SummaryA 400-foot (122-meter) dinosaur-like beast, awoken from undersea hibernation off the Japanese coast by atomic-bomb testing, attacks Tokyo.
Directed By:Ishirô Honda, Terry O. Morse
Written By:Shigeru Kayama, Takeo Murata, Ishirô Honda, Tomoyuki Tanaka, Terry O. Morse, Al C. Ward
Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
Metascore
Generally Favorable
61
User score
Generally Favorable
6.4
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
61
63% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
25% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
13% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
91
Godzilla is still the most awesome of tacky movie monsters — a Jurassic knockoff of King Kong whose ritual stomping of Tokyo never quite lets you forget that you’re watching a man in a lizard suit trash a very elaborate toy train set.
80
Godzilla, King of the Monsters! is the story that began it all, laying the themes of Japanese kaiju that would endure for decades.
User score
Generally Favorable
6.4
55% Positive
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
32% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
14% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Apr 18, 2020
10
Great monster movie,a lot of great and memorable moments!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sep 23, 2021
8
This is actually the reedited version of the first Godzilla movie for the US market. So it is still the movie that started the franchise and made the Kaiju genre a household name around the world. Godzilla has transcended the media as I do not know any person who has not at least heard of him. It started as allegory of the dangers of nuclear bombs, dangers of radiation and their consequences. Japan is the only country which suffered a nuclear attack and I say this was a unnecessary crime. By the way when friends and I visited Japan Hiroshima was on our schedule. It was a unique experience that changed us and I would recommend it. Back to the review. The Japanese Production studio Toho was contacted for the rights to Godzilla. It was decided to make changes for the US market or better said audience. To be fair the changes are not that major as the star of the movie is still Godzilla. However the Godzilla movie or basically most Kaiju movies are not for everyone. They have a B movie charm, are often enjoyable silly and some are in the “So bad that it is good” category. Also they are immensely entertaining in a way that is hard to describe. The story follows American reporter Steve Martin (No not the entertainer) as he is investigating a series of strange ship wreckage's near the coast of Japan. A survivor tells a story of an island where the native worship a sea monster as god named Godzilla. He will dig deeper into the matter but his uncovering will surpass his wildest imaginations. I stop here because of spoilers even when everyone should know what will happen in a Godzilla movie. The story works well for the genre. However I do not know if it works as well for non fans. It is in the realm of classic movies that aged a bit. The actors are fine and I think Raymond Burr is excellent here. He is an actor I liked in many roles and he will be forever remembered as Perry Mason. Other than him I praise Takashi Shimura as Dr. Yamane, Momoko Kochi as Emiko and Akira Takarada as Ogata. For the special effects I must admit that those definitely aged badly. Strangely some kind of cheesiness became a staple of the Godzilla movies for a time so I am not sure how to rate this. Overall this is the American version of a classic. Will not say that it is butchered as modern movies would make this statement ridiculousness. In general you need a soft spot for this genre which I have but this prevents me from making recommendations.
75
While much of Godzilla, King of the Monsters is second-rate, there's no doubt that you're watching a star being born.
63
This is the one Godzilla movie in which the title character plays second fiddle to the humans. While the film's moral and ethical situations are interesting, they are not as compelling as the film's adherents would have us believe, and their resolutions are simplistic.
60
The Americans got hold of the much superior Japanese original, Godzilla, and edited into it 20 minutes-worth of Burr, with his vacant and oddly stiff expression, in order to spice things up. Still, without Godzilla: King of the Monsters!, the awesome cinematic hero might have remained a merely regional success, a giant Japanese lizard confined to its own country.
40
The 1956 film, which adds Raymond Burr as reporter Steve Martin, feels like watching the original version through a foggy window. The end result is the feeling that something is missing.
30
The whole thing is in the category of cheap cinematic horror-stuff.
Jun 7, 2024
6
it's an Americanized version of the first Godzilla movie and it reuses a lot of the scenes from the original movie but it changes some dialogue and the story follows someone visiting Japan
Aug 17, 2025
4
After the success of Godzilla in 1954, American producer Edmund Goldman bought the rights to adapt the film for the U.S. market. His plan was to dub it in English, cut and add scenes, and insert a Western actor, convinced that American audiences wouldn’t care about Asian actors. Raymond Burr was hired to star in a film that already existed, while director Terry O. Morse created a new storyline combining original footage with Burr’s new scenes. Only the main actors were dubbed in English; the rest retained their original voices, though the subtitles often told a completely different story. The English dubbing was completed in just five hours, and Burr filmed all his scenes in a single day. In France, this American version was shown until 1997, when the original 1954 Japanese version finally became available. The U.S. reused the approach in 1985 for Godzilla 1985, adding Burr to the remake of Godzilla Raids Again, but only for American audiences. This American version removes Serizawa’s arc and the nuclear fear, including references to radiation and Hiroshima, fundamentally changing the film. Godzilla, King of the Monsters tells a completely different story centered on a Western journalist who happens to be there, a technical feat for the time but one that strips the original film of its soul and power.
Jun 30, 2024
0
Even summary says "A 400-foot (122-meter) dinosaur-like beast", that's wrong calculation in 1956. As it turnout that its only 165 feet (50 meters) and weigh more than 20,000 tons. American is the third worse country ever I never stood up on of...
Jun 29, 2024
0
As Japanese version I blame for Roger Ebert’s review giving negative response to aside from that, American edited film was a very too confiscate similar to original a delusional way. Ebert deserves being intimidated.
Production Company:
- Toho
Release Date:Apr 27, 1956
Duration:1 h 20 m
Rating:TV-PG
Tagline:Makes KING KONG look like a Midget!
Awards
TV Land Awards
• 1 Nomination
