I watched both versions of the original Godzilla and I enjoyed the one with Raymond Burr much better. The first film focused too much upon the uninteresting love triangle. The long scenes with the elderly professor ruminating about saving Godzilla from destruction was goofy considering how dangerous the creature was proving to be. Also, why was the island boy who lost his parents on Odo island suddenly in Tokyo with the professor and his doctor.

Raymond Burr (Steve Martin), Takashi Shimura (Dr Yamane), Akira Takarada {dubbed by James Hong) (Hideto Agata), Momoko Kochi (Emiko), Akihiko Hirata (dubbed by James Hong) (Dr Serizawa), Frank Iwanaga (security officer), Toyoaki Suzuki (boy from Oto Island), Toranosuke Ogawa (shipping company president), Takeo Oikawa (chief of emergency services), Kokuten Kodo (old man on Oto Island), Fuyuki Murakami (scientist with Geiger counter), Mikel Conrad (George Lawrence), Ren Yamamoto (boy's older brother), Sachio Sakai (interviewer on Oro Island), Ryosaku Takasugi (Godzilla), Katsumi Tezuka (also Godzilla), Haruo Nakajima (also Godzilla), Kenji Sahara (man on boat), Tadashi Okabe (reporter on tower), Ren Imaizumi (radio operator), Tsuroko Mano (boys' mother), Miki Hayashi, Kin Sugai.Director: ISHIRO HONDA. Director of all Raymond Burr's scenes: TERRY O. MORSE. Screenplay: Takeo Murata, Ishiro Honda. Story: Shigeru Kayama. Raymond Burr's scenes written by Al C. Ward. Photography: Masao Tamai, and Guy Rose (Burr's scenes). Film editor: Terry O. Morse. Art directors: Takeo Kita, Satoshi Chuko. Set decorator: George Rohr. Music: Akira Ifukube. Special effects: Akira Watanabe, Eiji Tsuburaya, Hiroshi Mukoyama, Kuichiro Kishida. Assistant director: Ira S. Webb. Sound recording: Hisashi Shimonaga, and Art Smith. Original Japanese film, Gojira, produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka for Toho in 1954. Producers: Richard Kay, Edward B. Barison, and Harry Rybnick. Executive producers: Joseph E. Levine, Terry Turner.Copyright 1956 by Jewell Enterprises, Inc. U.S. release through Embassy (Eastern states) and TransWorld (western states): April 1956. New York opening at Loew's State (of all places!): 27 April 1956. U.K. release: floating from July 1956. Never theatrically released in Australia. 80 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Rising from the sea bed, a gigantic, radioactive, prehistoric monster makes a beeline for Tokio. An American reporter (Raymond Burr) sees all, knows little.COMMENT: I am not a fan of Godzilla. He's a monster with no character at all. Just stomps on everything in sight. Model trains and cardboard skyscrapers are his meat. I wish he'd eaten the movie instead. Maybe he realized that an inferior product like this — meandering plot, filling-in-time dialogue, pretentious commentary, gosh-awful acting, agonizingly slow direction — would bring on a sure bout of acute indigestion.

Godzilla is a movie which, if viewed without its cultural context, can be gravely misunderstood. Some reviews refer to it as simply a dippy monster movie, but this confuses the movie with its dozens of sequels. Godzilla is really a sort of Requiem for the Japanese War Dead, and their attempts in the movie to destroy him are nothing less than attempts to destroy violence and terror itself--their own war on terror. Watching it for the first time after many years, I was heartbroken and moved.Raymond Burr's scenes are frankly awkward, but that's okay--again a metaphor for awkward attempts of the two countries to get to know each other after WWII. The burning of Tokyo is not awkward--it is terrifying, even with the lousy special effects, because you know these people lived it. The firebombing of the city in March 9-10, 1945 was more lethal than either of the Atom Bombs. The scenes of wounded lying in the hospital are true to life, again because these folks had a first-hand recollection. Watch the movie without this knowledge, and it seems silly. Watch it with this knowledge, and you simply want to cry.

Having watched the original Gojira right before the American produced debauchery which is King of the Monsters, I can't help but be disappointed in it. Adding in American actor Raymond Burr, who did alright in the film didn't mesh at all with the story or editing of the original Japanese characters. The movie didn't have the dark atmosphere like Gojira portrayed which led to the Godzilla scenes being a little duller. Many of the important scenes describing the message of nuclear bombing was cut from the American version leaving a bad taste in my mouth. As a modern day movie watcher I would suggest to definitely skip this movie and check out the original Japanese original since dubbing foreign movie classic is surely an outdated method.