ornaments
godzilla king of the monsters
filmed in 1954 as gojira this grandaddy of all japanese giant reptile epics was picked up for american distribution two years later at which time several newly filmed inserts featuring raymond burr as reporter % steve martin were rabetted into the original footage . in both the japanese and american versions of godzilla the story is basically the same a 400 foot amphibious monster brought back to life by underwater nuclear testing goes on a rampage in a tinker toy tokyo . an eccentric scientist takashi shimura does his best to destroy the beast with his heretofore discredited invention the oxygen destroyer . though godzilla is apparently disintegrated in the climax this didnt prevent toho studios from grinding out an endless series of sequels with the title character becoming less destructive and more lovable with each subsequent film . hampered by a low budget which precluded stop motion animation special effects wizard eiji tsuburaya was forced to rely upon an actor haru nakajima in a rubber godzilla suit . incidentally the name gojira a combination of gorilla and kujira is japanese slang for big clumsy ox and was allegedly the nickname of one of the toho stagehands . hal erickson all movie guide .