The Wrath of Godzilla, Part 4: What Rough Beast

After seven years, Godzilla returns.  And he's not alone. . .


King Kong vs Godzilla (1962)

A normally cold ocean current near Japan is warming up and peppered with icebergs, so the U.N. sends a nuclear submarine to investigate.  The dumbass sub captain runs the ship into one of the icebergs and frees Godzilla, who's been trapped beneath the arctic ice since the climax of "Godzilla Raids Again".  No doubt his body temperature was responsible for the warming of the ocean currents.  Now, frostbitten and royally pissed off, Godzilla stomps towards Japan to exact some righteous revenge.

Meanwhile, a pharmaceutical company has discovered a new kind of berry which produces narcotic effects when eaten.  This berry can only be found on Faro Island, located somewhere near the Soloman Islands (and just to the left of Mothra's home base, Infant Island).  The local natives use the berry to placate a giant "monster god" named Kong (a big ape, duh).  Tokyo Television exec, Mr. Taco (yeah, I know it's supposed to be "Mr.Tako" but "Taco" is more amusing) sends out two of his goons to find Kong and bring him back to the mainland, you know, to boost T.V. ratings.  After the goons make good with the natives by giving them transistor radios and cigarettes ("It's okay!  They're all smoking!"), a giant octopus slurps up out of the ocean and tries to sip on some of the natives' supply of red berry juice.  Kong ain't havin' none of that, so he busts into the village and beats the snot out of the octopus, who then slurps away in shame.  Kong sees the free juice and goes on a bender, sucking down barrels of the stuff like grandpa's old cough medicine.  Drunk off his ass, he passes out.  The goons see their chance, so they tie Kong to a giant raft and haul him back to Japan.

Godzilla continues to blaze through Japan, and the military can't seem to stop him.  Government officials, understandably nervous, forbid Kong from being brought ashore.  That's alright, though.  Kong frees himself from the raft anyway.  After briefly meeting Godzilla (who shoots his radioactive breath at Kong), the big ape says "screw this" and lopes off to Tokyo, where he monkeys around for a while, even managing to pick up a cute local girl.  The goons, in league with the authorities, come up with a plan.  They explode berry-filled bombs over Kong's head.  He sniffs the happy happy berry smoke and passes out, again, so the government lifts him up with a couple of helicopters, flies him over to Mt. Fuji, and drops him on Godzilla's head.  A battle royale ensues, famous landmarks are destroyed, wrestling moves are stunningly executed, and, after an unseen climactic underwater skirmish (Spoiler Alert), Kong rises from beneath the water and swims out to sea, apparently victorious.

The story of how this movie came to be is somewhat labyrinthine and convoluted, so I'll do my best to sum it up.  After the success of "King Kong" (1933) and its successful sequel "Son of Kong" (1933), Willis O'Brien, the special effects master who brought the monster to life via stop motion animation, acquired the rights to the character and tried to get a third movie off the ground called "King Kong vs Frankenstein".  He had a script written and some production sketches, now all he needed was a movie studio to provide the backing to get the picture made.  No luck in Hollywood, so the guy O'Brien hired to help shop the project around went behind his employer's back and sold the rights to Toho Studios.  Much litigation followed, but Toho now had the legal rights to the characters and a first draft script to go with them.  With 1962 being Toho's 30th anniversary, they decided to replace Frankenstein's monster with their own homegrown beast - Godzilla (don't worry, Toho would make a couple of movies about a giant Frankenstein's monster a few years down the road - keep watching this blog).  They also brought in the same production team who made the original "Gojira" (the guys - Honda, Tsuburya, Ifukube - who've made all of the films I've reviewed so far, except "Godzilla Raids Again"). 

Goofy and cheesy, with the funniest looking King Kong you've every seen, "King Kong vs Godzilla" is a masterpiece of camp.  Toho injected "Mothra"-style fun and adventure into this flick, no doubt trying to recapture that movie's success - and succeed it did!  It was the most profitable Godzilla movie of all time!  Well, to this day.

Funny bits - during the course of the movie, Kong is rejuvenated a couple of times by infusing himself with electrical energy, no doubt a holdover from when Frankenstein was meant to be in the film.  And there was a long-standing rumor that Toho had shot two different endings for the movie: an American version where King Kong wins, and a Japanese version where Godzilla wins.  This is false - (Spoiler Alert) there is only one version, and in that version, Kong wins.  And it's kind of funny how the hometown boy (Big G) gets so soundly defeated by a big goofy American ape.

