Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
| Godzilla, King of the Monsters![1] | |
|---|---|
| File:GodzillaKing.jpg | |
| Directed by | Terry Morse Ishiro Honda |
| Written by | Terry Morse and Al C. Ward |
| Produced by | Terry Turner Joseph E. Levine |
| Starring | Raymond Burr Kenji Sahara Momoko Kouchi Akira Takarada Takeshi Shimura |
| Cinematography | Guy Roe |
| Edited by | Terry Morse |
| Distributed by | Embassy Pictures Corporation (USA: Eastern) TransWorld Releasing Corp. (USA: Western) |
Release dates | April 27, 1956 May 29, 1957 (Japan) |
Running time | 80 min. |
| Languages | English Japanese |
Godzilla, King of the Monsters! is a 1956 American black-and-white science fiction film. The majority of the film's footage is taken from the 1954 Japanese film Gojira, which had previously been shown subtitled in the United States in Japanese community theaters only, and was not known in Europe. For the American production, the original Japanese footage was dubbed into the English language and new footage was shot with American actor Raymond Burr.
Although a handful of independent, low-budget films had previously been filmed in Japan, after World War II, by American companies and featuring Japanese players in the cast, Godzilla represented the first to present Japanese in principal, heroic roles or as sympathetic victims of the destruction of Tokyo (albeit by a fictional dinosaur) to the American masses, in a commercial release given A-picture status and bookings.
Plot summary
The revised story begins at a hastily-established emergency hospital in an evidently devastated Tokyo, to which is brought American reporter Steve Martin (Raymond Burr), one of the wounded. In flashback, Martin tells of his stopover in Tokyo on a routine assignment to Cairo for United World News, where he finds himself confronted by the emergence of an inexplicable menace to navigation in the Sea of Japan. Something is causing ships to be destroyed without warning and sink with no time for escape. When a dying seaman finally washes up on an inhabited island, Martin flies there for the story with Tomo Iwanaga a representative of the Japanese security forces (Frank Iwanaga, also part of the American cast) and learns of the island inhabitants' belief in a monster god which lives beneath the sea, which they believe is causing the disasters (a claim which appears to have been borne out by the crewman before he died). Martin phones his editor at United World News, George Lawrence (Mikel Conrad, part of the American cast) and is given permission to stay and cover the story.
Martin's involvement in the unfolding events broadens when Dr. Yamane (Takashi Shimura, of the original film), a paleontologist is consulted and, returning to the island with his daughter Emiko (Momoko Kouchi) and her young naval-officer boyfriend Ogata (Akira Takarada) to investigate, sees the monster when it attacks the island village. Returning to Tokyo with clear evidence of the monster's existence and power, Yamane becomes a leading consultant to Japan in mounting a defense, as it becomes apparent the monster is going to attack Tokyo.
The Japanese navy is unable to faze the monster with depth charges. In the dark of night, the monster attacks Tokyo, and proves invulnerable to conventional military weaponry no matter how concentrated. Martin is one of millions injured in the attack, and here the flashback ends: Godzilla (a giant mutant dinosaur) has returned to the sea, but it is certain this is only for the moment.
Emiko reveals she may know a solution to the monster's apparent indestructibility. She loves the young naval officer, but had until recently been engaged to a young scientist Dr. Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata), who was also Steve Martin's friend in college. She has lost interest in him because he has become almost a recluse, to her and others. After her breaking up with him, he revealed to her the reason for his reclusiveness—he has developed a formula capable of destroying all oxygen in water, in the process of which any animal coming in contact with the "oxygen destroyer" is stripped clean of all flesh and organs, reduced to a skeleton. His anguish over what to do with this discovery has become a constant preoccupation. She had agreed to keep her knowledge of this a secret. But with Godzilla loose, she realizes this may be the only thing capable of stopping the monster, and informs her boyfriend and father.
