Latitude Zero (film)

is a 1969 tokusatsu science fiction film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. An international co production of Japan and the United States, it stars Joseph Cotten, Cesar Romero, Akira Takarada, Masumi Okada, Richard Jaeckel, Patricia Medina, and Akihiko Hirata.

Three men Dr. Ken Tashiro, Dr. Jules Masson, and journalist Perry Lawton are trapped in a bathysphere due to seismic activity. They are rescued by the crew of the supersubmarine Alpha, captained by Craig McKenzie, who they learn is over 200 years old (and that the Alpha was launched in the early 19th century). McKenzie takes them to Latitude Zero to heal Dr. Masson's injuries. Along the way, they are attacked by a rival supersubmarine, the Black Shark, captained by Kuroi, who works for a rival of McKenzie's, Dr. Malic. Using super technology, McKenzie gives the Black Shark the slip. The crew of the Alpha soon return to Latitude Zero, a super advanced utopia hidden fifteen miles below sea level at the intersection of the Equator and the International Date Line, populated by people from all over the world reported missing in accidents at sea. It has existed since the 19th century, as none of its inhabitants age or die, and greed and political divisions plaguing the surface world are unknown here. It also surreptitiously assists mankind's technological and cultural advancement. Malic, however, wishes to destroy Latitude Zero using superweapons and artificially grafted monstrosities like giant rats and anthropomorphic bats. He kidnaps a Japanese physicist allied with McKenzie, Dr. Okada, and his daughter Tsuruko, and forces Okada to assist him in his schemes. Moreover, after a cruel experiment grafting the wings of a condor to a lion, he removes Kuroi's brain and places it in the creature as punishment for her failures. Upon receiving an emergency signal from Okada, McKenzie organizes a rescue expedition. Tashiro, Masson and Lawton, Latitude Zero physician Dr. Anne Barton, and Kōbo volunteer to help. Equipped with James Bond style devices and rendered resistant to physical harm by a special bath, they infiltrate Malic's island base, Blood Rock, fight their way to the enemy control center, and rescue the Okadas. As the team escapes, Malic enters the Black Shark and fires an onboard laser at them, but Kuroi turns against Malic and attacks the laser. The weapon collapses the island's cliffs onto the submarine, destroying it and killing everyone aboard. Of all the visitors to Latitude Zero, only Lawton wishes to return home. He is picked up by a US Navy vessel and discovers that all his knowledge of Latitude Zero's existence has disappeared. Just as he is about to resign himself to the idea that his adventure never occurred, the ship receives a message stating that a cache of diamonds has been deposited in his name in a safe deposit box in New York City, and the ship is ordered to change course to Latitude Zero.

In 1967, Toho was struggling to get two ambitious projects off the ground. One was an adaption of Sakyo Komatsu’s manga ESPY and the other was The Flying Battleship, a spiritual sequel to Atragon. That same year, Toho executive Masami Fujimoto went to America where he met with Don Sharpe, head of Ambassador Productions, about doing a series of co produced special effects films. One of Sharpe’s projects was a film adaption of Ted Sherdeman’s NBC radio serial Latitude Zero, which Sherdeman had been trying to get adapted into film for the past several years. Ted Sherdeman’s radio serial was broadcast in 1941 by NBC. The first episode of Latitude Zero concerned three crew members of the old vessel “Hope,” who discover a futuristic submarine after surviving a storm in the Bering Sea near the Arctic Circle. The submarine, called the Omega, was launched in 1805 and Captain Craig MacKenzie is incredibly old despite his appearance. His bodyguard, Simba, has incredible strength and cannot be harmed by bullets. Serialized stories relate to their adventure as they battle the enemies of the underwater world of Latitude Zero (in particular, the evil Lucretia). The plots of the other episodes (17 in total) have been lost to time though the first episode has been preserved somewhere. The Japanese version credits Shinichi Sekizawa as the screenplay adviser, a role described by Stuart Galbraith IV as writing the Japanese version.

Unlike other 1960's Toho productions starring American actors, Latitude Zero was filmed entirely in English. The Japanese actors, including Akira Takarada and Akihiko Hirata, deliver all of their lines in English. During the start of production, there were plans to film the movie in 70mm Panavision but the equipment wasn’t available to Toho, so the format was switched back to CinemaScope. In his autobiography Vanity Will Get You Somewhere, actor Joseph Cotten stated that the American producer Don Sharp sent the American cast to Japan just as his company was about to go bankrupt. Cotten noted that Toho picked up most, if not all the film's production budget. Dr. Okada was originality played the by Takamaru Sasaki (Throne of Blood (1957), The Sword of Doom (1966)) but the latter became ill and was replaced by Tetsu Nakamura, which implied for Honda reshooting all scenes involving the character. During shooting, there were two major points of consideration: the first involved the bath of immunity. At the time, the Motion Picture production code had just been lifted in America and Lewis wanted to take advantage by showing Lynda Haynes breasts as she entered the bath. Ishiro Honda refused to film such a shot and this included the idea of an alternate version just for her to appear naked, though she wasn’t really. Haynes remembered this topical matter like so: “They wanted me to be nude when getting out of the bath scene I was told. ‘Well, in Japan, that’s no big deal.’ But I refused to do that, and they even put some kind of skin colored foam rubber over by breasts to get me to do the scene must have been a long shot.”

The immense wall of smoke and flames which erupted from the explosion of the underwater volcano was created using a small water tank against which a camera was secured upside down beneath the water line. A sky backdrop was placed behind the water, and colored paints were poured into the water, creating billowing, smoke like clouds. This same method was also used in Atragon (1963) and Dogora, the Space Monster (1964).

Latitude Zero was released in Japan on July 29, 1969 with a print that was dubbed into Japanese. It received a release in the United States by National General Pictures. Akira Takarada and Akihiko Hirata speak English in the English language version and are not dubbed. The film received a test screening in Dallas in July 1969 and received a general theatrical release on December 1970. The film was re issued theatrically in Japan in 1974 on a double bill with Mothra.

In contemporary reviews, Variety reviewed the film at the Venice Film Festival's buyer's market, referring to it as a "campy fun helped by sober playing and some deft underwater work, gadgets and movement." The story, however, is the weakest element in Latitude Zero. Roger Greenspun (New York Times) found Latitude Zero'''s plot to be "the weakest element", while noting that "The real virtue of the film lies in its charming and careful models, its ingenious special effects, its fruity interior décor, its elaborate network of television screens" The Monthly Film Bulletin'' stated that "it is a sad fact that the special effects are notably variable, and the model work in particular looks extremely shoddy" and the review concluded that "Toho studios seem to have employed their specialized talents and resources to produce an outlandish and expensive leg pull."