Mine Is Bigger Than Yours: Godzilla, Gorgo And The Beast On The Rampage!. By Steven G. Farrell.
During the 1930’s and 1940’s, Hollywood’s Universal Studio’s monsters reigned supreme on the silver screen. Films like Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1932) and the Wolf Man (1941) made horror icons out of Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney. However, by the late forties these boogeymen had become old hat. After the war, they were only fit to play second fiddles in the comedy Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). The movie is a good one, mixing scares with laughs. However, the success of the film did bring down the final curtain upon the gothic monsters who were decidedly too out-of-date for the new generation of Americans growing up during the Cold War. The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1953) was the movie that had bridged the film world of traditional horror into the modern age of sci fi. Scientists were the new heroes and villains of the space age.
One pushed button could make the world go up in a puff of smoke. Perhaps radiation could cause mutations and strange growth among ordinary seas creatures. The nightmare could be even worse if there were unchained prehistoric monsters who were stronger than conventional weapons.
This article shall be focusing upon three movies that were about dinosaurs on the rampage. These long-ago creatures were let loose upon the world in the fifties and sixties: The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), Godzilla (1954), and Gorgo (1961). Somehow science and technology had brought these extinct critters back to life to punish man for going too far into forbidden territory.The United States, Japan, and England were to be stomped to pieces much to the delight and horror of audience all over the globe.
Hollywood deserves the credit for filming the first important big monster film of the post-war period with The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, released by Warner Brothers in 1953. The budget for the production was estimated upwards to $285,000, but it grossed $5 million dollars at the box office. The film was directed by Eugene Lourie, who went on to direct Gorgo in the next decade.
The story’s concept was loosely based upon the Ray Bradbury short story, The Fog Horn which is about a sea monster demolishing a lighthouse that had attracted its’ attention because of the moan omitted by the fog horn. The creature sinks back into the Atlantic Ocean and is not heard of ever again. Lawyers felt it was prudent to pay the author a fee for the rights.
The Beast of 20, 000 Fathoms is a prehistoric dinosaur released from its’ snowy prison after the fallout from an atomic explosion in the Arctic Circle. The United States military had been testing the power of a hydrogen bomb in the frozen north far away from civilization. However, Operation Experiment had unleased something even worse than radioactive poison: a 200-foot meat- eating Rhedosaurus. The Beast was modeled upon the Tyrannosaurus, but he was sized out from 40 feet to 200 feet, thus enabling the monster to be huge enough to bulldoze over skyscrapers in Manhattan. The Beast walked on all four.
The Beast was swimming its’ way down from the North Pole to New York City, where it was seeking the Hudson River. The monster is millions of years old, but its’ ancient instinct is navigating it homewards to die. Along the way, he attacked a fishing vessel along the Grand Banks, Canada and destroyed a lighthouse in Maine. Professor Tom Nesbitt, played by German actor, Paul Hubschmid, witnessed the resurrection of the Beast after the explosion in the arctic circle. The only one who believes him is Lee Hunter (Paula Raymond), the beautiful assistant to Dr. Thurgood Elsa. There is a scene is where the dotty but likeable professor, played by sixty-five- year-old actor Cecil Kellaway, is lowered into the ocean in a diving bell to see if he can pinpoint the Beast’s hiding place. The old scholar is more excited to see an actual dinosaur than he is afraid of the opened jaws of the prowling Beast.
The military only takes heed to Nesbitt’s warning when the Beast pokes its’ head over the wharf of the East River, causing a panic. He eats a New York cop on the street when the courageous but unwise man attempts to do his duty to stop the creature by using his revolver. There is the feel of the old New York City here when the Dodgers were still playing at Ebbett’s Field in Brooklyn and the New York Giants were still playing at the Polo Grounds in Washington.
The Beast ploughs through the Wall Street District and heads south to Brooklyn, where it nestles into the confines of the Cyclone Roller Coaster exhibit in Coney Island. Not only is the monster impervious to weaponry, but the blood that leaks out of its’ wounds caused soldiers to pass out from radioactive poisoning. Colonel Jack Evans, played by veteran actor, Kenneth Tobey, a grizzled military man, wanted to bomb the Beast to smithereens. However, Professor Nesbitt nixed the idea because the pieces of the monster would be scattered throughout America’s biggest city, running the risk of creating a plague. The bomb, the savoir during the last war, was decisively ruled out. Something new had to be devised to put down the dying beast. Luckily, high command was intelligent enough to surrender to Nesbitt’s alternative strategy. The military rapidly mixes up an isotope radiation poison on the spot and it is put into a bullet; this dosage was then shot into the monster’s mouth by a sharpshooter, played by a young Lee Van Cleft. Modern science redeemed itself by using more science to destroy what it had unleased in the first place.
The real star of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, was Ray Harryhausen, who created the stop motion animation to give life to the Beast. Harryhausen achieved the peak of his career with the movie Jason and the Argonauts (1963), a story based upon Greek mythology. He had served an apprenticeship with Willis O’Brien, who did the work on the original King Kong movie (1931).
