Godzilla Versus the Sea Monster (1966) Gojira, Ebirâ, Mosura: Nankai no daiketto (original title)

Director:

Jun Fukuda

Writer:

Shinichi Sekizawa

Release Date:

1969 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Drama | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

This is one lobster you don't want to order!

Plot:

A young man steals a boat to find his brother, but he and his shipmates become shipwrecked on a mysterious island inhabited by a giant sea monster and a slumbering Godzilla.

Plot Keywords:

Boat | Island | Godzilla | Monster | Lightning

Cast

Akira Takarada	...	Yoshimura
Kumi Mizuno	...	Daiyo
Chôtarô Tôgin	...	Ichino
Hideo Sunazuka	...	Nita
Tôru Watanabe	...	Ryôta Kane
Tôru Ibuki	...	Yata Kane
Akihiko Hirata	...	Captain Yamoto
Jun Tazaki	...	Red Bamboo Commander
Ikio Sawamura	...	Elderly Slave
Pair Bambi	...	Mothra's Little Beauties
Hideyo Amamoto	...	Red Bamboo Naval Officer
Hisaya Itô	...	Red Bamboo Scientist #1
Tadashi Okabe	...	Red Bamboo Scientist #2
Kazuo Suzuki	...	Escaped Slave
Shôichi Hirose	...	Escaped Slave
Chieko Nakakita	...	Mrs. Kane
Noriko Honma	...	Spiritualist
Yutaka Sada	...	Farmer
Wataru Ômae	...	Islander
Kenichiro Maruyama	...	Islander
Shigeki Ishida	...	Newspaper Editor
Haruo Nakajima	...	Gojira
Yû Sekida	...	Ebirah
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Peter Fernandez	...	Ryota (voice: English version)
Hal Linden	...	Akira Takarada (uncredited) (voice: English version)
Corinne Orr	...	Female voices (uncredited)

Directed by
Jun Fukuda

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Shinichi Sekizawa

Produced by
Tomoyuki Tanaka	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Masaru Satô

Cinematography by
Kazuo Yamada

Film Editing by
Ryohei Fujii

Production Design by
Takeo Kita

Art Direction by
Takeo Kita

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ken Sano	....	chief assistant director

Art Department
Hiroshi Omura	....	conceptual artist

Sound Department
Minoru Kaneyama	....	sound effects editor
Hisashi Shimonaga	....	sound effects
Shoichi Yoshizawa	....	sound recordist

Special Effects by
Fumio Nakadai	....	special effects scene manipulation
Teruyoshi Nakano	....	assistant director of special effects
Eiji Tsuburaya	....	director of special effects
Akira Watanabe	....	art director of special effects

Visual Effects by
Sadamasa Arikawa	....	director of special effects photography
Sadao Iizuda	....	optical photography
Kuichirô Kishida	....	special effects lighting
Yukio Manoda	....	optical photographer
Hiroshi Mukoyama	....	matte process
Sokei Tomioka	....	director of special effects photography
Taka Yuki	....	director of special effects photography

Stunts
Haruo Nakajima	....	stunt choreographer

Camera and Electrical Department
Kiichi Onda	....	lighting technician

Other crew
Peter Fernandez	....	voice director: English version

Production Companies

• Toho Company

Distributors

• American-International Television (AIP-TV) (1968) (USA) (TV) (dubbed) (syndication)
• Continental Distributing (1969) (USA) (theatrical) (dubbed)
• Hollywood Home Theatre (198?) (USA) (VHS)
• Video Treasures (1987) (USA) (VHS)
• Madman Entertainment (2005) (Australia) (DVD)
• Beech Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video
• Hollywood's Attic (video)
• Interglobal Home Video (video)
• Kuk Dong
• Super Vidéo Productions (1980) (France) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Toho Studios  sound stages

Also Known As:

"Gojira, Ebirâ, Mosura: Nankai no daiketto" - Japan (original title)
"Ebirah, Horror of the Deep" - International (English title) (imdb display title), UK
"Big Duel in the North" - International (English title)
"Big Duel in the North Sea" - International (English title)
"Godzilla, Mothra, and Ebira, Horror of the Deep" - USA (subtitle)

MPAA:

Rated PG for sci-fi monster violence

Runtime:

87 min | USA:83 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | West Germany:12 (nf) | USA:PG

Company:

Toho Company

Trivia:

This was Akira Takarada's final appearance in a Showa era Godzilla (Gojira) film. His next series appearance would be in the Heisei era film Gojira vs. Mosura (1992).

Goofs:

Continuity: In the beginning of the American version, there is a scene supposedly showing Yata's boat being destroyed. Yoshimura is on the boat which is called "Yahlen" and is the boat Ryota steals later in the film.

Quotes:

Yoshimura:[he has just opened a giant safe-like door] I did it, it's unlocked! Hurry! Let's go inside!
Ichino:[everyone scrambles to go inside until they hear Ichino] Ow! Don't come in! It's a nuclear reactor!
Yoshimura:So that's it, it's a heavy water factory.
Nita:Huh? What can they do with that?
Yoshimura:Atom bombs are made with it.
Nita:Huh? I'm getting out of here!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The Rotten Tomatoes Show: Monsters vs Aliens/The Haunting in Connecticut/12 Rounds (#1.5)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Samashite Mosura

a delight!

This is one of my favorite Toho monster movies. The action makes sense, the rubber monsters are terrific and the Kenny factor is zero. It also has the Twins of Infant Island singing a duet and, at the very beginning, a boss dance marathon. I often regret the fact that we have never gotten to see Ebirah (the MAMMOTH LOBSTER! as one character calls him) from that day to this -- Toho could profitably have spent years developing a vision of the world's oceans filled with crawdads the size of aircraft carriers, but for some reason they never went ahead with it. The showdown (or is it a handball tournament?) between Godzilla and Ebirah is one of the finest action-comedy scenes ever. This movie also features a spectacular safecracking scene in which the bank robber jimmies a lock on what looks like the door to a bank vault, the plucky castaways nip inside -- and then nip outside even faster, saying, "It's a nuclear reactor!!!" I would recommend this film to anyone.