Fellow Svengoolie SvenPals everywhere will be dancing and jumping for joy for his big broadcast of a classic mammoth kaiju creature battle masterpiece from Japan’s Toho Studios that was brought to the states by Universal Studios.
“Svengoolie” to present his big broadcast of Ishiro Honda’s “King Kong vs. Godzilla” (1962/63)
Original Universal Studios teaser theatrical release trailer for the Universal/U.S. theatrical dub/release of Ishirô Honda’s classic mammoth Toho Studios kaiju creature battle masterpiece, “King Kong vs. Godzilla” (produced and released by Toho Studios in Japan in 1962, released theatrically by Universal Studios in the United States in 1963).
Original 1962 Toho Studios Japanese-language theatrical poster art for “King Kong vs. Godzilla” in Japan, dubbed and released by Universal Studios in the United States in 1963.
The legendary and iconic Berwyn/Chicago-based classic mammoth creature feature film masterpiece host will present his big broadcast of “King Kong vs. Godzilla” (1962/63), this Sven Sat., Jan. 24 at 8 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Central on the airlanes of Me-TV.
Produced by Toho Studios of Japan and released theatrically in the United states by Universal Studios, the classic mammoth 1962 Toho Studios kaiju creature battle feature masterpiece was directed by legendary and iconic veteran Toho Studios feature film director and the father of kaiju creature cinema, Ishirô Honda. Honda was credited under his full name of Inoshiro Honda.
Early in Honda’s feature film career, he collaborated with legendary veteran director Akira Kurosawa as a second unit director for Kurosawa’s Toho Studios crime drama feature production of “Stray Dog” (1949) with veteran actors Toshirô Mifune and Takashi Shimura, five years before Mifune and Shimura went onto greater fame in Kurosawa’s classic mammoth critically-acclaimed Toho Studios samurai drama masterpiece, “Seven Samurai” (1954).
Honda’s best-known productions throughout his feature film directorial career include his classic mammoth Toho Studios pioneering kaiju creature masterpiece production of “Gojira”/”Godzilla” (1954, released in the United States under the title of “Godzilla, King of the Monsters!” with added scenes directed by Terry O. Morse that featured Raymond Burr of TV’s “Perry Mason” & TV’s “Ironside” fame), his classic mammoth Toho Studios kaiju creature masterpiece production of “Rodan“ (1956), “Mothra” (1961/62, released through Columbia Pictures in the United States), “Mothra vs. Godzilla” (1964, released theatrically in the United States by Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson’s American-International Pictures under the title of “Godzilla vs. the Thing”), “Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster” (1964, released theatrically in the United States in 1965 by the New York/New Jersey-based cinema circuit, Walter Reade Organization/Continental Releasing), “Invasion of Astro-Monster”/”Godzilla vs. Monster Zero” (1965/70) with Haruo Nakajima, Nick Adams, Kumi Mizuno and Akira Takarada), “All Monsters Attack” (1969, released theatrically in the United States under the title of “Godzilla’s Revenge”) and “Terror of Mechagodzilla” (1975).
Alongside his numerous classic mammoth Toho Studios kaiju creature cinema masterpiece productions throughout the majority of his filmmaking career, Honda also specialized in several classic mammoth sci-fi feature film masterpiece productions for Toho Studios included “The H-Man” (1958) and “Battle in Outer Space” (1959). Honda’s Toho productions of “The H-Man,” “Battle in Outer Space” and “Mothra” were released theatrically in the United States through Columbia Pictures by arrangement with Toho Studios. Columbia Pictures/Sony still owns the North American theatrical re-release, television syndication and home entertainment/streaming distribution rights to Honda’s classic mammoth Toho Studios feature masterpiece productions of “The H-Man,” “Battle in Outer Space” and “Mothra”).
For the Universal/North American filmed segments for “King Kong vs. Godzilla,” the scenes for the Universal dubbed edition of Honda’s production were directed by Tom Montgomery.
Honda’s classic mammoth Toho Studios-Universal kaiju creature masterpiece production of “King Kong vs. Godzilla” (1962/63) was produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka. In addition to producing the majority of Honda’s classic mammoth kaiju creature masterpiece productions for Toho Studips, Tanaka also served as a producer for Akira Kurosawa’s classic mammoth Japanese samurai drama masterpiece for Toho Studios, with Toshirô Mifune, “Yojimbo” (1961). The Universal/North American dub of “King Kong vs. Godzilla” (1963) was produced by veteran Universal Studios producer John Beck.
