Gojira (1954)/Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1956), Part 7
Reverend Matt
This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you! Or no – I’ve got that the wrong way ‘round.
The Monster
There is a story told that, upon his first arrival on the set of Gojira, 20-year-old Akira Takarada introduced himself as “the star of the movie.” “Silly idiot!” he was told; “Godzilla is the star!” True. True. So let’s discuss the monster himself for a moment.
He’s looking good in this film, at least in suit form; he has a rounded, bestial snout, a tapering rather than loglike tail, and sharp claws on thin fingers. The plates on his back light up when he exhales radiation. This doesn’t really make any sense, but is pretty cool anyway. (Say – reread that last sentence. Good. Now memorize it; this concept will be very important in future Godzilla pictures.) His appearance is made more impressive by the fact that he only attacks at night. Personality notes are fairly few; he doesn’t like light, or loud, repetitive sounds (he destroys a tolling clock-tower), or getting his foot run into by a train, or getting bombed with depth charges. But then again, who does like these things? The latter issue is presumably the reason he attacks Tokyo, though frankly, he doesn’t need a reason – as an allegory for random and unmerciful disaster, he ought to be a bit, well, random.
His walk is excellent, but not slow-motion-y, which is a credit to Haruo Nakajima, who did most of the suit-acting. It is impressive in particular because of the conditions under which Nakajima worked – the suit weighed over 220 pounds, and was so stiff that it would stand up by itself. Its lining caused Nakajima abrasions, sores, and blisters; over a cup of sweat would be drained from the suit whenever he was extracted from it, and his tiny eye-holes would immediately fog up when he re-entered. He frequently passed out from the suit’s 130-degree heat, and by the end of shooting, he had lost 20 pounds. To top it all off, he would not be credited until the 1960s – Toho liked to keep the fact that Godzilla was a man in a suit a secret. He was, however, employed as Godzilla throughout the Showa period, and was entrusted with the monster-fight choreography in the increasingly-mobile Godzilla suits to come.
Chocolate chips or M&Ms this time, kids?
There is also a Godzilla puppet used for many shots in the film, which is not too good; inconsistent with the suit, it looks like it’s made of cookie dough. The puppet does appear to be able to shoot actual smoke from its mouth courtesy of some internal mechanism, though, so that’s neat. Sure.
Godzilla’s roar is deep and impressive and unique, and not at all the goofball screech it is often thought to be. It was created by the composer of the music for the film, Akira Ifukube, who took a personal interest in the sound effects. Various animal sounds were attempted first; the singular roar was finally created by rubbing a leather glove on a contrabass.
Next: The American version, for real this time