Watching late night TV, and on comes Godzilla. I expected the Raymond Burr film, but this was the 1954 original. All Japanese with subtitles.
They took the original, edited the bejesus out of it and added a bunch of Raymond Burr footage to Americanize the film to make the 1956 version I know so well. But I am not sure that I had seen the entire original by itself.
This is very different from the American version. Much more broody, emotional, melodramatic. Even the style. The actress in her little-flower tinkley voiced delivery is so un-American.
I won't spoil the ending...
I have my standards. There are plain old spy movies, and then there are Bond movies. There are dinosaur movies and then there are Godzilla movies. I remember when a "Godzilla" movie came out 20 years ago, had Matthew Broderick. If I recall, it didn't do well. And frankly, it wasn't a Godzilla movie. Godzilla walks on hind legs, standing upright, has the pointy back scales, the particular vocal call. The 1998 movie was just a dinosaur flick.