Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)

Directors:

Ishirô Honda
Terry O. Morse

Writers:

Ishirô Honda (writer)
Shigeru Kayama (story)

Release Date:

27 April 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Action

Tagline:

Makes KING KONG look like a Midget!

Plot:

A 400-foot (122-meter) dinosaur-like beast, awoken from undersea hibernation off the Japanese coast by atomic-bomb testing, attacks Tokyo.

Plot Keywords:

Japan | Godzilla | Reporter | Monster | Destruction

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Raymond Burr	...	Steve Martin
Takashi Shimura	...	Dr. Kyohei Yamane
Akira Takarada	...	Hideto Ogata
Momoko Kôchi	...	Emiko Yamane
Akihiko Hirata	...	Dr. Daisuke Serizawa
Frank Iwanaga	...	Security Officer Tomo Iwanaga
Toyoaki Suzuki	...	The Boy from Oto Island
Toranosuke Ogawa	...	President of Nankai Shipping Company
Takeo Oikawa	...	Chief of Emergency Headquarters
Kokuten Kodo	...	Old Man on Hill on Oto Island
Fuyuki Murakami	...	Scientist with Geiger Counter
Mikel Conrad	...	George Lawrence
Ren Yamamoto	...	The Boy's Older Brother [Bit]
Sachio Sakai	...	Interviewing Official on Oto Island [Bit]
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Miki Hayashi	...	(unconfirmed)
Kin Sugai	...	(unconfirmed)
Sammee Tong	...	Dr. Yamane (voice)

Also Known As:

Godzilla (USA)
Godzilla the Sea Beast (USA) (working title)
Kaijû-ô Gojira (Japan)

Runtime:

80 min (original U.S. theatrical release version) | USA:78 min (DVD release)

Country:

USA | Japan

Language:

English | Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Toho Company

Trivia:

Since his contract said that he could only work for one day on the film, Raymond Burr was kept at the studio for 24 hours to shoot all of his scenes.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: The airplanes are seen on strings.

Quotes:

[Opening voice over]
Steve Martin: This is Tokyo. Once a city of six million people. What has happened here was caused by a force which up until a few days ago was entirely beyond the scope of Man's imagination. Tokyo, a smoldering memorial to the unknown, an unknown which at this very moment still prevails and could at any time lash out with its terrible destruction anywhere else in the world. There were once many people here who could've told of what they saw...

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "The Critic: Siskel & Ebert & Jay & Alice (#2.2)" (1995)

I used to think this was it- not one of the best, but a cool prototype anyway

Oh when Americans first pillaged foreign product for big mainstream gains. With Godzilla, King of the Monsters! we see the beginning of a franchise in all its fractured, cheesy glory. After finally seeing the original Japanese version, Gojira, I also went back to the American version too, which I had seen when I was younger. The impression left by the Americanized version isn't very large, but when compared to the CGI 98 Godzilla at the time- I saw the first around the same time as they played the old ones over and over to build up publicity- it's a spring chicken, err, radioactive lizard to be exact. Seeing how its cut together here again, I'm a little surprised of how noticeable it all is with Burr in the scenes, but I don't mind terribly much (I can always think, well, it could be worse...it could be one of the Godzilla movies from the late 60s that time forgot).

Ultimately, what makes the movie exciting and dumb fun are the attack sequences, especially Godzilla's destruction of Tokyo. Also, as a kid, there's something very effective with the black and white, as it almost comes off as being darker than the other color-film Godzilla movies of the early 60s; one can see the ash all rising around, and a shot or two looks like it could've been lifted from the old newsreels following the end of WW2. Actually, Godzilla is, originally and with 'best intentions', an allegory for nuclear destruction. The American version doesn't stress this nearly as much as Gojira, and what is cut out now gets felt on a repeat viewing. But I could think of worse things to do on a Sunday afternoon.