Hello!

It’s awful but it needs to be seen to be believed. That notorious Star Wars Christmas Special has become something to avoid, but it was accompanied by many agonizing TV guest star arrangements involving personal appearances by robots and wookies. Michael McQuarrie found this 1970s example, a Donny and Marie variety special.

Only a part of the show is present. At about a minute-twenty in, they call out the night’s guest stars, all of whom are costumed for a galaxy far away:

“Tonight, our guests are Redd Fox (cloaked like Obi-Wan), Kris Kristofferson (no costume), Paul Lynde (in an imperial uniform), The Osmond Brothers (split screen), and from Star Wars, R2-D2, C-3PO, Chewbacca, Darth Vader — and our own Ice Angels! (cakewalk line)”.

The show has been trimmed down to favor the Star Wars skit, with Donny as Luke and Marie as Leia. A storm trooper chorus enters snapping their fingers. Why wasn’t this filmed in IMAX?

Advisor Gary Teetzel turns us toward something that might be fun, although it might help to be 14 years old again — a reboot of a classic Japanese fantasy from Toho, and from the effects people that made Godzilla Minus One.

Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya’s original The Human Vapor (Gas Ningen Daiichigo) from 1960 starred the great Yoshio Tsuchiya. It wasn’t released here until 1964, imported and dubbed by ‘Brenco Pictures Company’ to serve on a double bill with Toho’s  Gorath. Both pictures soon went to TV, and rights issues have so far held up a U.S. disc release of any kind. In the original, the Human Vapor commits his crimes ‘for the sake of his love, a beautiful dancer.’

Back around 1999, Gary Teetzel and I asked author Stuart Galbraith to loan us his Japanese laserdiscs of numerous Toho classics. They were letterboxed and sometimes in stereo sound, but none had English subtitles. So we picked our way through the fun visuals of  Atragon (why are there so many characters?) and  Furankenshutain Tai Barugon (what, it’s all different!) without really following the stories. The Human Vapor was no exception. I vaguely remember an ending set up as a double suicide situation — could that be correct?

This new streaming promo sees the new Human Vapor shaping up as an action spectacle. It’s a pretty classy teaser edit. The transformation visuals certainly harmonize with the original, and the rest looks reasonably stylish. It’s coming to Netflix early in July.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson