''Reptilicus'' is a 1961 Danish-American giant monster film about a prehistoric

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

. The film was produced by Cinemagic and

Saga Studio Saga Studio (or Saga Film A/S) was a film production company in Denmark founded by John Olsen. The company existed from 1942 to 1976. History Several years after Olsen co-founded ASA Film Studio with Lau Lauritzen Jr. and Henning Karmark, t ...

and separate versions were released in Denmark and in the United States, with

American International Pictures American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fi ...

handling distribution for the latter. REPTILICUS (3)

Filming took place in several locations in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

, including

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Sjælland Zealand ( da, Sjælland ) at 7,031 km2 is the largest and most populous island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 January 2020. It is the 1 ...

, and

Jylland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

. Several versions were filmed. The original was filmed using the native Danish language and the second was filmed using the English language. Each version of the film featured the same actors, with the exception of Bodil Miller, who was replaced by actress Marla Behrens since the Danish actress could not speak English. However, the English version of the film was heavily edited, including altering footage to show Reptilicus vomiting acid venom, and the actors' voices dubbed over by

for its release in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Plot

Danish

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...

Svend Viltorft digs up a section of a giant reptile's tail from the frozen grounds in Lapland, where he and other miners are drilling. The section is flown to the Denmark's Aquarium in

, where it is preserved in a cold room for scientific study. But due to careless mishandling, the room is left open and the section begins to thaw, only for scientists to find that it is starting to regenerate. Professor Otto Martens, who is in charge of the aquarium, dubs the reptilian species "Reptilicus" (upon a reporter's suggestion) and compares its

regeneration Regeneration may refer to: Science and technology * Regeneration (biology), the ability to recreate lost or damaged cells, tissues, organs and limbs * Regeneration (ecology), the ability of ecosystems to regenerate biomass, using photosynthesis ...

abilities to that of other animals like

starfish Starfish or sea stars are star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to as brittle stars or basket stars. Starfish ...

. Once fully regenerated from the tail section, Reptilicus goes on an unstoppable rampage from the Danish countryside to the panic-stricken streets of Copenhagen (including one of its famous landmarks,

Langebro Langebro (literally "Long Bridge") is a bascule bridge across the Inner Harbour of Copenhagen, Denmark, connecting Zealandside H. C. Andersens Boulevard to Amagerside Amager Boulevard. It is one of only two bridges to carry motor vehicles across t ...

Bridge). The monster is finally rendered unconscious by a sedative developed by ingenious scientists and shot into its mouth from a

bazooka Bazooka () is the common name for a Man-portable anti-tank systems, man-portable recoilless Anti-tank warfare, anti-tank rocket launcher weapon, widely deployed by the United States Army, especially during World War II. Also referred to as the ...

fired by Gen. Grayson. However, the film is left open-ended. A final shot shows one of Reptilicus' legs, which had been blown off earlier by the Danish Navy's depth charges, sitting on the sea floor, raising the possibility that it could regenerate into a new Reptilicus.

Cast

Carl Ottosen Carl Ottosen (18 July 1918 – 8 January 1972) was a Danish actor, screenwriter and film director. He appeared in 70 films between 1947 and 1972. Filmography *''De pokkers unger'' - 1947 *'' Bag de røde porte'' - 1951 *''Vejrhanen'' - 195 ...

as General Mark Grayson *

Ann Smyrner Ann Smyrner (3 November 1934 – 29 August 2016) was a Danish actress who was active in the 1960s in Italy, the United States, Austria and West Germany. She played in adventure, comedy, science fiction, crime, and horror movies, among which are ...

as Lise Martens *

Mimi Heinrich Mimi Heinrich (1 November 1936 – 31 May 2017) was a Danish actress and writer. Outside Denmark she was mostly known for her roles in the cult movies ''Reptilicus'' and ''Journey to the Seventh Planet''. She had her debut at the Det Ny Teater i ...

as Karen Martens *

Asbjørn Andersen Asbjørn Andersen (30 August 1903 – 12 December 1978) was a Danish film actor and director. He appeared in more than 90 films between 1930 and 1976. He also directed nine films between 1946 and 1952. He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark ...

as Professor Otto Martens * Bodil Miller as Connie Miller (Danish version) * Marla Behrens as Connie Miller (American version) *

