Latitude Zero
[ 1969 – Ishirō Honda – 89 min ] In following Tears_in_Rain’s excellent Godzilla & Friends Marathon list (boxd.it/2GRQW) I’ve really taken an appreciation in the (somewhat) non-monster films, and the world of super powerful submarines. Latitude Zero unexpectedly delivers me another great sub, but also a very Wakanda-ish civilization hiding at the bottom of the ocean living their best lives – and they are very long lives. Every Thursday night I put on one of these films, and I must say I was taken aback at first that the film was entirely in English, but glad to see that there wasn’t any egregious dubbing, in fact quite the opposite: the Japanese actors were speaking English throughout, and the usual tomfoolery and outlandish plots and characters were still fully intact to fit alongside the other sci-fi entries of this era. Dr. Malic is delightfully evil, bringing along some wonderfully deranged monsters (mostly all regular size, I should note) and his own advanced submarine that just can’t quite compete with the good guys, but his diabolical plans and go-to attitude doesn’t let…
