Kaijû sôshingeki (1968)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Ishirô Honda

Writers:

Ishirô Honda (writer)
Takeshi Kimura (writer)

Release Date:

23 May 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller | War

Tagline:

Monsters of mass destruction.

Plot:

Aliens take control of Earth's monsters and begin using them to destroy the human race.

Plot Keywords:

Monster | Alien | Island | Godzilla | Rodan

Cast

Akira Kubo	...	SY-3 Captain Katsuo Yamabe
Jun Tazaki	...	Dr. Yoshido
Yukiko Kobayashi	...	Kyoko Yamabe
Yoshio Tsuchiya	...	Dr. Otani
Kyôko Ai	...	Kilaak Queen
Andrew Hughes	...	Dr. Stevenson
Chotaro Togin	...	Ogata
Yoshifumi Tajima	...	Major Tada
Kenji Sahara	...	Commander Nishikawa
Hisaya Ito	...	Enraged Soldier
Yoshio Katsuda	...	Young Scientist
Heihachiro Okawa	...	Engineer (as Henry Okawa)
Koji Uno	...	Skeptical Reporter
Ikio Sawamura	...	Old Farmer
Yutaka Sada	...	Police Officer

Also Known As:

All Monsters Attack
Attack of the Marching Monsters
Destroy All Monsters (USA)
Gojira dengeki daisakusen (Japan) (reissue title)
Monster Attack March
Monster Invasion (literal English title)
Operation Monsterland (UK)
The March of the Monsters

Runtime:

Germany:89 min | USA:88 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | USA:G | West Germany:12 (nf)

Company:

Toho Company

Trivia:

Haruo Nakajima, the man inside the Godzilla suit, has an out-of-suit cameo in this film.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: When the reporter announces that Baragon is attacking Paris, it is actually Gorosaurus. The Baragon suit was loaned out to Tsubaraya Productions for use on one of their television series and wasn't returned in time for filming.

Quotes:

Kilaak Queen: Ghidorah is a space monster. The monsters from Earth cannot win. I will get in touch with you, when you feel like giving up.
Major Tada: Why that...

Movie Connections:

References Sora no daikaijû Radon (1956)

Simply tremendous fun,possibly the essential Japanese monster movie

Destroy All Monsters is one of the most sheerly entertaining Godzilla movies. The story,if derivative of Monster Zero,is large-scale and exciting {although the alien invasion idea would soon be done to death},the action is non-stop and the film features almost all the monsters from Toho films made up to that time. There is mass destruction,lazer gun shoot-outs,lots of barmy but cool ideas such as Monster Island,a place where all Earth's monsters are kept by scientists-how can the movie not be terrific entertainment?

There are a few flaws with the film which may not have been present if the Toho of 1964 had made it rather than the Toho of 1968. Although the story has the entire world threatened and several of Earth's cities destroyed,the budget did obviously not extend to allowing much of a depiction of this,bar some brief,unconvincing scenes. Also,a few of the monsters are only briefly shown,such as Varan {The Unbelievable},who appears only in two blink-and -you're-miss-them shots {the suit had been ruined and there was not enough money to buy a new one}. The film may therefore have actually been better with less monsters. However,criticisms of dullness are ridiculous,the film is constant action,which makes up for the lack of interesting human characters,and amazingly,the film is taken more seriously than many of the other Godzilla films,almost achieving the perfection of tone of Godzilla Vs Mothra. Of course,there are a few wonderfully stupid moments,like the sequence of our heroes severing a control device with a lazer which helariously goes on for ages. A shame the final Earth monsters vs Ghidorah fight is too short,but than Ghidorah did not really stand a chance!

Terrific fun,though,with a wonderful Akira Ifikube score featuring two of the most memorable kaiju themes! Not the best Godzilla film,but probably the most essential one to see!