In this Halloween month, TCM offers the third annual installment of our Monster of the Month series, in which we highlight a famous monster that has captured the public's fear and fascination over the decades. Following in the horrific footsteps of the Frankenstein monster, Dracula and the Mummy, this year's monster is that terrible lizard himself, Godzilla.

Since the original Japanese film Godzilla was released in 1954, the radioactive monster has become a cultural phenomenon, inspiring 35 sequels or follow-ups, plus numerous other appearances in video games, books, comics, toys and other media. The Godzilla films have been cited by Guinness World Records as the longest-running movie franchise in history. The most recent installment of the series, Godzilla, King of the Monsters (2019), was released in May of this year by Warner Bros.

The creature's influence as a multi-national icon casts an even wider net. Among the filmmakers acknowledging a debt to Godzilla is Steven Spielberg, director of 1993's Jurassic Park. There have been endless parodies, imitations and rip-offs of the Godzilla epics.

Sometimes viewed by more mainstream audiences as a campy caricature of a senseless monster from "drive-in cinema" who is hell-bent on destruction, Godzilla is actually a robust character with iconic status, political significance and many relatable qualities. To his devoted fans, the creature is both destroyer and protector, winner and loser, king and father, fearsome opponent and honorable ally, a symbol of humanity's horrors and its capacity for hope. He's also a lot of fun.

The original Godzilla, a.k.a. Gojira in Japan, was directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. These effects are credited with establishing the model for tokusatsu, a Japanese word for live-action filming that incorporates "suitmation." This inexpensive yet craftsman-like process features stunt performers wearing rubber suits and interacting with miniature sets. In the original film, Godzilla was played by Haruo Nakajima (who would recreate the role in 11 more films) and Katsumi Tezuka (who played the monster in a couple of subsequent movies).

The storyline of the original film begins with Japan becoming panic-stricken after the sinking of several ships is attributed to a legendary creature: an enormous prehistoric sea monster that has been awakened and empowered by nuclear radiation. Matters escalate until Godzilla, a gargantuan reptile with radioactive breath, is essentially at war with Tokyo. (Spoiler alert: Tokyo loses.)

The film became an enormous hit in its native Japan, where memories of the World War II atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the nuclear testing that followed, were still fresh in 1954. Critic J. Hoberman has described Godzilla as "the great movie monster of the post-World War II period, in part because Honda seems to have conceived this primordial force of nature as a living mushroom cloud."

Some academics have theorized that because of their experiences during the war, Japanese viewers felt an emotional connection to Godzilla's history as a victim. Some found his story to be a helpful coping method in moving on from wartime events and atrocities. Writing on the website for New York magazine, Mark Jacobson described the creature as "the symbol of a world gone wrong...a reptilian id that lives inside the deepest recesses of the collective unconscious..."

The original Godzilla established the Japanese film genre kaijū, in which giant monsters are featured, and formed the basis for the success of its producer, the Toho film and distribution company. In the U.S. at the time of the film's original release, it was screened only in theaters in Japanese communities. (It also was seen in Spain and Poland, but otherwise unknown at the time in Europe.)

An American film producer, Edmund Goldman, watched a subtitled version of the film and saw its potential for a wider audience. He bought the international rights for $25,000 and sold them to the production company Jewell Enterprises, Inc.

The result was an "Americanized" version that would be called Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956). This edition eliminates 16 minutes of footage from the film and replaces it with newly shot scenes featuring Raymond Burr as an American journalist who observes and interprets the action through voice-over narration and flashbacks. The added footage shows Burr interacting with the Japanese characters, with some scenes accomplished through editing and others with lookalikes of the original actors.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! introduced the creature to worldwide audiences and was the only version available to American audiences until 2004, when the original Japanese film was finally screened here. The revised version was the first major feature film released by a U.S. company after World War II that presented the Japanese characters in leading roles and portrayed them in a sympathetic, sometimes heroic, light.

As the film series continued, Godzilla became more sympathetic, being portrayed as less of a threat and more of a defender of humankind (although on some occasions he could still prove destructive). The creature became child-friendly in a series of books, videos and other merchandise aimed at youngsters.

Along the way, Godzilla has attracted a variety of costars including Rodan, Anguirus, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and even that venerable movie monster King Kong. American-Canadian filmmaker Marv Newland created a cartoon short called "Bambi Meets Godzilla" (1969). Some films in the Godzilla series included a son, Godzilla Junior, and other young monsters including an adopted son of sorts named Minilla.

Godzilla received a Lifetime Achievement Award from MTV and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Blue Oyster Cult recorded a popular song called "Godzilla," and the Toho film company unveiled a bronze bust of the creature, proclaiming Godzilla "a character that is the pride of Japan."

Ten entries in the TCM tribute are TCM premieres of Japanese films released through Toho: Godzilla Raids Again (1955), Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964), Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966), Destroy All Monsters (1968), All Monsters Attack (1969), Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971), Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972), Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973), Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) and Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975).

by Roger Fristoe