Bent Mejding Bent Mejding (born 14 January 1937) is a Danish actor, stage director and theatre manager. He won a Danish Film Academy Award in 1985 and 2007. He is married to the actress Susse Wold. Career Mejding had his debut at Folketeatret in Copenhagen ...

as Svend Viltorft *

Povl Wøldike Povl Wøldike (13 August 1899 – 25 July 1975) was a Danish film actor. He appeared in 32 films between 1938 and 1970. He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and died in Denmark. Filmography * '' Og så er der bal bagefter'' (1970) * ''Hurra ...

as Dr. Peter Dalby *

Dirch Passer Dirch Hartvig Passer (18 May 1926 – 3 September 1980) was a celebrated Danish actor. He was greatly renowned for his improvisational skills and, with a filmography comprising 90 movies, one of Denmark's most prolific actors. His life is depic ...

as Peterson * Ole Wisborg as Captain Brandt *

Claus Toksvig Claus Bertel Toksvig (21 October 1929 – 5 November 1988) was a Danish journalist and broadcaster who, as the Danish Broadcasting Corporation's first permanent foreign correspondent, is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest figures in Dani ...

as himself

Production

The original Danish-language version was directed by Danish director

Poul Bang Poul Bang (17 February 1905 – 6 July 1967) was a Danish film producer and director. He produced 24 films between 1950 and 1967. He also directed 23 films between 1943 and 1963. Life He was the son of Camillo Cavour Bang (1861–1949) a ...

and released in Denmark on February 25, 1961. In July, 1960 the American version started production. This version was filmed in English with a nearly identical cast and was directed by the film's American producer-director

Sidney W. Pink Sidney W. Pink was an American film producer and occasional director. He has been called the father of feature-length 3-D movies. He is also noted for producing early Spaghetti Westerns and low-budget science-fiction films, and for his role in act ...

. Initially, this version was deemed virtually unreleasable by

and had to be extensively reworked by the film's Danish-American screenwriter,

Ib Melchior Ib Jørgen Melchior (September 17, 1917 – March 14, 2015) was a Danish-American novelist, short-story writer, film producer, film director, and screenwriter of low-budget American science fiction movies, most of them released by American Inter ...

, before being finally released in America in 1962. Pink was angry at the changes and wound up in a legal dispute with AIP. After Pink and others viewed the English-language version, however, the lawsuit was dropped.

Praised Danish animators

Pink returned to Hollywood praising Danish animation, saying "Danish miniature work has surpassed that of Japan, up to generally acknowledged to be the finest in the world. Facilities in Denmark, by Hollywood standards, are notably lacking; but fine craftsmen who put everything together by hand are not concerned with the time it takes, (and) are excellent." Pink also said "the Scandinavian countries have never truly been exploited by Hollywood filmmakers, so the settings have remained unusually fresh ground for motion pictures. ''Reptilicus'' at Saga Studios in Copenhagen made “at a cost of $380,000 (), about a third of what it probably would have cost if made in the U. S.".

Release

Theatrical release

As Denmark's only giant monster film, this film has a

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

in its home country. Sidney Pink attempted to produce a remake of the film in 2001, due to the box office success of ''

Godzilla is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film ''Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films produc ...

'' in 1998, before his death in 2002.

Home video

The American version of ''Reptilicus'' was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

on April 1, 2003, by

MGM Home Entertainment Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment LLC (d/b/a MGM Home Entertainment and formerly known as MGM Home Video, MGM/CBS Home Video and MGM/UA Home Video) is the home video division of the American media company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. History 1 ...

under the ''

Midnite Movies ''Midnite Movies'' is a line of B movies released first on VHS and later on DVD by MGM Home Entertainment. The line was begun by MGM in March 2001 following its acquisition of Orion Pictures, which bought out Filmways, the owner of American Int ...

'' banner. The Danish version was released on DVD from

Sandrew Metronome Sandrew Metronome is a Scandinavian film distribution company formed in the 1990s. It was one of the biggest distributor companies in the Nordic countries. Sandrew Metronome was established by the Swedish company Sandrews and the Danish Metronome. ...

in 2002. On June 16, 2015, the film was released in the

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

format by

Scream Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

as a

double feature The double feature is a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatres would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown. Opera use Opera ho ...

with the 1977 film ''

Tentacles In zoology, a tentacle is a flexible, mobile, and elongated organ present in some species of animals, most of them invertebrates. In animal anatomy, tentacles usually occur in one or more pairs. Anatomically, the tentacles of animals work main ...