The scientist is only reluctantly persuaded to use his remaining sample of the oxygen destroyer to try to kill Godzilla, provided he accompanies the young officer, in diving suit, to the sea bottom to place and release the formula more or less at the monster's feet. After concluding this agreement, the scientist destroys all his notes and papers and formula and, once on the bottom of the sea, sends the young officer back up to the boat, releases the destroyer, and cuts his own oxygen hose and lifeline, thus destroying the last source of knowledge of his horrid formula. The young officer joins Dr. Yamane, Emiko and Steve Martin on the ship to watch as the oxygen destroyer does its work, reducing Godzilla to a skeleton. Afterwards, Martin's last words were, "The menace was gone, so was a great man. But the whole world could wake up and live again."
U.S. Production
It was Edmund Goldman who found the original Godzilla in a California Chinatown theater. He bought the international rights for $25,000, then sold them to Jewell Enterprises Inc., a small production company owned by Richard Kay and Harry Rybnick which, with backing from Terry Turner and Joseph E. Levine, successfully adapted it for American audiences. The adaptation process consisted of filming numerous new scenes featuring Raymond Burr and others, and inserting them into an edited version of the Japanese original to create a new film. The new scenes, written by Al C. Ward and directed by Terry Morse, were photographed by Guy Roe with careful attention to matching the visual tone of the Japanese film. Burr's character Steve Martin appeared to interact with the original Japanese cast through intricate cutting and the use of doubles for the Japanese principals, in matching dress, shot from behind in direct interaction with Burr's character.
A documentary style was imposed on the original dramatic material through Burr's dialogue and stentorian narration; he plays a reporter, replacing a comical reporter character in the Japanese original. More importantly, his presence as the lead character, along with trimming (though not outright deletion) of protracted dialogue regarding the arranged marriage between the Japanese heroine and a scientist (a concept unfamiliar to Westerners), scenes evincing an active affair between her and the young naval officer–hero (a concept unlikely to be accepted by many parents of the film's youthful target audience), and a raging debate in Japan's Diet over the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and continued nuclear testing (a concept not likely to be approved of by American veterans of the recent war), served to ease American audiences into comfortable relationships with characters, whose mere nationality might otherwise have made them pariahs. The theme of devastation of Japan by nuclear holocaust became sublimated in the editing, but was definitely not eliminated, giving the film a subversiveness on the nuclear question which would later be consciously recognized by the youngsters at whom the film was aimed, as they entered adulthood.
There is sometimes confusion about who distributed the film to the U.S. The poster for the film states only that it is "A Transworld Release", while the poster itself bears a copyright notice for "Godzilla Releasing Corporation". Trade reviews from its New York showing indicate that it was released by Embassy Pictures. Classic Media indicates that it was released by Jewell Enterprises, but in fact the credits only show this company as presenting the film. In fact, the film was adapted from the Japanese original by Jewell Enterprises, which took "presentation" credits on the screen and in some advertising copy, copyright by Godzilla Releasing Corporation in its adapted form, and nationally released under control of Transworld, Inc., all of which were companies owned by Rybnick and Kay. It was actually distributed in the western U.S. by Godzilla Releasing Corp. and in the eastern half by Joseph E. Levine's Embassy Pictures Corporation, then just a Boston-based states rights exchange. Embassy was most frequently noted as sole distributor in reviews and trade annuals published in New York: the movie was given "A-film" promotion, and opened at Loew's State Theatre on Broadway and 45th Street in New York City on April 27, 1956.
New York Times film critic, Bosley Crowther gave the film a bad review the following day. He dismissed it with, "'Godzilla' produced in a Japanese studio, is an incredibly awful film." After complaining about the dubbing, the special effects ("a miniature of a dinosaur"), and an alleged similarity to King Kong, he concluded, "The whole thing is in the category of cheap cinematic horror-stuff, and it is too bad that a respectable theater has to lure children and gullible grown-ups with such fare."[1]
Crowther notwithstanding, the film was a notable success with the American public. It easily exported to Europe and South America, where the original was unknown and where it also had a major impact, and even made its way full circle back to Japan, where it was exhibited with Japanese subtitles for the American dialogue. The door was thus opened in the Americas and Europe for the import of unexpurgated Japanese science-fiction, horror, and other commercial film products; it also garnered western awareness of Toho Studios, which had retained producer credit. After its theatrical run, Godzilla, King of the Monsters! became a television staple for decades, even into the cable years, and opened the international market for dozens of Godzilla sequels.
