Living in the ruins of once was a frosty, nordic version of Plesentwille, I may be quite inhabil to give a truthfully review about the dokosoap of CPHdestruktion.

The sad facts is, this film is the very reason why danish films forever after is doomed to dwell among the chruel shaddows of realism!

Cant understand why Reptillicus failed to hit blockbusterlevel: Exellent acting ( If you could understand the exact dialog and level of voices your feet would crumble), super special effects ( if you blink very fast you almost can't see that the monster is manuvered around the streets on top of a constructionvagon!) and even SINGALONG-SONGS!!! Whoa! This was a strict demand from Scala studio ( a former major danish moviestudio who amazeing enough produced the movie ) cause in 1940-70 there had to be songs in EVERY danish film.
The "funny-carakter" in the movie is, belive it or not, the most fameos danish comedian at that time, and they had to put him in the movie, horrorfilm og not!
The film flopped totally, and at Scalastudio you litterelly speaking got fired to mention this film! True!

But anyway, patriot or not, I love this silly film. Just the scene from "Langebro" ( name of the bridge that goes up ) is a masterpice. Lots of totally unpripered ekstras ( not stuntmen, mind you!) is going faceforward down the icy wather, no safty just do it. Yep, welcome to the nonexisting stuntschool of Denmark!

So dont mind my lousy spelling, just run to get it, your view of monsterfilms will never be the same again!
Patrick Leis

The 3 stars is for sentimental reasons. It scared the daylights out of me when I was a kid. Yes, it was in the day when you could ride your bicycle on a 10 mile ride as a 10 year old with your mother not knowing about it, end up at the State theater in the middle of the city and see a matinee for four bits. When done with the 10 cent Dots, 25 cent soda and popcorn, you and your buds could speculate about the mysterious and terifying ending for hours on end. Even though it is a horrible movie by today's standards, it was on the big screen and as I recall the theater was full. It was a great way to spend a summer afternoon in air conditioned splender. Sure this would be a good candidate for Mystery Science Theater 3000, but it still is one of those Movies that reminds one about a purer and simpler time and famous freinds no longer seen. "EEEEH! REPTILICUS!"

Great old fashioned creature feature about a monster that grows from a fossil and wrecks havoc in Copenhagen Denmark. Sure the effects are not very good, but this film has a special place in my heart as I saw it as a child and loved it. That magic hasn't gone away. Print quality is very good, and this DVD brings back the memories.

This ludicrous movie features Danish beachgoers, a Tivoli caberet act, and a monster which is either marionette or puppet. It looks like a dragon (and I saw no evidence of it being a link between reptile and mammal). I laughed quite often during this flick. Especially enjoyable scenes include a traditionally dressed Danish family being attacked in their cottage, Peterson reacting to the dragon escaping, and the Pythonesque end credits. Watch out for Peterson operating the drawbridge. Big monster fans, this one is not to be missed.

Reptilicus is so bad that it is great! A film this inept should please any lover of bad movies! I group of men are prospecting for copper when they unknowingly unearth a piece of the long dormant reptile's tail. Once it is safely tucked away in a freezer at an aquarium, one of the scientists (Dr. Dalby) unknowingly allows the tail to thaw out when he falls asleep at his desk. Somehow, the door to the freezer pops open but it is never explained how this happened. I guess the good doctor didn't close the door properly after snipping off a piece of the tail for further study. Anyhow, the tail thaws out and Reptilicus regenerates to terrorize all Denmark.
Brigadier General Mark Grayson leads the allied forces into battle against the huge beast and blow one of it's appendages clean off where it sinks to the sea bottom and starts to regenerate. This makes it possible to consider a sequel, but sadly, a second helping of this muck was never made.
Eventually, General Grayson and his trusty bazooka manage to shoot a tranquilizer into the monster's mouth that knocks it completly out. This will allow the monster to be killed. As the film ends you can see the missing appendage throbbing on the sea floor, threatening to regenerate and wreak havoc all over again.
As I said earlier, this is a terrible film but it is so bad that it is wonderful. It ranks as one of the absolute worst giant monster movies ever made. Thank you, Sidney Pink!

If you are looking for a high-budget (for the time) Danish monster flick, this one is well worth the rental fee, if not buying (PRICE). The stilted English of General Grayson alone is good for a laugh or two, not to mention the deadly monster vomit that always appears to hit the camera. The picture quality of the DVD is suprisingly good for a 40 year old film (unfortunately no widescreen), though the scenes of Reptilicus himself look like they were filmed with a camcorder at the drive-in. You're already wasting time searching for B-movies on the Internet, why not do something useful and spare 80 minutes to watch this frightening chronicle of the fall of Copenhagen.