Monster of the Day #1610

Updated on August 17, 2017 By Ken Begg 19 Comments

Meh. Nobody’s best work here, I think. Still, these suits you had to kneel in all the time must have been quite a pain.

Pin It



Related Posts

  • I have no idea why, but I’ve got a fondness for Varan. I keep hoping for a Varan renaissance, i.e. another movie appearance beyond a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo.

    I mean, the most recent Godzilla video game has three “different” versions of MechaGodzilla, but not a single Varan. Even Jet Jaugar pops up, for pity’s sake. Really kind of sad.

    I think the only other Toho monsters that don’t get enough (or any, really) face time are the Gargantuas. Really like those guys.

  • bgbear_rnh

    I watched the Americanized version of Varan recently and it was fun trying to figure out what the original film plot must have been.

  • Rock Baker

    One of those where the Americanized cut is actually superior to the original version. I sure wish it would get a pristine scope release on disk, because the movie cries out for one.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Where did you get the American version? I have the Japanese one on DVD, and I’d love to see what AIP/whoever it was did with it.

  • Flangepart

    Might try “The Godzilla Podcast”. Tried to link to it, but Discus did not approve.

  • bgbear_rnh

    I believe I watched it on Amazon Prime which means it is probably on DVD from Amazon.

  • Rock Baker

    Crown International released the 1962 version. It was issued on DVD (cropped, of course, probably a recording from the previous VHS release) by Synergy Entertainment in 2011.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Thanks! I’ll have to watch it there.

  • Eric Hinkle

    OT question but why can I no longer see any of the older screenshots and pictures on the site? All I get is a box reading “Please Update Your Account To Enable Third Party Hosting”. Is this happening to anyone else?

  • Ericb

    Yes. Ken changed the hosting site for photos a little while ago (well time flies so it may have been quite a while ago) so I just assumed that the old hosting site stopped hosting the photos on the older reviews.

  • Ken_Begg

    Well, more like the hosting site changed on me, but yes, those photos are gone. Don’t worry, as soon as I monitize the site and make my fortune I’ll hire a vast staff to fix stuff like that.

    Should be any day now.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Sorry to hear it. The site is still great, and as long as the reviews and articles are in one piece that’s good.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Thanks for explaining.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Oh, I suppose everyone heard the news about Jerry Lewis?

  • Flangepart

    Found out at The Bleat. Lewis was a strange cat, and he inspired one of the great side characters in Animaniacs, ‘Mr. Director.’

  • Gamera977

    Oh gawd, they weren’t on PhotoBucket were they???

  • Beckoning Chasm

    On another forum, a guy discovered that if you append “-original” to the file name, the image comes back. I’ll try to get more details on this.

  • The Rev.

    This is one of the few I’ve not seen the original version of. But the Americanized version is actually better? Yikes. I may not be in any hurry to see it now…

  • Rock Baker

    They’re really two different animals. The Japanese version does meander a bit, though, compared to the somewhat tighter re-arrangement in the American version (which relocates all the action to one island which has a primitive end and a modern city on the other end -thus creating a far more interesting fictional location). Also, as much as it’s been derided over the years, the human drama is a lot more compelling in the American cut than it was in the Japanese script. In terms of technical competence, of course, Toho’s craftsmen are at the top of their game, but as is sometimes the case during this period they lack a really good story to go with it. We’re talking degrees here, obviously, but any objective viewer would conclude that the comparatively threadbare American production improves quite a bit on the expensive-but-uninvolving Japanese film.