''.

Reception

''Reptilicus'' received mostly negative reviews from American critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 25% based on , with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

rating of 3.9/10. Author and film critic

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...

awarded the film a BOMB, his lowest rating for a film. In his review on the film Maltin wrote that the film was "only good for laughs as hescript hits every conceivable monster-movie cliché, right to the final shot." ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

'' gave the film one out of a possible four stars, calling it "A fair-to-poor monster film". Matt Brunson from ''

Creative Loafing Creative Loafing is an Atlanta-based publisher of a monthly arts and culture newspaper/magazine. The company publishes a 60,000 circulation monthly publication which is distributed to in-town locations and neighborhoods on the first Thursday of ...

'' gave the film a negative review, writing "Awkward dubbing of foreign actors, special effects that look like they cost a buck fifty, laughably earnest dialogue, wince-inducing comic relief from a dim-witted character — if ever a movie was made that deserved to be showcased on the cult series ''

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...

'' it's this one."

Novel and comic book adaptations

novelization A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent of ...

of the film was released in paperback at the time of its original release (''Reptilicus'' by Dean Owen (real name:

Dudley Dean McGaughey Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

) (Monarch Books 1961)). In 1961,

Charlton Comics Charlton Comics was an American comic book publishing company that existed from 1945 to 1986, having begun under a different name: T.W.O. Charles Company, in 1940. It was based in Derby, Connecticut. The comic-book line was a division of Charlton ...

produced a comic book based on the film. ''Reptilicus'' lasted two issues. After the copyright had lapsed, Charlton modified the creature's look and renamed it Reptisaurus. The series was renamed ''Reptisaurus the Terrible'' and would continue from issue #3 onward before being cancelled with issue #8 in 1962. This was followed by a one-shot called ''Reptisaurus Special Edition'' in 1963. Reptisaurus also made a cameo in the 12th issue of another Charlton giant monster comic, '' Gorgo''. In 2012, ''Scary Monsters Magazine'' reprinted the ''Reptisaurus the Terrible'' series as a black and white collection called ''Scarysaurus the Scary''.

In popular culture

* A clip of the movie was featured in the ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...

'' episode " Cancelled". * Clips from this movie often appeared on various episodes of the 1960s TV show ''

The Monkees The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was conc ...

''. * In the ''

Green Acres ''Green Acres'' is an American television sitcom starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm. Produced by Filmways as a sister show to ''Petticoat Junction'', the series was first broadcast on ...

'' TV show, season three episode, "

Instant Family ''Instant Family'' is a 2018 American family comedy-drama film starring Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne as parents who adopt three siblings, played by Isabela Moner, Gustavo Quiroz, and Julianna Gamiz. Also starring Margo Martindale, Julie Hagerty, ...

", this movie was playing at the drive-in theater. * The movie was featured as the premiere episode for the 2017 revival of ''

''. * Argentinian music group Los Twist composed a song about this movie for their album '' La máquina del tiempo''. * In the TV show ''

Disenchantment In social science, disenchantment (german: Entzauberung) is the cultural rationalization and devaluation of religion apparent in modern society. The term was borrowed from Friedrich Schiller by Max Weber to describe the character of a moderni ...

'' (Season 1, Episode 3), King Zog refers to his wife Oona as Reptilicus. * In the 1960s TV show ''

The Beverly Hillbillies ''The Beverly Hillbillies'' is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It had an ensemble cast featuring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor, backwoods family from ...

'' (Season 5, Episode 3), Jethro double-dates in a sports car to a drive-in movie theater featuring this film.

Notes

References

External links

* *
Reptilicus original Danish movie trailer
at bellabio.dk * * {{Sidney W. Pink 1960s science fiction horror films 1961 horror films 1961 films Danish-language films Danish science fiction horror films Films about dinosaurs Films about dragons 1960s monster movies Giant monster films American multilingual films American International Pictures films Films directed by Poul Bang Films set in Copenhagen Films shot in Copenhagen Films set in the Baltic Sea Kaiju films American natural horror films Films adapted into comics Charlton Comics titles Comics based on films American monster movies American science fiction horror films Films produced by Sidney W. Pink Danish multilingual films 1960s multilingual films Films about father–daughter relationships 1960s English-language films 1960s American films 1960s Japanese films