GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS (1956)

"Neither man nor his machines can stop this creature…."

Director: Ishiro Honda, Terrell O. Morse

Starring: Raymond Burr, Frank Iwanaga, Takashi Shimura, Momoko Kouchi, Akihiko Hirata, Akira Takarada

Screenplay: Ishiro Honda, Takeo Murata

Synopsis: Injured in a disaster that has destroyed most of Tokyo, foreign correspondent Steve Martin (Raymond Burr) recounts the events leading up to the catastrophe. Arriving in Tokyo to visit his friend, Dr Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata), Martin is questioned as to whether he noticed anything strange during his flight. He learns that, directly below his plane’s flight path, a ship was mysteriously destroyed. Over the following days, seven more ships are destroyed. A meeting of scientists and security officers is called, chaired by the famous paleontologist, Dr Yamane (Takashi Shimura), who suggests that the natives of Oto Island, an island in the vicinity of the disasters, be questioned. In company with his security contact, Tomo Iwanaga (Frank Iwanaga), Martin joins the team travelling to Oto. The natives of Oto claim to have seen fires at sea, while one man insists he saw a monster. That night, the natives perform an ancient ceremony honouring the subject of a local legend, a creature known as Godzilla. Later, an unnaturally violent storm sweeps across the island. The security team takes some of the natives back to Tokyo, where they insist that Godzilla is responsible for all the disasters. Dr Yamane offers to head a scientific expedition to Oto; Martin joins the team. On the ship, Martin notices that Dr Yamane’s daughter, Emiko (Momoko Kouchi), who is engaged to Dr Serizawa, is involved with a young naval officer, Ogata (Akira Takarada). On the island, the team finds the footprints of an enormous animal. The ground around them is radioactive. An alarm signal sounds. As the terrified natives flee their village, a gigantic creature rises from the ocean: it is Godzilla! In Tokyo, Dr Yamane holds a press conference where he expresses his belief that Godzilla is an amphibious dinosaur, and that its appearance is due to repeated H-bomb tests. Meanwhile, Emiko visits Serizawa, meaning to tell him that she wants to break their engagement. However, Serizawa is preoccupied, and insists on showing his new discovery to Emiko. She watches, and recoils in horror from the demonstration…. A decision is made to kill Godzilla using depth bombs. The mission is carried out, apparently successfully, and while Dr Yamane is depressed over the killing of such a rare specimen, the rest of the world celebrates. But that night, Godzilla appears in Tokyo Bay. Conventional weaponry proves useless against it, and Godzilla begins a rampage of destruction across Tokyo.

Comments: It was my original intention to review the two versions of the original Godzilla side-by-side. However, some evil soul having swiped the copy of the Japanese version from Sydney’s best video store (Dr What Video, 562 Oxford Street, Bondi Junction, ph: 9387-1100. Plug, plug, plug!), I am left with nothing else to do but concentrate on the American version of the film, acquired by producer Joseph E. Levine, re-edited and partially re-shot by director Terry Morse, and released to enthusiastic US audiences in 1956.

Not surprisingly, the editing of the original film involved a severe pruning of its anti-nuclear ideology. As a consequence, the role of Takashi Shimura, whose Dr Yamane voiced most of those sentiments, is considerably abridged (insult is added to injury by having Shimura dubbed by an actor who cannot pronounce "phenomenon", but who is nevertheless forced to say it about half a dozen times). In the place of the missing footage, we have scenes involving Steve Martin, foreign correspondent for "United World News", who is mysteriously transported from place to place by Japanese officials who you’d really think would have something better to do, considering the extent of the crisis they have on their hands. As Martin, Raymond Burr is, in a word, dull. We get Ray standing around, Ray nodding, Ray looking solemn, Ray looking wise, Ray biting the stem of his pipe, Ray providing a voiceover narration of what we can see perfectly well for ourselves.

