Review of The War of the Gargantuas

Well, I have an awfully big spot in my heart for the Toho Godzilla films of the 60's and 70's. I had never seen this one, learned it was a sequel to a film about Frankenstein I also had never seen, and ended up thoroughly enjoying it. I saw the American version where just about every vestige that might relate itself to Frankenstein Vs. Baragon had been eliminated. Here we have two gargantuas - Gaira and Sanda - clearly related yet very different. One is green. The other beige if you will. One, the green one, spends most of its time in the sea, the other on land. One hates bright lights. The other does not mind at all. One eats people. The other is friendly toward people. The list of comparisons and contrast could go on even longer. What does appear to be true is that the green one came from the brown one when it scraped some of itself somewhere or somehow its cell scattered thus creating Gaira. Gaira is the bad one. Sanda is the good one. Anyway, before we get to their "epic" battle we find that the brown one had once been small and studied at a scientific institute led by the blandest, hip-looking scientist alive - Amerian Russ Tamblyn. Tamblyn looks SO bored throughout the picture and utters his lines with absolutely no conviction at all. He is just awful in this. Fortunately for us, his pretty assistant does a good job. Toho regular Kumi Mizumo gives this film some much needed pulse. But lest you believe the living humans are the most important characters in the film - they are really the two monsters and director Ishiro Honda. The opening scene with Gaira and the squid and the ship was very compelling. The miniature sets and those cool tank-like machines that emit electrical currents also were most impressive. Honda was always a very good director. American producer and president of American International Pictures Henry Saperstein barely gives Honda any credit for his name is jumbled with all the other film credits while his name(Saperstein's) is huge - several times. Yeah, he was a big shot! This is a pleasant film with some great scenes and also some funny scenes - not though I am sure they were meant to be. As I said the opening scene is probably the best. But the scene where Gaira is temporarily defeated by those cool machines is another great scene as is the scene where the two monsters meet in the deserted city and finally take their fight to the sea. Gaira also eats a woman on screen - something I never recall seeing in a Godzilla picture. But we also get a ridiculous scene of a beautiful American redhead(the lovely and unfortunately shortly-lived Kipp Hamilton) crooning a ridiculous song("The words get stuck in my throat") when Gaira comes up from behind and attacks. How about the scene with the uber-happy hikers? And there is Russ Tamblyn. He is VERY bad. Notwithstanding all of that, I enjoyed War of the Gargantuas immensely.