Movie Review: The Lost World (1925)

The Lost World (1925) directed by Harry O. Hoyt from the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Professor Challenger (Wallace Beery) has returned to London with tales of a South American plateau where dinosaurs have survived and are still roaming around. He has no proof (his canoe tipped over dumping all his documents and samples) so the academic and scientific communities mock him. He does not take well--he's a brilliant scientist but also has (and this is a quote in the movie) "the temperament of a gorilla." He especially hates the press, which makes things awkward for Ed Malone (Lloyd Hughes), a low-level reporter who wants to impress his girlfriend by doing something brave and death defying. Getting an interview with Challenger would be frightening enough, but Ed goes the extra step and volunteers to go on a trip to South America. One of Challenger's comrades was trapped on the plateau and the friend's daughter Paula (Bessie Love) wants to go back immediately to rescue her dad. Ed is friends with Sir John Roxton (Lewis Stone), a famous hunter who is also friends with Challenger. They convince Challenger to take on Ed and they convince Ed's newspaper to finance the voyage, which at least will have the human interest story of rescuing Paula's father, even if there aren't any dinosaurs. The movie then gets to that South American plateau which is full of dinosaurs.

This classic silent film was the first adaptation of Doyle's novel of the same name. It is mostly faithful to the book, with an extra love interest added in the shape of Paula. She has a few too many "shocked and fearful" reactions as they confront various creatures but she also has more character too. The effects are by the same specialist that would go on to make King Kong, so they are top-notch for a hundred years ago. The story is fun though in the following century plenty of other films have copied the same story beats, so the plot is very familiar. There is a mildly annoying blackface character but his role is quite small. There's also a lovable comic-relief monkey named Jocko (played by Jocko, go figure), another recurring cliche that probably originated in this film. 

Recommended--this is a classic from the silent era and is the source for a lot of big-monster cinema that has come after it.

I watched this on Kanopy, which has two different versions with two different soundtracks. I watched the Flicker Alley edition, which has the restoration from 2016 (1 hour, 44 minutes) with a fairly standard orchestral soundtrack. 

Dual/Duel Review: Gojira/Godzilla, King of the Monsters

Dual/Duel reviews are an online smackdown between two books, movies, games, podcasts, etc. etc. that I think are interesting to compare, contrast, and comment on. For a list of other dual/duel reviews, go here.

Continuing a little Godzilla series (I certainly can't review every Godzilla movie ever made!), here's a comparison of the original film and its American re-edit starring Raymond Burr. As a child, I saw the Burr version on television many times. Is the original better enough to replace it in my Godzilla-loving heart?

Contender #1 Gojira (1954) co-written and directed by Ishiro Honda

Boats start mysteriously disappearing off the coast of Japan. Most of the disappearances are near Odo Island which is experiencing a huge drop in fishing. The villagers blame a sea creature named "Godzilla." Reporters come to investigate. That night, a storm hits and Godzilla rampages on the island. The islanders head to the mainland to get disaster relief from the Japanese government. The government sends paleontologist Yamane (Takashi Shimura) who discovers radioactive footprints and a trilobite from the dinosaur age. The trilobites died out millions of years ago but this one is alive. He reports his findings, claiming the monster is 160 feet tall and probably arose because of underwater hydrogen bomb testing. The government officials debate about letting the public know and decide to send some frigates to depth-charge Godzilla to death. Yamane does not want Godzilla killed since this is a good opportunity to learn more.

Yamane's daughter Emiko (Momoko Kochi) is engaged to another scientist, Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata). But she is in love with a salvage ship captain named Ogata (Akira Takarada) and wants to break off the engagement. A reporter wants to see Serizawa so Emiko bring him to the isolated scientist's home. He refuses to tell the reporter what he is working on though he shows it offscreen to Emiko who is horrified by his invention. He swears her to secrecy.

Godzilla shows up in Tokyo Bay and causes a lot of destruction before returning to the ocean. The military decides to string up high-voltage electric wires as a fence to block Godzilla's advances. Yamane goes back home to discover Emiko and Ogata. Ogata argues that the damaged caused by Godzilla outweighs any benefit they might get from studying him. Obviously, he does not get permission to marry Yamane's daughter. 

Godzilla return to Tokyo and uses atomic breath to get through the electric fence. He causes more devastation, horrifying Emiko so much that she reveals Serizawa's invention--a machine that destroys oxygen in water leading to the death of any living things in it. Emiko and Ogata go to Serizawa to beg for the invention to fight Godzilla. Serizawa is worried it will turn into a superweapon that all countries will want and initially refuses to cooperate. Then he sees the destruction on television and relents, though he burns all his notes. 

Ogata and Serizawa take a navy ship to deliver the device in the bay. Serizawa goes down to activate the device but cuts off his air tube. He dies with the secret of the oxygen destroyer. The machine works to kill Godzilla, but Yamane warns in the finale that future nuclear testing may bring out other Godzillas in the future.

Contender #2 Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956) with additional directing and scenes by Terry O. Morse

The movie opens with a montage of the destruction that Godzilla has wrought in Tokyo. That, and a voiceover by main star Raymond Burr explaining what we are seeing and what is going on. Burr's character is Steve Martin (no joke!), a reporter traveling to Cairo with a four-day stopover in Tokyo. The story jumps back a couple of days before the devastation. Martin wants to visit an old college friend, Doctor Serizawa, who happens to be out of town. Serizawa's assistant takes Martin under his wing and they observe a lot of the press conferences and government meetings about the ships disappearing, i.e. footage from the original film. The assistant provides translations as Martin knowingly nods or asks questions. The plot follows the same course with a lot of editing in of Burr and a lot of editing out to fit a reasonable run time.

