This was the first of the "vs." films and would have been much better if Kong didn't look so ridiculous in it. Of course the original Kong was animated with stop motion photography and looked pretty realistic but in this movie Kong is a guy in a suit (surprise!) which doesn't look too sharp.
Godzilla emerges from the iceburg where he was buried in his last adventure and heads straight for Tokyo. There must be a monster magnet in Tokyo! Meanwhile a drug company has discovered King Kong on some remote island and for some reason decides that he needs to brought to Japan. Uh huh! Yep, that makes sense to me.
Well Kong gets free and starts on his quest to cause as much property damage as possible and then we find out that apes and lizards are natural enemies(!). A battle is bound to happen. The authorities seem to think this is good thing and they set Kong on Godzilla(!!). Now we know that Godzilla could whip Kong's tail any day but did you know that lightning makes Kong even stronger?! Nope? Well neither did I.
This movie is just good ol' fun, although the ending doesn't resolve the fight. And no the rumor that in the Japanese version Godzilla wins is false. the only difference is that in Japanese version we hear Godzilla's roar at the end.
CREDITS
Kingu Kongu tai Gojira (1962)
Released in U.S. as King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963)
CAST
Osamu Sakurai........................Tadao Takashima
Kinzaburo Furue............................Yu Fujiki
Kazuo Fujita............................Kenji Sahara
Fumiko Sakurai..............................Mie Hama
Tamiye.............................Akiko Wakabayashi
Mr. Tako.............................Ichiro Arishima
CREW
Director................................Ishiro Honda
Screenplay.........................Shinichi Sekizawa
Special Effects.......................Eiji Tsuburaya
Music..................................Akira Ifukube
Running Time: 98 minutes
U.S. VERSION
Released by Universal International
Producer...................................John Beck
Director...........................Thomas Montgomery
Music and Film Editor...................Peter Zinner
Eric Carter............................Michael Keith
Yataka Omura..............................James Yagi
Dr. Arnold Johnson....................Harry Holcombe
Running time: 90 minutes
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