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In our survey of Creepy Cheapies, we've touched on the obvious targets--werewolves on motorcycles, low-rent slasher films, the products of extreme Poverty Row--but there's one Creepy Cheapie that may surprise our readers simply because the franchise has expanded so far from its low-budget origins. That Creepy Cheapie is the original Godzilla, King Of The Monsters, a knock-off of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms that its Japanese producers had to grind out as quickly and cheaply as possible...and, yet, this little giant monster film has spawned a big-lizard legacy larger than the original Godzilla itself. In fact, you could fairly call this flick...
By RAY BLAKEY A Creepy Cheapie is really just a great cheap movie that we all love. Today we are going to discuss one of the finest and most famous Creepy Cheapies ever made. The film is, of course, the immortal Japanese film Gojira, but we in the West have come to know it by an even more legendary name…Godzilla, King Of The Monsters.
It’s a Japanese film that has more to do with America, and some of our own legendary horror creators and icons, than you might be aware. In 1933, as most classic horror fans are already well aware, RKO released King Kong. Its incredible stop motion effects by Willis O’Brien amazed fans in 1933 just as they did in the silent era with his epic adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (1925). But, Kong had something that the Lost World could not have…a unique monster as the central character.
Much like Universal’s beloved Frankenstein’s Monster, Kong exuded a pathos that made him more than just some rampaging beast. He became a character that enthralled and fascinated millions. One of those millions was a Japanese boy by the name of Ishiro Honda. At almost the same time the film also inspired a young man who would become one of the most pre-eminent special effects artists of all time, Ray Harryhausen. In the years that followed both men would grow up and enter into filmmaking and both would become protégés of Willis O’Brien. But, O’Brien was only aware of one of them. He actively became a mentor of Ray Harryhausen, but what he didn’t know was that many miles away Honda would carry the seed of his experience of seeing King Kong well into his directing duties at the Japanese film studio Toho.
Honda knew he wanted to make a film with the same subject matter and emotional power of Merian C. Cooper’s masterpiece, but the nature of the film and its unique kind of pathos still eluded him. Two events, one indescribably horrific and the other a creative reflection of that horror would provide him with a powerful muse. At the close of World War II, the United States of America let loose the power of the ultimate weapon and completely obliterated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The untold power of the Atom had been unleashed on Earth, and nothing would ever be the same. These events rattled the people of Japan to their core and ended the war almost instantly. Honda would be one of many Japanese people to watch as millions of his countrymen died in fiery incineration.
The second event would come nine years later. Honda had been reminded of King Kong and knew that he wanted to make a giant monster movie. But, unlike many of the giant bug movies that were becoming popular in the US, he wanted to make a film with its own unique soul, such as Kong had been. He also knew he wanted the film to be about something important. However, he still lacked the final pieces of the complex puzzle he was creating in his mind. Until the specter of Willis O’Brien would visit him again in the form of none other than Ray Harryhausen. Honda had chanced upon a showing of the recently released American film, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953). This film about an ancient dinosaur unleashed through the power of the Atomic bomb was the last inspiration he needed to create his own unique legend in the world of not only horror films, but also cinema in general.
With the economy of Japan still suffering from the war, film budgets in the country were at an all time low. All the films of the era had to be made very quickly and very cheaply to re-coup as much money as possible. A film with a high special effects budget was unheard of and not very feasible at the time. Thus, Honda had only a year to make the film and very little money to produce the kinds of effects he knew the film would require. The lack of time and money meant that the expensive stop motion film techniques of O’Brien and Harryhausen were out of the question. He knew he would have to rely on less than attractive man-in-suit effects to make this film quickly and in the confines of his budget.
Honda proved his acumen as a director and showed the world his true talent by making his film’s greatest weakness into its greatest strength. He shot the film in a powerful, dark, and apocalyptic way that emphasized his nuclear spawned dragon as an elemental nightmare born of man’s darkest genius. Shot from low angles, utilizing darkness and scarce shots of the actual creature created a sense that Godzilla was something larger than could possibly exist, and yet the creature seemed very real. The most notable scene, and that which was inspired most by King Kong, has Godzilla raiding Tokyo over one horrific night. The creature rampages through the city and even destroys a passing rail car.
Through darkness, sound effects, and slow motion filming Honda creates the same sense that this event is a disaster liken to the horror of the atomic bombs dropping. As you watch the scene you feel that same sense of terror, not of what is happening on screen, but of what the sufferers of things like natural disasters and bombs must feel as their world is torn apart around them. No other film in the vast Godzilla franchise would ever capture this sense of the apocalypse unleashed as this film did.
There is nothing more that I can say about this film that hasn’t been reported and discussed a thousand times before. The only words of advice that I can offer is to always view the original Godzilla film as a separate entity than any other films in the series. The rest of the series is great and in truth I love them all, even the not so great ones. But, it is in Gojira that a true work of art was created and a modern-day legend was made. Thanks, Ray. Despite its low budget and down-and-dirty production schedule, Godzilla, King Of The Monsters has truly had a terrific cultural impact worldwide, far and away from its humble origins. One can embrace the film for its anti-nuke message, or for its allusions to the horrible tolls of world war, or one can just enjoy it as a fun monster romp, one that continues to the present day. This is one Creepy Cheapie that has left big old footprints that will likely never fade as long as there is fantastic cinema. Article copyright © Ray Blakey |
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