King Kong Escapes (1967)

King Kong now lives the quiet life on Mondo Island, with only a crazy old man and a bunch of dinosaurs to keep him company.  Unbeknownst to our simian hero, a mad scientist named Dr. Hu (not Doctor Who) has been commissioned by the gorgeous agent of an unnamed Asian country to mine something called Element X out of the arctic.  This unnamed Asian country plans to use Element X to develop powerful weapons and become THE dominant world superpower.  So how does Dr. Hu plan on mining this dangerous element for our evil lady agent?  Weeeeelll, using detailed studies of Kong taken by a Kong expert, Hu has created a robot version of Kong (Mecha Kong!) to mine Element X.  What a simple solution!  Unfortunately, Mecha Kong sucks.  He breaks down on the first day of the job.  Curses!  Time for Plan B. . .

Meanwhile, a U.N. submarine (the Explorer) is looking for oil in the South Pacific.  It sustains some rudder damage and needs to be repaired, so the sub docks near Mondo Island.  The sub's captain is the aforementioned Kong expert named Nelson (played by American actor Rhodes Reason), who decides to take his fellow crewmates (a spunky nurse played by Wanda Miller, and Japanese actor Akira Takarada, a Godzilla movie veteran) on a little sightseeing tour.  This little tour turns disastrous when Kong fall for the cute blond nurse and has to defend her from a giant T-Rex (called Gorosaurus) and an enormous water moccasin.  In the end, though, the woman just tells Kong to go away, so he walks back home, head down, shoulders slumped.  What's an ape gotta do?  The sub gets repaired and the humans leave.

Dr. Hu shoots Kong's crazy old man companion, apenaps Kong and hauls him to the arctic.  Nelson and his cronies return to Mondo Island, having received official permission from the U.N. to study the place.  They find the dying old man and discover that Dr. Hu is the culprit.

Dr. Hu, by the way, wears a Dracula cape, has terrible teeth and is referred to, in the movie, as an "Oriental skeleton".

Using a mind control device, Dr. Hu sends Kong to dig for Element X.  Being in proximity to the element, however, disables the mind control device, and KING KONG ESCAPES from Dr. Hu's arctic base.  Of course he has help from the evil agent lady (played by Mie Hama, who was also in "King Kong vs Godzilla", playing a totally different character), who has a change of heart and assists the big gorilla.  Hu shoots her, then sends Mecha Kong after the escaped ape.

Kong, naturally, heads directly for Tokyo (from the North Pole?).  Mecha Kong steals the cute nurse from the sub and climbs Tokyo Tower.  Kong follows, rescues the girl, and knocks the robot off the tower, who hits the ground and smashes to pieces.  Next Kong heads over to Dr. Hu's control boat and goes apeshit on it, killing our villain.  Then he throws his arms in the air, jumps into the ocean, and (Spoiler Alert) swims the hell away from all these stupid humans, never to be seen again.   And he wasn't, at least not in the Toho universe.  The only monster from "King Kong Escapes" who would return was Gorosaurus.  He'd show up again in "Destroy All Monsters" (1969).  Technically, it's probably a different Gorosaurus, since the one in "King Kong Escapes" probably didn't survive getting its jaws ripped open, original King Kong ('33) style.

This is another fun slice of camp from the makers of "King Kong vs Godzilla".  There was a heavy James Bond influence on this movie, since Bond mania was in full swing in 1967, especially evident in the character of  Dr. Hu, who resembles an over-the-top Bond villain, like Dr. No.  Heck, actress Mie Hama was officially a Bond Girl when she co-starred in "You Only Live Twice", which came out the same year (1967).  And Rhodes Reason is kind of a Bond-ish hero, as well.  Well, Bond-ish looking.  He doesn't really do much to advance the plot of "King Kong Escapes", he's just there to add an American flavor to the film.  He's kind of lame, actually.

Kong himself is the real hero.  I totally identify with the big ape.  You break your neck to impress a lady by fighting dinosaurs, giant robots, and mad scientists, but she just leaves you in the dust to go hang out with some square-jawed lame-o who stands around in a submarine and does absolutely nothing except go on sightseeing tours in a government funded vehicle when he should be performing his jobly duties.  It's the same old story, over and over again.  Sometimes I want to "pull a Kong" and just swim out to sea, maybe find my own private island full of dinosaurs and dancing native girls.  That sounds like the life.

Next time - nasty beasties from under the sea!