Godzilla (us version) : King of the monsters (1956)

Director : Ishirô Honda, Terry Morse

Original title : Kaijû-ô Gojira

Cast : Raymond Burr, Takashi Shimura, Akira Takarada

Company : Toho

Category : A+

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.

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 were written by Al C. Ward and directed by Terry Morse. Burr's character (Steve Martin) 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. The result is... a pretty catastrophic movie..

Tôhô released this American version of its own Gojira (1954) to Japanese audiences in 1957. The japanese poster is pretty nice !!

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