The editing out is fairly significant. The whole theme of the dangers of nuclear weapons is sidelined, with only hints that maybe Godzilla was awakened from Jurassic slumber by H-bombs. The slow build up to the reveal of Godzilla isn't there either. The moral posturing and struggling by the characters barely shows up. The love triangle between Ogata, Emiko, and Serizawa is there but handled very briefly. Any tension in the relationships of the characters is gone.

Godzilla's destructive rampages are left in, since he is the star of the show (though getting less screen time than Burr). Burr does an okay job as an actor reacting to the devastation and horror but all the Japanese actors from the original are more convincing, even in the edited down depiction. The voiceover is almost constant and seems at times like narration for the blind. Steve Martin explains practically everything, though he does not end the film with a warning about future Godzillas or the dangers of nuclear weapons. 

Which is better?

Even though I loved the Raymond Burr version as a kid (which was the only one available), it looks so flawed to my adult eyes, even if you haven't seen the original. The voiceover is often unnecessary. The dubbing of the Japanese characters only works occasionally. The voices of the original actors (which sound very different from their American replacements) can be heard when a character is crying or just saying a name. The filmmakers should have redubbed everything. The footage with Raymond Burr has a better quality visually, making it stick out from the Japanese scenes. He was clearly on a sound stage almost all the time, something I probably didn't notice as a kid. Somehow, the version with additional American scenes is 80 minutes long while the original is 96 minutes. The movie lost a lot getting recut for an American audience.

It's hard not to see the original as much better.

Winner:

Gojira 

Loser:

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! 

Criterion has both films packaged together but my library had the Sony Wonder set. Try them out for yourself!

Movie Review: Gamera the Giant Monster (1965)

Gamera the Giant Monster (1965) directed by Noriaki Yuasa

Cold War tensions over the Arctic are high. A U.S. aircraft shoots down some unidentified planes invading U.S. airspace. Since every military airplane in the 1960s carried atomic weapons, the crashing ship causes a large explosion that cracks the ice and sends radiation below. The blast revives Gamera, a saber-toothed, sixty meter tall turtle that can walk on its hind legs, breath (and eat) fire, and fly through the air. Gamera attacks Japan, which uses its military might and its scientific prowess to stop the monster. Both fail, forcing them to establish an international committee of scientists who craft an ultimate plan to foil the unstoppable terrapin, the mysterious Plan Z.

If that wasn't enough plot, this b-movie has a b-story. A small boy is fascinated with turtles and is forced by his family to free a pet turtle he named "Pee Wee." He happens to release Pee Wee on the same beach where Gamera shows up, convincing him that Gamera is Pee Wee all grown up and that Gamera will cause no harm. Gamera does save the boy later, endearing the giant turtle all the more to the young boy, who improbably keeps showing up throughout the story. This side story is clearly meant to draw in little kids and show a sympathetic side of Gamera.

The overall story is very obvious and the symbolism is extremely heavy-handed. The movie is like a treasure trove of kaiju cliches. Gamera is futilely attacked by the Japanese army. He crushes cities and countrysides like they are cheaply made miniatures. Science is the only thing that can really stop such a bully. And atomic energy is bad. The only cliche missing is a fight with other similar (but more villainous) kaiju. The film makers saved that for the sequels, according to the special features.

Even with its flaws, I enjoyed the movie, though that is mostly due to happy memories of watching it as a child and cheering for the monster who saves little boys. For others, it will most likely be a less endearing experience.

Mildly recommended, if you have a soft spot for turtles, heroic monsters, or happy memories of The 4:30 Movie showing stuff like this.

Movie Review: Godzilla (2014)

Godzilla (2014) directed by Gareth Edwards

Two scientists (Ken Wantanabe and Sally Hawkins) have been investigating prehistoric creatures for decades. In 1999, a Japanese nuclear plant had a meltdown caused by some odd seismic activity. One of the techs, Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston), was gathering data and managed to escape with his son but not his wife. Fifteen years later, Joe is still obsessed with finding out what happened to the reactor. The area is under quarantine but that doesn't stop him from breaking in. His son, Ford Brody (Arron Taylor-Johnson) is grown up with a wife and child of his own. He comes back to Japan to bail his dad out again. Joe convinces his son to go back into the quarantine area because a very similar set of seismic activity is happening. They wind up at a secret base run by the two scientists, who are studying a prehistoric spore. The spore hatches, causing mayhem all around. Several monsters show up, with Godzilla squaring off against a pair of monsters trying to spawn more offspring, which would be bad for humanity.

The movie has a slow build-up, establishing characters and detailing what sort of creatures are around and what  powers they have. The focus stays on the humans and how they plan, react, and cope with new threats from the ancient past. Often, the monsters are fighting in the background or are mostly off screen, which works well to keep them mysterious and more overwhelming. The pace picks up as the monsters head to San Francisco and have a classic battle that destroys as much of the town as it does the monsters. Director Edwards indirect style makes the action more interesting and less like a CGI slap around. The movie looks great and finishes well.

The original Godzilla movie from 1954 had a thoughtful reflection on the dangers of atomic power and weapons. The sequels quickly turned into Godzilla fighting whatever monsters Toho studio came up with. This movie respects that tradition by having the sort of nuclear power plant accident everyone dreads. It moves on to a big battle scene at the end reminiscent of the "Godzilla Vs. the Next Offering from the Enemy of the Month Club" movies. This movie is satisfying all around, if you are a Godzilla fan.

Recommended.