"So, they believe that this Godzilla is responsible for all the ship disasters?"
Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956) is the American edit of the original Japanese film Gojira (1954). The American edit was directed by Terry Morse and features extended scenes of actor Raymond Burr (who you mig recognize as Perry Mason) spliced in as an American reporter who happens to be in Japan during the initial Godzilla attacks.
[Note: this review is referencing the American, dubbed edit of the film.]
Surprisingly, the English writing in this film is actually pretty good. It's a bit over dramatic but that was the style of the 50s monster movies, so it's very much in line with that.
The Raymond Burr scenes are inserted into the film rather flawlessly. This is ever more apparent when watched nearly back to back with the original (like I just did). But it's cool to see how simply and effectively you can make it look like two people are in the same room together through the magic of editing. I also think it would have been fun to be on set for the filming of Raymond Burr's parts because so much of it would have been filming him watching things off screen silently.
Let me start by saying that most of my issues with this film come only from comparing it to the masterpiece that is the original Japanese Gojira. This film does work on its own quite well but tonally it's quite different than the Japanese version.
Sadly some of the elegance of the Japanese version is lost in this version. This film has a lot faster cuts and far less subtle storytelling (how American!) Unfortunately the faster cuts, and this version's lack of patience to get to the destruction and kaiju lead to a lot of the original's suspense to be lost. A lot of Burr's dialogue seems to over explain the situations unfolding, for example the love triangle between the Japanese heroes is rather bluntly brought up and referred to here, rather than implied as in the Japanese version. And when Emiko brings up Dr. Serizawa's oxygen destroyer in this version it's rather poorly inserted. I couldn't see any reason she would have told Burr about it (and neither could the writers either apparently!)
Additionally there are scenes where the attentive viewer may realize something fishy is going on with the cinematography. There are scenes were Raymond Burr is talking to a character but the camera never shows the face of these characters in the same shot, this is because it's just another actor wearing similar clothing to the Japanese actors and the film (somewhat) cleverly shows only the back of their heads. Or some very obviously looped footage of Dr. Serizawa on the phone during a phone call with Burr's character. These are rather obviously the result of the fact they tried to put Raymond Burr's character in too closely with the main Japanese protagonists of the original film. It would have been fine if Burr was just observing and reporting the events but they had to make him an "old friend" of nearly all the Japanese main characters, which is just problematic.
The really magnificent thing about this film is how much of the original they actually kept. I've seen a lot of dubs and edits in my life and it's unique to find one like this which very much changes the tone and reinterprets the story for another culture, but also keeps much of the original's plot and charm too. If nothing else I recommend watching the two close together some time just as a case study. I liked the way they basically added Raymond Burrs part in by basically taking one of the most minor strands in the original (the Japanese reporters who are on the scene during the first land attack of Godzilla) and expanding upon it.
4/5 Stars.
Happy watching!
I'm tackling all or most of the early Toho Studios' Godzilla and Kaiju films in anticipation of the newest Godzilla (2014), check back next time to see my review of it!
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