Matango: Fungus of Terror (1963)

Cafe Society
1

Thanks to the magic of Netflix, last night I watched a pretty darned cool movie: Matango.

Seven people from various walks of life are stranded on a deserted island. Their food gives out quickly, and civilized restraint breaks down. There’re odd prowlers outside their quarters (a derelict ship) at night. The mushrooms that grow in profusion on the island look mighty tempting…

Wide-screen, full color. Wonderful set design; the derelict ship is spooky, and the model work and full-size sets are perfectly integrated.

And the script is great; the seven bicker and fight; the apparent hero turns out to be a heel; the rich man steals all the food; the siren corrupts the men. And all very believably. The english dub is even well done (!!!)

There’s a NOTLD-esque attack on the derelict by mushroom people that’s very tense, and the jungle is appropriately menacing.

I can’t give you Mrs. R and the Little Rs’ opinions on the movie, since the title (which is probably one of the worst ever dreamed up) just made them laugh dismissively and pass, but my own opinion is see this movie!

(Incidentally, another thread here was looking for mild horror for a kid to watch–this would fill the bill very nicely.)

2

I had (still have, for that matter) a skin fungus that I’ve never been able to shed, despite years of treatment. It doesn’t itch or smell and doesn’t seem to be contagious. But it waxes and wanes with the seasons, giving me big red blotches of tinea versicolor under my armpits in hot and humid weather (like now).

Because of this, I once had a sport jersey made up with the name Matango on the back. Especialy in those pre-Internet days, nobody knew about this. (I’d read about it in the monster movie Bible, Famous Monsters of Flimland. And I’d seen it once) People were always guessing wrong about the meaning.

3

Oooooh, oooooh, ooooh, icky, icky! Clever shirt, though. :slight_smile:

4

I remember this from my childhood as *Attack of the Mushroom People * (an even worse title!). Larry “Seymour” Vincent used to show it on *Seymour Presents * on one of the LA channels. He’d do a routine about ordering a giant mushroom pizza.