The Mysterians - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Mysterians or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Mysterians

[cameron]

There are in fact two versions of this film. The original dub was released by RKO/MGM in 1959, and corresponded to the three minutes of edits in the American cut. This dub was released on VHS a few times, panned and scanned with warbly sound. For the DVD release, Media Blasters created a new dub which corresponds to the Japanese cut. This dub is generally regarded by the fandom as poorer, and is responsible for the goof mentioned in the Goof section, wherein it's mentioned that one of the firefighters has a Southern accent. This is an error only present in the DVD dub.

[ivan]

Byron Morrow's first film voice over.

[willard]

In several scenes, Harold Conway, an American tax accountant working in Japan who was often recruited to play official-looking westerners in Japanese films, is recorded sync-sound (live audio as they're shooting) and speaks both English and Japanese on camera on the film's Japanese soundtrack--a rare opportunity to hear his real voice in both languages. He is introduced in his first scene as Dr. Immerman, which is also the name of the character he plays in Battle in Outer Space (1959). He has a larger-than-usual part in this film.

[russell]

When MGM took over the first-run distribution from RKO in the US, it packaged the film as a double feature with the bottom feature being the British-made negative pickup First Man Into Space (1959).

[duane]

The performance of Moguera was the responsibility of suit actors Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka. Since the Moguera suit was created from separate pieces, actors would only need to wear the lower half when filming destruction caused by the monster's legs,

[sandra]

After seeing the film, an American viewer reported the film to the FBI by sending a letter that claimed the film was communist propaganda. In the letter it was written that "My children and I saw 'The Mysterians'" and the person was "so deeply disturbed that I must give voice to my concern."

[nina]

Moguera's head was model by Teizo Toshimitsu while the body was handled by the Yagi brothers Kanju and Yasuei. The Moguera suit was made of separate pieces, head, upper/lower body, ect. All these had to be put on individually before shooting.

[leo]

Yoshio Tsuchiya was offered the lead role but turned it down, instead opting to play the Mysterian leader. Tsuchiya, known for his work in the films of Akira Kurosawa, enjoyed working on Toho's science fiction films. and preferred to play alien characters.

[lynn]

The US premiere was on 10/30/58 in downtown Inglewood, CA . A six-foot-tall cardboard standee poster of Mogera was placed outside of the theater, facing the street. The film was released by RKO and Warner Bros. for the premiere, then MGM re-released it again in May 1959. It is available on VHS and laserdisc from Tôhô, and on DVD from Tokyo Shock. The reissue DVD has a re-recorded English-language soundtrack with new voice actors and is not the original 1958 US release soundtrack that had Paul Frees as the voice of Takashi Shimura, who played veteran scientist Dr. Tanjiro Adachi, as he also did for this actor in voice-over work in Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956) and Mothra (1961).

[miriam]

Mogera, the giant robot that was added to the film, was created to be a Godzilla-like mechanical monster, including spines along the back and a large tail. In the final edit of the film, most of the selected shots hide the fact that the robot does have a tail.

[stephanie]

US press material issued at the time of original release incorrectly listed Masaru Satô (another highly regarded Japanese film composer), rather than Akira Ifukube, as the creator of the score.