Godzilla was a movie released by Japan’s Toho Production in 1954. It was the eighth highest grossing film in Japan for the year. It also won the Japanese Film Association Award for Best Effects. Due to its box office success in Japan and other markets, it was released a year later in the USA under the title of Godzilla: King of Monsters. To make the film more accessible to American’s tastes the original running time was trimmed down and an American reporter Steve Martin, played by Canadian actor, Raymon Burr, was added to provide an English narrative to the story. Burr had appeared as the heavy in Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1953), as well as a gangster in the Marx Bothers’ movie, Love Happy (1959), He would go on to greater fame as the lead on the television program Perry Mason (1957-1966) The love triangle between Hadeto Ogata (Akira Takareda), Emiko Yamine (Momoko Koaho) and Akihiko Hirata Daisuke Serizawa (Akihiro Serizawa) played out until the viewer discovers that Dr. Serizawa had invented an oxygen destroyer that caused water creatures to suffocate before dissolving completely. The doctor had spent years on this secret weapon, and he was reluctant to release it because of the devastation it might cause upon nature. Like the Beast of 20,000 Fathoms, Godzilla used science to combat what science had created.
Godzilla, or “Gojra” in Japanese, translates into English as “Gorilla Whale.” It is a 160-foot-tall creature who has been eating up the fish supply off of the coast of Odo Island in southern Japan. The creature was a part of the island’s mythology. Godzilla pre-dates the nuclear age introduced in 1945 by the dropping of two atomic bombs. However, due to nuclear bomb tests in the South Pacific, Godzilla’s hunting grounds had been contaminated. His body is covered with burns and sores from the explosion. There is a very good chance its’ size had increased due to mutations within its’ body. An alternative theory is that Godzilla was a prehistoric monster locked in an ocean cave, and had been released from its’ lair by the bomb in much the same way that the Beast in The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms was released in the Arctic Circle by similar nuclear tests. Godzilla is a combination of the Tyrannosaurus and the Stegosaurus. Curiously enough, Godzilla is not a man-eater; he’s was force of nature, hellbent on destroying the little pests who had wiped out his source of nourishment, and had inflicted third degree burns all over his body. Godzilla also had the advantage of being able to walk upright. He could use his claws and teeth to inflict damage. His tremendous tail could be used as a lethal weapon. However, Godzilla’s most dangerous weapon is his atomic breath.
Godzilla’s trademark roar at the beginning of this movie was recorded by composer Akira Ifukube. It is simply the rubbing of a leather glove coated with pine tar across the strings of a contrabass instrument. The effect this produced was sliced in with some other weird noises This mix of sound effects is one of the most distinctive and enduring features of Godzilla. After almost seventy years, Godzilla and his war cry are still successful at the international box offices.
Ishiro Honda directed the film, and was one of the primary screenplay writers for Godzilla. He also appeared in the film in the film in an uncredited part.Eiji Tsuburaya was the director of Special Effects. Instead of using the technique known as stop motion animation, the Japanese filmmakers used “suitmation.” There were two actors who rotated donning the 220-pound rubber suits, and interacting with miniature sets. Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezeka both had to overcome heat exhaustion and dehydration in order to bring Godzilla to life. The performers also played bit parts as newspaper reporters. Wind-up toy tanks look tacky now.
Dr. Kyoshi Yamane, played by Takashi Shimura, a Japanese palaeontologist, was the star of the film. He is sent down to Odo Island with an expedition to investigate the destruction of much of the village. Horrified villagers had filed a formal request in the parliament for reparations for the loss of human life and livestock on the island due to an invasion by a legendary sea creature. The sophisticated urban dwellers were tempted to sniff at the complaint, but numerous fishing vessels and several ships had also recently gone missing in the vicinity of Odo Island. Steve Martin, the American reporter, is allowed to join the investigation team lead by Dr. Yamane. He witnessed the first appearance of the monster. Godzilla, rearing his head over a mountain top, for all to see, including the viewer. In this scene only the head and claws of the monster are shown to save the actors from having to suit up in the complete costume.
A fleet of battleships are ordered to drop depth charges in the area where radars have located Godzilla sleeping on the ocean floor. A few days later Godzilla poked his head out of the waters of Tokyo Bay, causing a national panic. Once again, as in the first scene with Godzilla on the screen, the audience only sees his head. Dr, Yamane pleaded for the life of the monster, insisting Godzilla should be studied and not destroyed. It begs the question of how a study like this could have been conducted?
The third appearance of Godzilla is his most destructive. He rampaged through the Ginza District, overturning towers, buildings and a bridge. Blasts from his atomic breath symbolized the use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. It a very sober image of pure hell on earth. A woman holding her child says, “we’re going to see daddy very soon” as buildings collapsed all around her and her little one.
