Godzilla, King of the Monsters![1]
Directed by	Terry Morse Ishiro Honda
Produced by	Terry Turner Joseph E. Levine
Written by	Al C. Ward
Starring	Raymond Burr Kenji Sahara Momoko Kouchi Akira Takarada Takeshi Shimura
Cinematography	Guy Roe
Editing by	Terry Morse
Distributed by	Embassy Pictures Corp. Godzilla Releasing Corp.
Release date(s)	April 27, 1956 May 29, 1957 (Japan)
Running time	80 min.
Language	English Japanese
IMDb profile

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! is a 1956 American black-and-white science fiction film adapted from the 1954 Japanese film Godzilla, which had previously been shown subtitled in the United States in Japanese community theaters only, and was not known in Europe. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1024x768, 638 KB) Author: Terry Morse Source URL: http://www. ... Ishirō Honda (本多 猪四郎 Honda Ishirō, May 7, 1911 in Yamagata Prefecture - February 28, 1993) was a Japanese film director. ... Bonnie and Terry Turner are a husband-and-wife writing team, best known for creating the sitcoms Third Rock From the Sun (1996 - 2001) and the That 70s Show (1998 - 2006) for NBC and FOX, respectively. ... Joseph E. Levine (September 9, 1905 – July 31, 1987) was an American film producer. ... Raymond Burr Raymond William Stacey Burr (May 21, 1917 – September 12, 1993) was an actor, most known for his roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. ... Kenji Sahara (佐原 健二 Sahara Kenji) (born May 14, 1932) is a Japanese actor. ... Akira Takarada was born on April 29, 1934 in Japanese occupied Korea, Akira Takarada rose from the Toho New Face program (with Yu Fujiki and Momoko Kochi) to become one of the most recognizable men associated with the original Godzilla series, even though he appeared in only four installments. ... Embassy Pictures Corporation (aka Embassy Film Associates) was an independent studio and distributor responsible for such films as The Graduate and The Lion in Winter. ... April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 248 days remaining. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... May 29 is the 149th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (150th in leap years). ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Gojira is a 1954 Japanese science fiction film produced by Toho Film Company Ltd. ... A subtitle can refer to one of two things: an explanatory or alternate title of a book, play or film, in addition to its main title, or textual versions of a film or television programs dialogue that appear onscreen. ...

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, while Burr's on-screen character 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. (This same technique was used 29 years later in the film Godzilla 1985, with Raymond Burr reprising his original role of reporter Steve Martin.) The gate to Montreals Chinatown which has Chinese, Japanese and Korean restaurants inside the complex. ... Production company refers to a company responsible for the physical production of a motion picture. ... Bonnie and Terry Turner are a husband-and-wife writing team, best known for creating the sitcoms Third Rock From the Sun (1996 - 2001) and the That 70s Show (1998 - 2006) for NBC and FOX, respectively. ... Joseph E. Levine (September 9, 1905 – July 31, 1987) was an American film producer. ... In TV and movies a scene is a part of the action in a single location. ... Raymond Burr Raymond William Stacey Burr (May 21, 1917 – September 12, 1993) was an actor, most known for his roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. ... The Return of Godzilla (sometimes known as Godzilla 1985) is a 1984 film. ... Raymond Burr Raymond William Stacey Burr (May 21, 1917 – September 12, 1993) was an actor, most known for his roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. ...

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. Film style used in fictional films which replicates the ambience of a stereotypical Documentary film, and consists principally of periods of voice-over narration delivered in a terse, reportorial style; crisp editing; and relatively stationary and straightforward photography. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In politics, a Diet is a formal deliberative assembly. ... The Fat Man mushroom cloud resulting from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rises 18 km (11 mi, 60,000 ft) into the air from the hypocenter. ... Preparation for an underground nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site in the 1980s. ... The Titan II ICBM carried a 9 Mt W53 warhead, making it one of the most powerful nuclear weapons fielded by the United States during the Cold War. ...

The film was 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. It 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." Joseph E. Levine (September 9, 1905 – July 31, 1987) was an American film producer. ... Embassy Pictures Corporation (aka Embassy Film Associates) was an independent studio and distributor responsible for such films as The Graduate and The Lion in Winter. ... A view of Broadway in 1909 Broadway, as the name implies, is a wide avenue in New York City, and is the oldest north-south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to the first New Amsterdam settlement. ... Nickname: Big Apple, City that never Sleeps Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ... April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 248 days remaining. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The New York Times is a newspaper published in New York City by Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. ... Bosley Crowther (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American film critic. ...

