Gammera the Invincible (1966)

The English-language versions of Japanese monster movies prepared by US distributors hold a certain fascination for me. Rather than simply overdubbing the existing film, these versions represent quite a creative endeavour in their right, incorporating newly shot scenes with US actors and often a considerable re-editing and re-shaping of the original footage.  In the case of this, the first of Daiei's 'Gamera' franchise, it also involved both a change of title and even the spelling of the title monster's name.  The original version's title translates into English as Gamera, the Giant Monster, the US version not only changes the title, but also adds an extra 'm' into Gamera's name, (supposedly to stop audiences from mistaking it for 'camera').  The new scenes not only make the film more US-centric but also provide US audiences with some familiar faces, particularly B-movie favourites Brian Donlevy and Albert Dekker, along with TV character actor Dick O'Neill.  Their scenes, which are mainly set in conference rooms and military control rooms serve mainly as exposition for the benefit of US audiences, explaining plot points and keeping the story  moving along.  There is, however, one scene clearly intended to be comic relief, featuring an increasingly ill-tempered debate between two 'experts' as to the existence of Gamera.  ('Dr Contrare' in this scene is played by Allan Oppenheim, whose voice will be familiar to anyone who grew up watching seventies TV cartoon series).

Gamera, of course, was the 'other' Japanese giant monster played by a man in a suit, created by Daei as a rival to Toho's hugely popular Godzilla and its many sequels and spin offs.  A giant prehistoric turtle, Gamera never felt as menacing as Godzilla and the films seemed to be made on a much lower budget than the Toho films, featuring far less convincing miniatures work and often clunky special effects.  Moreover, from the outset they seemed firmly aimed at a juvenile audience, always featuring child protagonists, unlike the Toho films which, while sometimes veering toward the juvenile, seemed, ostensibly, always to be aimed at a primarily adult audience.  Despite the studio having no real faith in Gamera, the budget not even running to colour photography, this first film proved popular enough to spawn seven sequels between 1966 and 1980 and a second cycle of four films between 1995 and 2006, (all in colour).  This first entry is enjoyable enough, although clearly derivative of Godzilla and other contemporary monster movies.  In spite of the low budget and sometimes shaky effects work, some of the scenes of Gamera rampaging around, destroying cities and industrial facilities are effective, if not terribly realistic.  The best scenes are probably the early sequences set in the Arctic, when Gamera is awakened by a nuclear blast and bursts out of the ice - the miniatures work here, particularly the sinking of the Japanese research ship, is pretty decent, if not quite on a par with the Toho product.