Although the attempt to integrate the new footage with the old by having Steve Martin interact with doubles of the actual cast was well-intentioned, the lighting and the mood of these sequences are so different from that of the original that the effect is jarring. Disruptive, too, although not entirely unwelcome, are a couple of purely unintentional laughs, such as when the violent storm blows down Steve Martin’s tent, and he ends up running around Oto Island in his shorts. Another classic moment is when Martin gets to demonstrate the talent that’s made him such an internationally famous journalist. Asked by his editor to describe Godzilla, Martin thinks for a moment and then replies, "Well, it’s big and terrible." Gee, thanks, Steve.

The only saving grace of this nonsense is that Martin’s function is purely that of Greek chorus, avoiding the dubious tendency of some of the later films (Gamera (1965) is an obvious example) to edit in footage of American experts solving Japanese problems. Here, the heroic self-sacrifice of Dr Serizawa still constitutes the film’s climax. At the same time, the scientist’s overall role is substantially reduced. The original film’s explicit paralleling of Serizawa’s oxygen destroyer with the atomic bomb is downplayed, as indeed is Serizawa’s specific fear, not just that his discovery could "fall into the wrong hands", but that he himself might be coerced or tempted into misusing it. Thus, the theme of the responsibility of the scientist, and the complexity of the moral dilemma faced by Serizawa, are considerably muted.

The best parts of this film are those lifted bodily from the original, most notably Serizawa’s demonstration of his oxygen destroyer and the scene in which Emiko and Ogata try to convince Serizawa that he must use his discovery against Godzilla. Not even rotten dubbing can disguise the sombre power of these sequences, particularly the latter, which runs for six gloriously untampered with minutes. After the viewer is allowed to settle into the original’s mood in this way, the reappearance of Steve Martin during Serizawa and Ogata’s confrontation with Godzilla is supremely annoying.

But, after all, I guess it’s the film’s eponymous star that most viewers are here to see, and it must be said that Godzilla’s role survives without too much interference. It’s quite fascinating to watch him in his first outing as an unqualified malevolent force, the very personification (monsterfication?) of atomic power. It’s also interesting to consider the evolution in the physical appearance of the monster over the years, as he gradually changed into the defender of humanity. Here, as he sets about levelling Tokyo, Godzilla sports nasty black eyes, long fang-like teeth and sharp claws, all attributes that were to disappear as his character became more benign.

It’s also interesting that Godzilla’s now-trademark roar is very little used here. The presentation of the monster, as is true of the rest of the film’s special effects, is uneven at best. Some of the close-ups are all too obviously puppets, while the care taken with the model work and the careful use of light and dark make the "whole body" scenes quite convincing. (In this case, the suit was worn by the film’s producer, Tomoyuki Tanaka, proving that rank really does have its privileges!) The scenes of Godzilla’s initial appearance, his first ever encounters with high-tension wires and oil refineries, and his deliberate destruction of a train, still retain their power, while there is one rather haunting long shot of the monster silhouetted against the fires he has started.

I was also struck, during this viewing, with the scene in which Godzilla destroys a broadcasting tower. One reporter continues to describe events right up to the moment Godzilla bites a chunk from the tower, a display of journalistic bravado unsurpassed until The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue (1974). (It also occurred to me to wonder whether that was the same tower Mothra later spun her cocoon under!) Godzilla’s onscreen demise is unexpectedly gruesome. Fortunately, it was to prove quite temporary. (In time, the film-makers learnt to be rather more ambiguous about Godzilla’s "death".) The film was a smash hit, and Godzilla was back the following year in Godzilla Raids Again (usually known as Gigantis). However, Ishiro Honda did not direct that film, and it was nowhere near the success of its predecessor. While the Honda-Tanaka team made a number of science fiction movies over the next few years, creating Rodan, Mothra and Varan in the process, they did not make another Godzilla movie until 1963’s King Kong Vs Godzilla.

Check out all the details of this movie on the IMDB