“If this evil force can be stopped and destroyed before actual nuclear war begins, then the universe will be safe.”
On the planet Zemar a de-controlled robot assassinated the omnipotent Balazar. Balazar was so powerful that, as he lay dying his brain ordered a mechanism to be built that would keep it alive even though he had no body. Now the brain of Balazar seeks universal conquest.
The Emerald planet is aware of this menace to the universe. To combat Balazar the high council sends Starman to stop it. Knowing that Balazar and his minions have infiltrated Earth, Starman races to its defense. What follows is a mish mash of bat-like mutants, Kabuki-type mutants and regular mutants in general. Hordes of minions, plagues, atomic grenades, Zemarians with poison darts, fist fights (sometimes the same fist fight), chases and a plethora of characters from mad scientists to a guy with a hook for hand that comes out of nowhere and a one legged guy that disappears into nowhere.
“Evil Brain From Outer Space” was released in 1964 and was directed by Koreyoshi Akasaka and Akira Mitsuwa depending on which piece of film you are watching.
The nine Super Giant films were purchased for distribution to U.S. television and edited into four films by Walter Manley Enterprises and Medallion Films. The three original Japanese films which went into “Evil Brain from Outer Space” (“The Space Mutant Appears”, “The Devil's Incarnation” and “Kingdom of the Poison Moth”) were 45 minutes, 57 minutes, and 57 minutes in duration respectively. The total 159 minutes of the three films were edited into one 78-minute film. Since the three original films were self-contained stories, three different plots had to be edited together, and a considerable amount of all three films dropped.
The three stories were then weaved in and out of each other so that you go from one movie to another and back again depending on how the editors tried to fit it together. The result has been called, "an alternately mind-blowing and mind-numbing adventure...a non-ending cavalcade of characters, chases, captures, rescues and fight scenes." Unlike the other movies where it was just a part one and a part two of the same movie put together, the final Starman film total creation ends up being a veritable Frankenstein’s monster.
Contributing to the difficulty of editing these three films together was the fact that the first one of the Japanese films was in the older 4:3 ratio, while the latter two films were shot in widescreen format. This would have necessitated the use of pan-and-scan methods to make the three films match. One of the films “The Devil's Incarnation” was also shot in color, so the footage would have had to have been converted to black and white in order to match the other two episodes.
When the evil bat-thing appears on screen, it’s “The Space Mutant Appears”. If it’s the spooky kabuki woman, it’s “The Devil’s Incarnation”. If the guys in the black leotards show up, it’s “Kingdom of the Poison Moth”. The only glue holding any of this together is the narration.