In theatrical form and on original TV syndication, the main title is followed by a minimal credit screen reading "Starring Raymond Burr, directed by Terry Morse and I. Honda" in white lettering over a background; and following the fadeout of the final shot, the scene of the hymn being sung by the schoolchildren was reprised with fuller cast and credits, following the fadeout of which the "The End" title appeared, again white lettering on a black background, with Godzilla's echoing footsteps eerily replacing the soulful music. When Viacom acquired the film for TV resyndication and first publication on videotape around 1980, Viacom removed all cast and credit material from both the opening and the closing of the film, and re-publications made thereafter were taken from the Viacom-revised master (even the so-called "uncut" version released on DVD in 1998 by Simitar). This missing material was partially restored in 2006 on the Sony Corp.; however, the opening star-director credits remained missing, and the end cast and credits were mis-edited after the THE END credit instead of before. They were also presented in a widescreen letterbox format on what was otherwise a standard anamorphic-format film image.
Box office
The film grossed approximately $2 million in North America.
Cozzilla
In 1976, a colorized version of Godzilla, King of The Monsters was re-released in theaters in Italy. Italian filmmaker Luigi Cozzi bought the rights and distributed the film to magnetic band and sensurround theaters. Originally, Cozzi planned to re-release the original 1954 Godzilla without the Raymond Burr scenes. But Toho (who personally sold the film to Cozzi) said the film was unavailable, so they gave him the 1956 American version. Since the film was in black and white, regional distributors in Italy refused to release the film. In order to release the film, Cozzi hired Armando Valcauda to colorize the whole film frame by frame. Most prints of the film were lost but some still exist. Up to today, the Cozzi colorized version of Godzilla (also known as Cozzilla by fans) has not yet been released in any format in Italy or any country outside of Italy.
DVD Releases
Simitar Entertainment
- Released: May 6, 1998
- Aspect Ratios: Widescreen (1.66:1) letterboxed, full frame (1.33:1)
- Sound: English (1.0), English (5.1)
- Supplements: Godzilla art gallery; Sci-fi monsters documentary; Trivia game; Godzilla trailers; Film facts; Liner notes (Raymond Burr biography); DVD-ROM (screensavers, printable art gallery, web access)
- All regions
Sony Wonder (Classic Media)
- Released: September 17, 2002
- Aspect Ratio: Full frame (1.33:1)
- Supplements: Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters video game trailer
- Region 1
Sony Wonder (Classic Media)
- Released: September 6, 2006 (Included with the Japanese Version Gojira)
- Aspect Ratio: Full frame (1.33:1)
- Supplements: Original TV spot, Audio Commentary by Steve Ryfle & Ed Godziszewski and Special Guest Terry Morse Jr, also includes the Original American Ending Credits Sequence which were cut out around 1980 by Viacom.
- Region 1
Toho
- Released: Fall 2004 (included as an Extra in Godzilla Final Box DVD Set
- Aspect Ratio: Full frame (1.33:1)
- Supplements: Original Trailer
- Region 2
Mad Man Co Ltd
- Released: Summer 2005
- Aspect Ratio: Full frame (1.33:1)
- Region 4
Note
- ^ This WikiProject Films infobox contains information regarding the Americanized U.S. release; for information on the Japanese original, see Gojira (1954 film).
References
- ^ Crowther, Bosley (April 28, 1956). "Screen: Horror Import; 'Godzilla' a Japanese Film, Is at State" (PDF, fee required). The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-04-07.
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- Galbraith, Stuart. Japanese Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films : A Critical Analysis of 103 Features Released in the United States, 1950-1992. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. 1994.