Emiko tried to persuade Dr. Serizawa to release his oxygen destroyer to defend Japan from total annihilation. He is only convinced to volunteer his invention after he watched the news broadcast and sees the footage of the suffering of the masses. Many little children have lost their mothers. School girls sang a song to Heaven, asking for Divine Intervention to help stop Godzilla. These scenes are a stark reminder of how Japan was defeated in 1945 by the science of the USA. For a second time, the science of the USA had brought devastation to Nippon. Only science could fight science. This time around it’s a Japanese scientist, who has to struggle with his conscience about the moral and ethical crisis that President Truman must have faced when he signed off on Little Boy and Fat Man. To make sure his oxygen destroyer can only be used once against the threat of Godzilla the young doctor, who wears a black eye patch that must symbolize something, destroyed all of his papers and blueprints concerning his devilish invention.
Godzilla dies of asphyxiation in Tokyo Bay, stirring up the waters before dissolving into bones. Dr. Serizawa shares the same fate of the monster by committing suicide by cutting the tube of his air supply. This also harkens back to the Japanese ritual of seppuku. A person who has behaved dishonorably can only reclaim their honor by killing themselves.
Gorgo (1961) featured two monsters for the price of one: Orga was the parent while Gorgo was the offspring. The pair of them resided near the island of Nara (an anagram for Arran), off the western coast of Ireland. The two were part of ancient Irish lore and had been sleeping under a crust out on the bottom of the ocean when freed by the eruption of a volcano. This time the disaster is caused by nature and not man-made bombs. However, the greed of Captain Joe Ryan (Bill Travers, a British actor best known for the movie Born Free, 1966) and Sam Slade (William Slyvester, an American actor whose credits included 2001 Space Odyssey, 1968) leads to the demolition of London. The film had a large budget at $1.5 million dollars.
Gorgo and Orga were played by men wearing body suits: green colored, with red eyes and small ears. The two family members had thick hides of protective crocodilian armor. There is never any attempt to identify their species or to explain their great seize (Gorgo is 65 feet and Orga is 200 feet). When Gorgo and Orga bellowed they sounded like the trumpeting of elephants. There is one scene when Gorgo is in a cage where he omits a lion’s roar.
The film was produced by King Brothers and MGM British Studios. The opening scenes dealt with the volcano and eventually the capture of Gorgo by Ryan and Slyvester, leaders of a salvage vessel. The setup is shot at Coliemore Harbor in Dalkey, very near to Dublin. The fishermen who encountered Ryan and Syvester, were an unfriendly lot, speaking only in the Irish tongue (Gaelic). Before Gorgo made his entrance, the viewer informed about Orga, the Sea Monster, by Sean (Scottish actor, Vincent Winter). The wee Irish lad was in the employ of the harbor master, McCartin, who is also an amateur archeologist and a bit of a salvage hunter himself. In his possession is a wooden carving of Orga. McCartin paid Ryan and Slyvester a priceless golden cup as a fee to capture the creature and to dispose of it. The salvagers decide to sell their captive to Andrew Dolkin (Martin Benson), a circus owner in England.
Sean was the voice of morality throughout the movie. His only wish was to release Gorgo and send him home. The Irish government also wanted the creature returned to Ireland where Irish scientists could study the beast at the University of Dublin. Two Irish scientist even warned Joe and Sam that Gorgo was still only an infant and that a much larger parent probably existed. One British scientist chimed in about Gorgo being a possible carrier of bacteria and disease. However, Ryan and Slade were to earn 30,000 pounds ($1,777.33 in American currency today) by delivering Gorgo to the circus. In one scene Gorgo, securely chained down on the flat back of a long truck, is driven through the city of London. For 5 shillings people could pay to see Gorgo in a cage. Londoners were warned to hurry because the monster could soon be going back to Ireland pending a court decision. 5 shillings in today’s currency would be around $54. The monster was named “Gorgo” in honor of Medusa, the Gorgon from Greek mythology. London was soon swept along by Gorgo-mania, heralding Beatlemania by a full year.
Orga’s destroying London Bridge and the Tower of London is on par with Godzilla blitzkrieg on Tokyo. Seeing Gorgo name in bright lights at Picadilly Circle as Orga looms over the cityscape is surreal. One weakness of this movie is that the scale between Gorgo and Orga changed drastically in the closing minutes.
Sean gets in the final moralistic statement of “You’re going back now. Back to sea.” Gorgo is a very good rival to Godzilla. However, one of them lives after being belted with bullets, bombs and electrical wires and retires as an undisputed champion of the world. The other has returned back many times to defend his crown and take on more punishment.
In conclusion, The Beast of 20,000 Fathoms and Godzilla are both are rightly considered sci-fi classics. Gorgo is more of a cult classic. The first feature-length film provided the blueprint for the following two films. These three films also served the ground rules for years to come: the dinosaur on the rampage. After all of these years, dinosaurs are still popular with movie audiences. The theme of new science defeating the product of bad science is also still here.
