Just Had Some Kind of Mushroom
In this article we’re going to discover why “The Brady Bunch” owes so much to Godzilla.
I had the pleasure of watching a Netflix DVD loaned to me by Chris, my business partner: Matango (1963). It was known in the US as “Attack of the Mushroom People.” It scared the living crap out me when I was a wee lad watching “Chiller Diller Matinee” on Channel 44. Remarkable to see this film fresh and uncut, in 2.35:1 TohoScope, bright Fujicolor and subtitled Japanese. The Channel 44 version was the one we ALL saw as kids: A heavily edited, clumsily dubbed, 16mm pan-and-scan film-chain so washed out my recollections are in black and white.
This film was directed by Ishiro Honda, The Kaiji Eiga (Giant Monster Movie) master who directed Godzilla, Rodan and countless others. Matango is an unusual Honda film, an atmospheric horror movie with people-sized monsters.
The things that scared the piss out of me as a kid are still there: the ghastly, faceless mushroom people, the distorted laughter on the soundtrack, the air of gloom and slow death. Justifiably a cult classic.
I have heard all effective horror films play on primal phobias: violence, heights, enclosed spaces. (Daniel’s brother Ed once surmised that someone could realize a fortune if they could make a horror film exploiting the number one fear in America: Public Speaking.) Matango works as a horror flick on several levels:
- The lumbering mushroom folk, they’re pretty scary in a monster-movie sort of way.
- The fact these fungal folks were once people and the characters are going to turn into them unless they can escape plays into primal fears of loss of humanity and self.
- Finally, it captalizes on fears of germs and filth and disease. The island the principals are marooned on is lush and tropical: the abandoned ship they take up residence in is covered with mold, dry rot and fungus. They manage to clean it, but the mold soon returns. For the fastidiously clean Japanese audience the film was designed for, the creeping corruption and rot must have been harder to take then the prospect of turning into a ambulatory chantrelle.
This film was based on “The Voice in the Night,” a short story published in 1907 by William Hope Hodgson. Conversely, it has long been rumored that the rough premise of Matango was swiped for “Gilligan’s Island,” that iconic, unlikely comedy series that premiered the year after, in 1964.
Just to lay such rumors to rest: It was. “Gilligan’s Island” creator Sherwood Schwartz had a motive, opportunity and even tacit permission to do so.
The basic story common to both movie and TV show involves seven people from various walks of life on pleasure cruise, which gets caught in a storm, marooning them on a deserted tropical island (See exhibit A). Schwartz basically took the first half-hour of Matango and pitched it, adding “and then hilarity ensues!” He left off the violence, greed, lust, starvation, and death, replacing these with coconut shortwave radios and funny guest stars.
But the cast is all there: Skipper, First Mate, Professor, Chaste Young Girl, Glamorous Bombshell, Rich Guy. He made one cast change, and this is a very telling one: Instead of Mrs. Rich Guy (”Lovey” Howell), the seventh castaway in Matango is a writer. He’s the first character to steal food from the others, and the first to eat the fateful mushrooms. He’s a morally weak character who, in a flashback scene, plainly admits to plagiarism (See exhibit B: Actual subtitles from the DVD).
Puzzling evidence.
–Skot C.
P.S. What, no “Gilligan’s Island” movie? My friend Scott said it best: “Gilligan’s Island, the Movie will happen sooner or later. In the meantime, we’ll have to settle for ‘Lost,’ which has unintentionally descended into Gilligan’s Island-like silliness.”