Godzilla, King of the Monsters!

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (Japanese: 怪獣王ゴジラ, Hepburn: Kaijū Ō Gojira) is a 1956 kaiju film directed by Terry O. Morse and Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It is a heavily re-edited American localization, or "Americanization", of the 1954 Japanese film Godzilla. The film was a Japanese-American co-production, with the original footage produced by Toho Co., Ltd., and the new footage produced by Jewell Enterprises. The film stars Raymond Burr, Takashi Shimura, Momoko Kōchi, Akira Takarada, and Akihiko Hirata, with Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka as Godzilla. In the film, an American reporter covers a giant reptilian monster's attack on Japan.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
Theatrical release poster
Japanese name
Kanji怪獣王ゴジラ
Transcriptions
Revised HepburnKaijū Ō Gojira
Directed byTerry O. Morse
Ishirō Honda
Special effects byEiji Tsuburaya
Screenplay byTakeo Murata
Ishirō Honda
Uncredited:
Terry O. Morse
Story byShigeru Kayama
Produced byTomoyuki Tanaka
Uncredited:
Richard Kay
Harold Ross
Edward B. Barison
StarringRaymond Burr
CinematographyMasao Tamai
Guy Roe
Edited byTerry Morse
Music byAkira Ifukube
Production
companies
Toho Co., Ltd.
Jewell Enterprises, Inc.
Distributed byTrans World Releasing Corp.
(United States)
Toho
(Japan)
Release dates
  • April 4, 1956 (1956-04-04) (New York City)
  • April 1956 (1956-04) (United States)
  • May 29, 1957 (1957-05-29) (Japan)
Running time
80 minutes
CountriesJapan
United States
LanguagesEnglish
Japanese
Budget$100,000
Box office$2 million (U.S. rentals)

In 1955, Edmund Goldman acquired the 1954 film from Toho and enlisted the aid of Paul Schreibman, Harold Ross, Richard Kay, and Joseph E. Levine to produce a revised version for American audiences. This version dubbed most of the Japanese dialogue into English, and altered and removed key plot points and themes. New footage was produced with Burr interacting with body doubles and Japanese-American actors in an attempt to make it seem like Burr was part of the original Japanese production.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! was theatrically released in the United States in late April 1956, and was followed by an international release. In the U.S., it received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $2 million in rentals against an estimated $100,000 production budget. The film was responsible for introducing Godzilla to a worldwide audience, as the 1954 film remained unavailable officially outside of Japan until 2004.

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