Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)

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

Directors:

Ishirô Honda (as Ishiro Honda), Terry O. Morse (as Terry Morse)

Writers:

Shigeru Kayama (original story), Takeo Murata (screen play)

Stars:

Raymond Burr, Takashi Shimura, Momoko Kôchi

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Raymond Burr	...	Steve Martin
Takashi Shimura	...	Dr. Yamane
Momoko Kôchi	...	Emiko (as Momoko Kochi)
Akira Takarada	...	Ogata
Akihiko Hirata	...	Dr. Serizawa
Sachio Sakai	...	Hagiwara
Fuyuki Murakami	...	Dr. Tabata
Ren Yamamoto	...	Seiji
Toyoaki Suzuki	...	Shinkichi
Tadashi Okabe	...	Dr. Tabata's Assistant
Toranosuke Ogawa	...	President of Company
Frank Iwanaga	...	Security Officer

Storyline

When American reporter Steve Martin investigates a series of mysterious disasters off the coast of Japan, he comes face to face with an ancient creature so powerful and so terrifying, it can reduce Tokyo to a smoldering graveyard. Nuclear weapon testing resurrected this relic from the Jurassic age, and now it's rampaging across Japan. At night, Godzilla wades through Tokyo leaving death and destruction in his wake, disappearing into Tokyo Bay when his rage subsides. Coventional weapons are useless against him; but renowned scientist Dr. Serizawa has discovered a weapon that could destroy all life in the bay -- including Godzilla. But which disaster is worse, Godzilla's fury, or the death of Tokyo Bay?

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Plot Keywords:

animal character name as title | godzilla | japan | reporter | japanese | 

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Taglines:

CIVILIZATION TOTTERS! SCIENCE ASTOUNDED!

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Genres:

Action | Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA Japan

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

27 April 1956 (USA)

Also Known As:

Godzilla the Sea Beast

Box Office

Budget:

$650,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$2,000,000, 31 December 1956

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toho Company, Jewell Enterprises Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min (original U.S. theatrical release) 78 min (television) 69 min (television) (re-issue)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Godzilla's roar was made by dragging a resin-coated leather glove up and down a contrabass and having the subsequent recording slowed down significantly.

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Goofs

As Steve Martin watches the "Godzilla" ceremony being performed on Odo Island, the same shots of the ceremony are repeated several times.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Steve Martin: [in voice over] 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... now there are only a few. My name is ...

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Crazy Credits

Many prints and videos have absolutely no credits, beyond the title at the start(with a clearly video-generated copyright notice below it) and a "The End" graphic at the close. As of 2006, Classic Media's release of the film in the Gojira/Godzilla: King of the Monsters on DVD has the restored English credits.

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Alternate Versions

In the original American version of the film, end credits and the Transworld logo were present. The Transworld logo (but not the end credits) was restored in the 1998 DVD release from Simitar. The end credits (but not the Transworld logo) were restored in the 2006 DVD release from Classic Media. BOTH of these elements were restored in the 2012 DVD and Blu-ray releases from the Criterion Collection.

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Connections

Referenced in The Boondocks: Ballin' (2007)

User Reviews

An Enraged Monster Wipes Out An Entire City! (While Perry Mason watches on for America).

Well it literally is a different animal from Ishirō Honda's seminal 1954 movie about the giant atomic lizard who wakes up in a bad mood. Here the American version clips the atmosphere considerably (and the running time), craftily edits Raymond Burr into Honda's movie and of course removes the anti-American sentiment that once existed. Yet the film did prove to be very popular with English speaking film fans and further enhanced the growing appeal of all things Godzilla like.

As it is it's a decent enough film, especially if you have never seen Honda's original. For sure it's still creaky in that "man in rubber suit" way, but the iconic creature is still thrilling as it goes about its merry way destroying some carefully constructed model workings. The nuclear war heedings are still there and there's much fun to be had, intentional or otherwise. Its pale in comparison to the original, but it's not a stinker either. 6/10