Godzilla, King of the Monsters
Directed by Ishiro Honda and Terry Morse
English version by Al C. Ward
1956/Japan/USA
Jewell Enterprises, Inc.
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime
Steve Martin: I’m afraid my Japanese is a little rusty.
The American release of Gojira (1954) loses a lot of the apocalyptic poetry of the original. Still good fun.
The movie opens on reporter Steve Martin (Raymond Burr) laying in the rubble after the devastation of Tokyo. He is taken to the hospital where Dr. Yamane’s daughter Emiko visits him. He then ponders the events leading up to this day and we move into flashback. Martin is on a layover in Tokyo where he plans to meet his friend Dr. Serizawa. The authorities call him in for questioning on what he observed from his plane. Once they find out he is a reporter, he is given access to all their secret information!
The story of the monster and its destruction is basically the same as outlined in my review of Gojira with much less emphasis on the H-bomb test angle, which makes sense considering this version’s intended audience.
This may be the first good-guy role of this era I have seen Burr in. He makes a better villain I think. The way they meld the Japanese actors into the scenes with Burr is often amusing. If given the choice, I’d recommend viewers seek out the original. If not, this is still a ton of fun.
Trailer
