Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

[Tamura]

Thanks! You may notice that it is longer than the splicy copy featured on the ALL MONSTER ATTACK compilation.

[Ethan]

Restoring the trailers is a great idea. Do you think there's a way to replicate the text/transitions in them? Because until prints of these trailers are found this is the best way to go.

Speaking of which, I've noticed some music from It Came From Outer Space and The Deadly Mantis in there.

[Tamura]

I don't know how to replicate the font of the text very easily, but I'm good at adding gate weave, which makes the text look more like optical supers.

[Space Hunter M]

Here is the exciting US theatrical trailer which uses stock THIS ISLAND EARTH cues to good effect, giving it a great, '50s Universal monster atmosphere. I recreated the trailer without text:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlu6dOqKBEE

Oh man, that's some great recreation work you did there.
The U.S. trailer alone, from what I've seen, is better and more exciting than the John Beck cut itself.

You should seriously consider doing this with more trailers.

[RogueShuffler]

Love this movie and I always will. Awesome plot, awesome characters, and the acting isnt as terrible as some later G films. Even some of the dubbing is acceptable (havent seen the japanese version yet) I actually really like the Godzilla suit in this movie something about it just really clicks with me, dunno what it is. Kong and Godzilla both have a lot of personality here too, and when they fight it is something that really just grabs your attention. One of the best Showa films in my opinion

[Space Hunter M]

Concerning the trailer, any chance I can secure a copy for my own, personal viewing?

[Tamura]

Don't you all just love Pashin Boy?

[King Caesar]

.

"After years of work, I found the square root of nine is threeee!!"

Now that I've had my fun, KKvG is probably one of my favorite early Godzilla movies. It may not have the glitz and glamour of Mothra vs Godzilla or the original, but I just like this movie for so many reasons...I grew up on it really. (Along with MvG, but I think the lack of campy-ness kept me from liking it when I was younger)

[Goji]

^ Spoken for truth.

With that said though, I can't bear to watch the John Beck version anymore, which is odd, because I'm a sucker for nostalgia, and it was the second Godzilla film I ever saw. I think it's because the film's editing/pacing/changes in music are so much more jarring to me now that I'm older, that it almost ruins the film for me at times.

Hell, I can't even watch the R2 anymore after Tamura's restoration of the JP version. Nothing compares. I really am curious to see how Toho handles an eventual BD release..

[Space Hunter M]

I really am curious to see how Toho handles an eventual BD release..

I think they'll probably just use the HD broadcast.

[Tamura]

That's possible, but they could also replace the LD-only shots in the HDTV version with the corresponding shots from the 16mm internegative. I'd take a transfer from a 16mm film element, no matter how faded it seems to be now, over a dated LD transfer that also happens to have shitty color and is one of the worst reconstructions I have ever seen.

[Huan_of_Valinor]

so i was watching the MST3K episode of "Hurcules and the Captive Woman" and i heard something on the soundtrack that made me go "heeyyyyyyy i recognize that!"

i never thought the replaced music was a big deal, partially because i've never heard the original, but hearing the same music from a godzilla movie as i know it in a hurcules movie has made me suddenly really wanna see the original version

[Goji]

So HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN features a stock track from Beck's version of KKvsG? Looks like that "overseas music" article on the main site needs updating!

[Huan_of_Valinor]

So HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN features a stock track from Beck's version of KKvsG? Looks like that "overseas music" article on the main site needs updating!

i thought maybe it was the other way around, but one way or the other it's either a track that sounds a lot like it or it's one and the same.

www.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&hl=en&clien ... jG1FPi0T3A : in the scene starting around the 36 minute mark, i plays throughout the battle sequence, here and there

[Tamura]

That sounds like music composed for CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, a classic movie that both HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN and John Beck's KKvsG lifted tracks from.

[Huan_of_Valinor]

^^ really???? Wow... the plot thickens

[therealmccoy]

That sounds like music composed for CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, a classic movie that both HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN and John Beck's KKvsG lifted tracks from.

It is; Henry Mancini did the score for that movie, and it has some good music. I thought what they used in King Kong vs. Godzilla worked fairly well. I still prefer the original track, but that was a good source of stock music, if you ask me.

[Tamura]

Hans Salter, Herman Stein, Milton Rosen, and Robert Emmett Dolan also did CREATURE's score. Most of Beck's KKvsG is Hans Salter. IMO, the US score is just as enjoyable as Ifukube's original.

[Space Hunter M]

IMO, the US score is just as enjoyable as Ifukube's original.

The music itself is good, it's just not used in proper context and is very unfitting for the movie's tone, like most of the other changes made.

[Tamura]

Thought it would be appropriate to post this here: