Godzilla: King of the Monsters!

Original title: Godzilla, King of the Monsters!

1956
Approved
1h 20m

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

9.1K

YOUR RATING

Home Video Trailer from Toho Film Company

Play trailer2:31

1 Video

99 Photos

Dinosaur Adventure Disaster Epic Kaiju Monster Horror Sci-Fi Epic Supernatural Horror Tragedy Action Drama

An American reporter visiting Tokyo becomes a witness to the city's destruction by a dinosaur-like beast awoken from undersea hibernation by atom bomb testing.An American reporter visiting Tokyo becomes a witness to the city's destruction by a dinosaur-like beast awoken from undersea hibernation by atom bomb testing.An American reporter visiting Tokyo becomes a witness to the city's destruction by a dinosaur-like beast awoken from undersea hibernation by atom bomb testing.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

9.1K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination total

Emiko
(as Momoko Kochi)

Akira Takarada

Ogata

Akihiko Hirata

Dr. Serizawa

Sachio Sakai

Hagiwara

Fuyuki Murakami

Dr. Tabata

Ren Yamamoto

Seiji

Toyoaki Suzuki

Shinkichi

Tadashi Okabe

Dr. Tabata's Assistant

Toranosuke Ogawa

President of Company

Frank Iwanaga

Tomo Iwanaga - Security Officer

Mikel Conrad

George Lawrence
(uncredited)

Paul Frees

Unidentified Character
(voice)
(uncredited)

Fuji

Police Officer at Airport
(uncredited)

Hiroshi Hayashi

James Hong

Ogata
(voice)
(uncredited)
…

Ren Imaizumi

Radio Operator
(uncredited)

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Godzilla's roar was made by dragging a resin-coated leather glove up and down a contrabass and having the subsequent recording slowed down significantly.

Goofs
The airplanes are seen on strings.

Quotes
[first lines]
Steve Martin: [in voice over] This is Tokyo. Once a city of six million people. What has happened here was caused by a force which up until a few days ago was entirely beyond the scope of Man's imagination. Tokyo, a smoldering memorial to the unknown, an unknown which at this very moment still prevails and could at any time lash out with its terrible destruction anywhere else in the world. There were once many people here who could've told of what they saw... now there are only a few. My name is Steve Martin. I'm a foreign correspondent for United World News. I was headed for an assignment in Cairo, when I stopped off in Tokyo for a social call, but it turned out to be a visit to the living hell of another world.

Crazy credits
Many prints and videos have absolutely no credits (including the so-called "uncut" version released on DVD by Simitar in 1998), beyond the title at the start (with a clearly video-generated copyright notice below it) and a "The End" graphic at the close. Classic Media's 2006 release of the film in the Gojira/Godzilla: King of the Monsters on DVD has the restored English credits. The Criterion Collection Blu-Ray release contains all original logos and credits.

Alternate versions
In the original American version of the film, end credits and the Transworld logo were present. The 1998 DVD release from Simitar restores the logo without the end credits, while the 2006 DVD release from Classic Media restores the credits without the logo. Both were reinstated in the 2012 DVD and Blu-ray releases from the Criterion Collection.

Connections
Edited from Godzilla (1954)

Soundtracks
Prayer for Peace
(uncredited)
Performed by students of the Toho High School of Music
Lyrics by Shigeru Kayama
Composed by Akira Ifukube

User reviews136

Review

Featured review

Show Them Back to Back

Like many of the other Godzilla fans, this is the only version of the the Big-G's debut that I have seen. I have never had the pleasure of watching the original Japanese version, which is even more dark in nature than this Americanized version. I often wonder how much more of an impact the original version of this film would play and would it be treated in a more favorable light than this version. However, this is still a great film despite its flaws. Raymond Burr does a credible job as Steve Martin and he does his best to convey the horror of Godzilla's attack, even though his scenes were shot much later. However, I hope that one day someone will have the bright idea to show both the Americanized version and the original back to back to allow the audience to choose for themselves which one is better.