GODZILLA VS. THE THING (1964)
(a.k.a. GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA)
Article #200 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-2-2001
Posting date: 2-15-2002

When a giant egg washes up on the shore of Japan, an entrepreneur buys it and plans to build a tourist attraction around it. The egg belongs to Mothra, however, and when Godzilla rises from the earth, the failure of Japan to return the egg to Mothra impedes plans to have Mothra save the world from this threat.

First of all, where did they get this title? When I was a kid, I thought this movie would pit Godzilla against James Arness; instead, I find “The Thing” is a euphemism for Mothra! Well, having him fight Mothra does make more sense, anyway, as they’re both Toho creations (and roughly the same size); in fact, this is the first movie to pit two pre-existing Toho creations against each other (King Kong was not originally a Toho creation, and Angilus was created specifically for GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN). It retreats from the comic aspects of KING KONG VS. GODZILLA to mark one of the more serious entries in the field, though its commentary on greed owes a little to that movie. In many ways, it’s even more of a sequel to MOTHRA, in the sense that it embodies many of the same elements of that movie, with the egg being the victim of greedy promoters rather than the Alilenas.

At any rate, a quick note about how much I enjoy the music of Akira Ifukube in the Godzilla movies. I’m not a particular fan of movie music, but I’ve always loved his scores, especially some of those familiar pieces that appear again and again in these movies. Both the Godzilla theme and the lovely Mothra song are particular favorites of mine.