THE SECRET OF THE TELEGIAN (1960)
(a.k.a. DENSO NINGEN)
Article #1344 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-18-2004
Posting Date: 4-17-2005
Directed by Jun Fukuda
Featuring Koji Tsuruta, Akihiko Hirata, Yoshio Tsuchiya

A mysterious murder with a bayonet takes place inside a cave of horrors. Policemen come to believe that the perpetrator is a man believed dead for fourteen years with access to a teleportation machine.

I tend to group this movie along with THE H-MAN and THE HUMAN VAPOR; all three came from Toho, they all were made within a couple of years from each other, and all couch their science fiction men-with-special-powers themes into a crime story plotline. Also, all three of these movies had remained unviewed by me until I began this series, and it’s nice to finally get around to seeing them.

This one is quite good, though the dubbed dialogue is quite awful at times. The premise itself isn’t particularly fascinating, but I like certain touches; my favorite is the fact the overheating vacuum tubes cause the teleported man to occasionally flicker with static. All in all, I prefer THE H-MAN, which I thought was much scarier, but this one has a great ending, and some very strange moments throughout. This was Jun Fukuda’s second directorial effort; he would go on to direct several of the Godzilla movies.