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.

THE GHOST OF SLUMBER MOUNTAIN (1919)
Article #194 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-26-2001
Posting date: 2-9-2002

A man tells a story to his two sons about his trip to Slumber Mouuntain, where he dreamed he met the ghost of Mad Dick and saw dinosaurs through his special viewing mechanism.

There’s really not a whole lot to this eleven-minute short; the above description tells you pretty much all that heppens. Still, I find it has a real charm to it. The special effects are by Willis O’Brien, and I think this may be the first time he tried for realistic dinosaurs in contrast to some of the more comic types of his earlier stop-motion shorts. Overall, it’s a strange little film with some bizarre moments, such as when the man asks his guide to undress and pose like a faun. This is an interesting oddity.

GIGANTIS, THE FIRE MONSTER (1955)
(a.k.a. GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN)
Article #193 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-25-2001
Posting date: 2-8-2002

Two giant prehistoric monsters are discovered, which then set out to attack the city of Osaka.

Once again, I wish to point out that all comments are based on the American version of the movie, having not seen the original Japanese version, whose title roughly translates as GODZILLA’S COUNTERATTACK. I’m not sure why Godzilla’s name was changed in the U.S. version; perhaps they couldn’t get the rights to use the Godzilla name. The movie itself is pretty disappointing; it lacks both the full-blown horror of the original movie and the goofy charm of later entries in the series. There is entirely too much narration throughout, the vast amount of which is totally unnecessary. I also feel that there was some confusion during the dubbing; if I didn’t know Gigantis was Godzilla and Angilus was the big hedgehog, I might have had a lot of trouble figuring out which name went with which monster, as it seems to switch around at certain points in the movie. In fact, the trademark cries of the monsters also seem to switch around on occasion, unless my imagination is playing dirty tricks on me. The structure is also pretty strange; the destruction of Osaka should occur much later in the movie; as it is, this sequence occurs about halfway through, and the rest of the movie suffers from a number of unexpected dead spots where the monsters appear to vanish from the picture. I don’t consider it the worst Godzilla movie, but it may well be the least interesting of them.

THE GIANT CLAW (1957)
Article #192 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-24-2001
Posting date: 2-7-2002

A giant prehistoric bird from outer space attacks the earth.

Imagine you’re watching a new James Bond movie, and you’re waiting in anticipation to find out who the supervillain will be, and when he appears, you discover he’s being played by Pauly Shore. That’s what this movie is like if you haven’t been forewarned; it plays out like a Ray Harryhausen movie (director Fred F. Sears and producer Sam Katzman were both involved in EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS), and it works well enough as such until you reach the point where you’d be expecting to finally see some Harryhausen effects, and you get the bird seen in this one. Of all the monsters I’ve ever seen, this snarling, nostril-flaring, ragged, hair-tufted excuse for a buzzard is the most knee-slappingly funny monster ever devised; too bad the movie wasn’t intended as a comedy. Apparently, Sam Katzman saved a bundle of money by having the special effects done by a company in Mexico; none of the cast members saw what the monster would look like until the movie was released. Jeff Morrow saw it for the first time in his home town and with all his friends at the local movie theatre, and was appalled at what he saw; he’d been told it would look like a streamlined eagle. The movie also features Mara Corday, Morris Ankrum, and lots of footage from EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS.

My favorite moment: a look at a series of pictures taken of the monster by a weather balloon that climaxes with a close-up shot of the monster grimacing into the camera.

THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942)
Article #191 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-23-2001
Posting date: 2-6-2002

Ygor and the Frankenstein Monster visit a son of the original Dr. Frankenstein, who decides to replace the monster’s brain.

It seems that whenever this movie or its immediate predecessor in the series SON OF FRANKENSTEIN are mentioned, eventually the discussion turns on which of the two movies are better. These are interesting movies to compare, as SON marked the end of an era, being the last of the Universal Frankenstein movies that was intended as a top-of-the-line production and the last to feature Karloff as the monster, whereas GHOST marks the beginning of an era where the movies were seen as product and largely churned out; the production values do appear to have dropped quite a bit in this entry. My own preference is a little towards SON, but on rewatching this one, I was surprised at how well it stood up. Cedric Hardwicke has been accused of walking through his role as Ludwig Frankenstein, and there may be some truth to that, but I still enjoy the performance; it makes a striking contrast to either Colin Clive’s or Basil Rathbone’s performances. There is always Lionel Atwill on hand here to take up any slack on that account. I also think it was the last time the monster had much in the way of dimension or really played much of a role in the proceedings; from the next movie onwards he would spend most of his time being upstaged by other monsters or lying on a slab looking tired. Bela Lugosi is back as Ygor, with Lon Chaney, Jr. as the monster. Also in the cast are Evelyn Ankers, Ralph Bellamy, and in smaller roles, Dwight Frye (playing both a villager and Fritz the hunchback in a flashback), Michael Mark, and Brandon Hurst. My favorite moment in the movie is when the monster presents his suggestion as to whose brain he should get. And as a side note, I think the actress who plays the little girl in this movie is worlds better than the actor who played the little boy in SON.