Movie Name: King Kong vs. Godzilla
Rank: 2 godzillas
 

Review:
The title pretty much says it all -- a battle royal between the largest monsters of the East and the West. Apparently lizards and monkeys, just like cats and dogs, are natural enemies (bet you didn't know that!), so naturally they converge on Tokyo in order to duke it out. Now, you may be thinking "Godzilla is a radioactive, fire-breathing, regenerating, mutant dinosaur, whereas King Kong is just a big ape -- where's the sport in that?" Ah -- but what you didn't realize is that King Kong gets stronger when exposed to electricity! [and you didn't think Godzilla was the only monster whose contract requires him to walk into high-tension power lines each movie, did you?] This is a movie I really wish I had seen when I was 8 years old, still filled with awe and wonder, and not concerned with little thing such as plot, acting, and production values. Which is to say, there's so many things in this movie I really want to like, if only they were better done.

* * *

I have seen the Japanese version of this movie and, although I won't give it a separate review [at least not yet], I will say that it is better than the American version. It still suffers from the basic implausibility of the title matchup [yeah, yeah, I know -- I want plausibility in a giant monster movie?], but is less choppy. The added scenes for American audiences really do interfere with the flow of the story. One final note: urban legends to the contrary, the Japanese version does NOT have an alternate ending where Godzilla appears to win instead of King Kong. The only difference is that you hear Godzilla's roar at the very end, signifying that the big lug is still alive. Trust me -- that's it.

And, while I'm on the subject, let me just point out that Godzilla only appears to lose at the end. Both monsters fall off the cliff into the water, and a little while later you see King Kong surface and swim away. Remember, however, that Godzilla swims underwater, not on the surface; just because you don't see him surface doesn't mean he's dead! Personally, I think that if the movie had lasted a minute or so longer, you would have seen Godzilla pull that overgrown monkey back underwater and finish him off....

CREDITS

Kingu Kongu tai Gojira (1962)
Released in U.S. as King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963)

CAST
Osamu Sakurai...........Tadao Takashima
Kinzaburo Furue...............Yu Fujiki
Kazuo Fujita...............Kenji Sahara
Fumiko Sakurai.................Mie Hama
Tamiye................Akiko Wakabayashi
Mr. Tako................Ichiro Arishima

CREW
Director...............................Ishiro Honda
Screenplay...........Shinichi Sekizawa
Special Effects.....................Eiji Tsuburaya
Music..................................Akira Ifukube

Running time: 98 minutes

U.S. VERSION:
Released by Universal International
Producer......................John Beck
Director..............Thomas Montgomery
Music and Film Editor......Peter Zinner
Eric Carter...............Michael Keith
Yataka Omura.................James Yagi
Dr. Arnold Johnson.......Harry Holcombe
Running time: 90 minutes