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 theatre has to lure children and gullible grown-ups with such fare." This is about the original movie and novel. ...

Nevertheless, the film was an immediate success with the public. It easily exported to Europe and South America, where the original was unknown, 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 and horror films, and other commercial film products, and was an advertisement for 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. The current logo of Toho (in the US.) Toho Co. ... Godzilla, as portrayed during his latest film from the Millennium series. ... A sequel is a work of fiction in literature, film, and other creative works that is produced after a completed work, and is set in the same universe but at a later time. ...

Japanese poster for the international version of Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)

Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (450x628, 223 KB) This image is of a movie poster, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the movie or the studio which produced the movie in question. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (450x628, 223 KB) This image is of a movie poster, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the movie or the studio which produced the movie in question. ...

Synopsis

The revised story begins at a hastily-established emergency hospital in an evidently devastated Tokyo, to which is brought American reporter Steve Martin (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 catch fire 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 a representative of the Japanese security forces (Frank Iwanaga, also part of the American cast) and learns of the island inhabitants' belief in a fiery dragon 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. The Sea of Japan (East Sea) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. ...

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 (Momoko Kouchi) and her young naval-officer boyfriend (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. Takashi Shimura as the doomed bureaucrat Watanabe in Ikiru. ... A paleontologist carefully chips rock from a column of dinosaur vertebrae. ... Akira Takarada was born on April 29, 1934 in Japanese occupied Korea, Akira Takarada rose from the Toho New Face program (with Yu Fujiki and Momoko Kochi) to become one of the most recognizable men associated with the original Godzilla series, even though he appeared in only four installments. ...

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 has returned to the sea, but it is certain this is only for the moment. Godzilla, as portrayed during his latest film from the Millennium series. ...

Yamane's daughter 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 (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 destroying the monster, and informs her boyfriend and father. The Oxygen Destroyer was a fictional weapon of mass destruction used to kill Godzilla in the original 1954 film. ...

The scientist is only reluctantly persuaded to use his remaining sample of the oxygen destroyer to try and 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 formulae 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 this horrid formula. The young officer joins Dr. Yamane, his daughter and Steve Martin on the ship to watch as the oxygen destroyer does its work, reducing Godzilla to a harmless skeleton. Afterwards, Martin's last words were, "The menace was gone, so was a great man. Now the world could wake up and live again."

Box Office

The film was a considerable success in North America, grossing approximately $2 million USD.

DVD Releases

Simitar Entertainment

• Released: May 6, 1998

• Aspect Ratios: Widescreen (1.37:1) 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 trailer, Audio Commentary by Steve Ryfle & Ed Godziszewski and Special Guest Terry Morse Jr, also includes the Original English Ending Creidts Sequence who wascut for Home Releases

• Region 1

Toho Gojira may mean any of the following: Godzilla, the kaiju known as ゴジラ (Gojira) in Japanese, spanning a series of 29 films. ...

• 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 Godzilla, as portrayed during his latest film from the Millennium series. ...

• Released: Summer 2005

• Aspect Ratio: Full frame (1.33:1)

• Region 4

Note

1. ↑  This WikiProject Films infobox contains information regarding the Americanized U.S. release; for information on the Japanese original, see Godzilla (1954 film).

Godzilla ) is a 1954 Japanese science fiction film, produced by Toho Film Company Ltd. ...

References

• Crowther, Bosley. (April 28, 1956) "Screen: Horror Import; 'Godzilla' a Japanese Film, Is at State" (film review) at The New York Times Online.

Bosley Crowther (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American film critic. ... The New York Times is a newspaper published in New York City by Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. ...

External links

• Godzilla, King of the Monsters at the Internet Movie Database
• "Godzilla vs. the Giant Scissors: Cutting the Antiwar Heart Out of a Classic" by Brent Staples, The New York Times, May 1, 2005.
• "Gojira vs. Godzilla: The Original Allegorical Meaning of Godzilla and the Damage in the Americanization Process" by Gary P., GojiStomp, 2004, retrieved December 14, 2005.
• Photo of Godzilla playing at Loew's State Theatre, New York, April 1956
• "King of the Monsters lost the symbolism of the original."
• Gojira's Sanctuary- Info and forums