GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS! (1956)

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A BREEZE FROM THE EAST: The original kaiju (strange beast) entry from Japan has been interpreted by historians of the sci-fi film as an oblique metaphor for the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by nuclear weapons at the end of World War II. Courtesy: Joseph E. Levine/Embassy Pictures/Toho Studios/Jewell.

CREDITS

Toho Company/Jewell Enterprises; Ishirô Honda, Terry O. Morse, dir.; Honda, Shigeru Kayama, Takeo Murata (Japan), Al C. Ward (U.S.), scr.; Tomoyuki Tanaka (Japan), Edward B. Barison, Richard Kay, Joseph E. Levine, Harry Rybnick, Terry Turner (U.S.), pro.; Akira Ifukube, mus.; Morse, ed. (U.S.); Satoru Chûko, prod. design; Chûko, Takeo Kita, art dir.; Kuichirô Kishida, Hiroshi Mukoyama, Eiji Tsuburaya, Akira Watanabe, F/X; 80 min.; B&W; 1.37:1.

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 (Tomo Iwanaga); Toyoaki Suzuki (Boy from Oto Island); Mikel Conrad (George Lawrence); Ryosaku Takasugi, Katsumi Tezuka (Godzilla).

MOST MEMORABLE LINE

Here in Tokyo, time has been turned back two million years.

REPORTER STEVE MARTIN AS THE FOUR-HUNDRED-FOOT CREATURE DECIMATES THE CITY

BACKGROUND

Joseph E. Levine (1905–1987) was among those who wanted to create indie empires in the new postwar Hollywood. He became aware that a small company, Jewell Enterprises, had picked up the rights to distribute Gojira (1954), the first of Japan’s low-budget kaiju (strange beast) films from Toho, the Japanese production and distribution company. Gojira had been playing in Los Angeles in a small Chinatown theater that catered almost exclusively to Asian audiences. Sensing the financial possibilities of thrillers with the teenage audience, Levine sought to mainstream the film. Believing an American “star” was needed for the marquee, he hired character actor Raymond Burr and, in one day, shot episodes that could be edited throughout the film. In one final inspiration, Levine hired Terry Turner, an experienced exploitation man who, while at RKO, had helped build King Kong (1933) into a highly anticipated extravaganza via his gifts at showy public relations.

THE PLOT

Journalist Steve Martin flies to Japan and soon becomes aware of something strange in the Pacific as he accompanies paleontologist Dr. Kyohei Yamane and his daughter, Emiko, to a primitive island. There they find a relic of the Jurassic Period, a monster more dangerous than ever due to contamination by both nuclear attacks and waste. Emiko knows of the only means to destroy the beast as Dr. Serizawa, her scientist fiancé, has conveniently developed a death ray.

THE FILM

After graduating from Nippon University, Ishirô Honda (1911–1993) turned to filmmaking and delivered eight realistic works. He then embraced the fantasy genre, believing that, with Gojira, he could reach a larger audience for his anti-nuke theme. Its success made him the resident genius of the Asian monster movie market; Honda’s follow-up work included Rodan (1956) and Mothra (1961).

This project may have been inspired by the American movie The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), a huge hit in Japan. At the time of Godzilla’s release, it was feared that Honda’s low-budget approach—a man in a rubber suit playing the monster—might end the slow, expensive tradition of stop-action sci-fi. In truth, both approaches would survive: the Japanese “big bug” movies flourished even as stop-motion pioneer Ray Harryhausen turned to more mythological tales, beginning with The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), featuring a fantastical array of creatures that could not be believably rendered other than with elaborate tabletop models.

THEME

Godzilla served as a sci-fi/monster movie allegory for the all-too-real atomic bombings that ended World War II. The monster represents the fallout from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, providing a vivid actualization of the ongoing hazards. The movie features a recurring sci-fi theme: the fear that the very science that inadvertently created such a monstrosity can be relied on to end it via the anti-oxygen formula. In a nod to the genre’s reliance on religion, the scientist agrees to use his controversial “solution” only after watching little children pray to Asian gods. The film reveals a major change in postwar Japanese society as, in a break with tradition, the female lead refuses to marry the man her beloved father has chosen for her, insisting instead on the man she loves for her spouse. Finally, the experience of watching Japanese women and children menaced by Godzilla and seeing the great sympathy Burr’s representative American feels for them helped resolve any lingering anger on the part of U.S. citizens toward Japan for the devastating events of World War II that had begun with Pearl Harbor.

TRIVIA

Obscure actor Mikel Conrad, who plays the “other” English-language character “George,” had the lead in Levine’s early exploitation effort, Untamed Women (1952).

Levine would enjoy great success again two years later when, with his new independent Embassy distribution company, he imported Hercules (1958), starring Steve Reeves, from Italy and began a parallel craze for low-budget “peplum,” or sword and sandal, films (the genre’s title derives from the brief white outfits worn by the leading characters).

Character actor Raymond Burr (1917–1993) took the lead because it allowed him to play a sympathetic hero after a long career of sleazy villain roles—notably, the murderer in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954). He had no connection with the subsequent franchise of child-oriented Godzilla films. Nearly thirty years later, Burr agreed to return to his old role for Godzilla 1985 (1984).