It is odd how memory unfolds from art. It's been twenty or so years since I last saw the classic 1964 color Godzilla film, Mothra Vs. Godzilla (better known to American audiences by the title Godzilla Vs. The Thing, as Roger Corman's company, AIP redubbed it to lend more mystery to the ad campaign) yet, upon popping in the Toho Master Collection DVD of the film, instantly some things returned to me, of earlier viewings. The first was Godzilla's famed entrance into the film, a half hour or so in, when reporters are covering a story about a radioactive mud field, after a typhoon has hit Japan's countryside. Suddenly, the ground shakes, and it seems that an earthquake is abrewing. Except that it turns out to be Godzilla rising from beneath the mud, after having been swept ashore and buried. The second thing is, seeing it in color, on television, even though my family did not get color television until the late 1980s. I recall watching the film during a Godzilla marathon on Thanksgiving Day, in New York City, thus recalling Godzilla's emergence scene, but it had to be at the home of one of my relatives. Back in the 1970s, the local, non-network, television stations would often run monster marathons on Thanksgiving. It was usually on Channel 9 (WOR) or Channel 11 (WPIX), and the marathons would be Godzilla films and King Kong films, such as King Kong, Son Of Kong, Mighty Joe Young, and, of course, King Kong Vs. Godzilla. The third memory goes back even further into my youth, into my early elementary school years, when I, and some neighborhood pals, watched the film at a local 24 hour movie theater that often played children's films in the morning, from reels of old films that they had extra copies of, including older Ray Harryhausen, Hammer Horror, and AIP/Roger Corman films. My pals and I would often see the films free if we did some cleaning and chores for the theater owner. To see this film in color AND on the big screen still remains ensconced in my memory as a great thrill, even if the film, itself, is not the best in the original series of films from the 1950s through 1970s (aka the Showa Era films).
This claim, though, is widely and wrongly disputed by many other critics of the Japanese monster films of the era, but, in terms of cinema quality, the only two films in the Showa series which can count as films of depth and substance are the original 1954 film Godzilla, King Of The Monsters, which was an allegory on nuclear weaponry and war, and 1969's Godzilla's Revenge, which was a sharp allegory on childhood fears and dangers, masquing as a monster film. The rest of the series, excepting Godzilla's Revenge, began a slow decline into campiness, starting with the series' second film, 1955's Godzilla Raids Again, which, like the original, was shot in black and white, and featured Godzilla as a force of nature, not cute and cuddly. The third film in the series was 1962's King Kong Vs. Godzilla, which was a more childish film, yet still played out as a broad satiric farce of modern consumerism. This film, the series' fourth, while not terrible, simply lacked the camp quality that made its predecessor film, if not great cinema, great fun. Mothra Vs. Godzilla is simply a rather paint-by-numbers film, with solid acting, solid special effects, but a rather ludicrous storyline: that the giant moth, Mothra, from its own titular 1961 film, would battle a huge, radioactive, fire-breathing dinosaur, and ultimately win. It's another step down, film-wise, in the series.
This claim, though, is widely and wrongly disputed by many other critics of the Japanese monster films of the era, but, in terms of cinema quality, the only two films in the Showa series which can count as films of depth and substance are the original 1954 film Godzilla, King Of The Monsters, which was an allegory on nuclear weaponry and war, and 1969's Godzilla's Revenge, which was a sharp allegory on childhood fears and dangers, masquing as a monster film. The rest of the series, excepting Godzilla's Revenge, began a slow decline into campiness, starting with the series' second film, 1955's Godzilla Raids Again, which, like the original, was shot in black and white, and featured Godzilla as a force of nature, not cute and cuddly. The third film in the series was 1962's King Kong Vs. Godzilla, which was a more childish film, yet still played out as a broad satiric farce of modern consumerism. This film, the series' fourth, while not terrible, simply lacked the camp quality that made its predecessor film, if not great cinema, great fun. Mothra Vs. Godzilla is simply a rather paint-by-numbers film, with solid acting, solid special effects, but a rather ludicrous storyline: that the giant moth, Mothra, from its own titular 1961 film, would battle a huge, radioactive, fire-breathing dinosaur, and ultimately win. It's another step down, film-wise, in the series.