King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) Saturday Monster Movies

Both Godzilla’s and King Kong’s third cinematic appearance—as well as their first each in color—is an entertaining romp. Even though it is the meeting of two cinematic monster giants, they only have their size in common. The Kong side of the story stays true to its materialistic theme. A comically silly pharmaceutical company executive seeks out Kong to make money. Meanwhile, Godzilla is still firmly in his threat-to-humankind stage. The two monsters are brought together in hopes they will eliminate each other. Rather than the stop-motion effects of previous Kong films, this one puts a man in a suit. It is a less convincing effect since we are used to seeing what Gorillas should look like. Future Godzilla movies will stick to more dinosaur, or alien-like creatures going forward. The US put out a heavily edited version, that is only a few minutes shorter, but with extensive edits and whole sections added. More on that version next week.