Alongside “King Kong vs. Godzilla” (1962/63) during his time at Universal, John Beck previously served as an associate producer for the classic mammoth William A. Seiter– Gregory La Cava– Frank Tashlin-Universal comedy adaptation masterpiece of S.J. Perelman, Ogden Nash & Thomas Anstey Guthrie’s “One Touch of Venus” (1948) with Ava Gardner, Robert Walker, Eve Arden, Dick Haymes, Olga San Juan, Eve Arden and Tom Conway. John Beck also served as an associate producer for Henry Koster’s classic mammoth Universal fantasy-comedy masterpiece adaptation of Mary Chase’s award-winning play, “Harvey” (1950) with James Stewart, Peggy Dow, Wallace Ford, Cecil Kellaway, Jesse White, Josephine Hull and “Harvey.”
The screenplay for “King Kong vs.Godzilla” was written by veteran screenwriter Shin’ichi Sekizawa, who also wrote the screenplay for Honda’s classic mammoth Toho Studios kaiju creature masterpiece production of “Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster” (1964). Alongside producing the Universal/North American dubbed edition of “King Kong vs. Godzilla,” John Beck also served in an uncredited position for the screenplay treatment, which was originally written under the title of “”King Kong vs. Prometheus.” Elements were also inspired by an unproduced script titled “King Kong vs. Frankenstein,” which was written by veteran stop-motion visual effects pioneer Willis H. O’Brien.
O’Brien worked on the majority of the visual/stop-motion effects for the original Ernest B. Schoedsack/ Merian C. Cooper/David O. Selznick/RKO Radio Pictures* classic mammoth stop-motion creature/fantasy masterpiece, “King Kong” (1933, with Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Noble Johnson, Victor Wong, Frank Reicher, Bruce Cabot, and the “eighth wonder of the world,” Kong!).
The additional screenwriters for John Beck’s Universal/North American theatrical dub of Ishiro Honda’s classic mammoth Toho Studios kaiju creature masterpiece production of “King Kong vs. Godzilla” (1963) were Bruce Howard and Paul Mason.
Ishiro Honda’s classic mammoth Toho Studios/Universal masterpiece production of “King Kong vs. Godzilla” (1962/63) marked the debut of an iconic sound effect recording creation for the classic mammoth kaiju creature battle masterpiece production. According to IMDB, the 1962/63 Toho Studios production contained the famous “Gojira/Godzilla” high-pitched “roar” sound effect recording, which was a mix of two previous “Gojira/Godzilla” roar recordings that were originally created for Honda’s earlier 1954 production of “Gojira”/”Godzilla.” Toho Studios sound effects/sound recording engineers/sound editors Sadamasa Nishimoto and Hisashi Shimonaga created the distinct “Gojira/Godzilla roar” mix and has been used in latter classic mammoth Toho Studios Gojira/Godzilla kaiju creature feature film masterpiece productions over the years. The signature Gojira/Godzilla “roar” was preserved for Universal’s 1963 dubbing of the production.
This will mark Sven’s fifth big broadcast of “King Kong vs. Godzilla” (1962/63) on the airlanes of Me-TV. He previously showcased Ishirô Honda’s classic mammoth Toho Studios/Universal Studios kaiju monster masterpiece first as a Sven/Me-TV coast-to-coast big broadcast premiere back in Feb. 2014 and as regular Sven big broadcasts back in March 2015, April 2016 and Nov. 2021.
Who was in “King Kong vs. Godzilla” (1962/63)?
The players who appeared in Ishirô Honda’s classic mammoth Toho Studios/Universal Studios kaiju monster masterpiece production of “King Kong vs. Godzilla” (1962/63) were were veteran stunt performer Haruo Nakajima (in the “Gojira/Godzilla” suit), Shôichi Hirose (in the “King Kong” suit), Katsumi Tezuka (for additional scenes in the “Gojira/Godzilla” suit), James Yagi (as Yutaka Omura), Kenji Sahara (as Kazuo Fujita, Sahara received screen credit under the name of Kenji Sahaka), Ichirô Arishima (as Mr. Tako), Byron Morrow (as Dr. Arnold Johnson), Harry Holcombe (as Dr. Johnson), Mie Hama (as Fumiko Sakurai), Akiko Wakabayashi (as Tamiye), Akihiko Hirata (as Dr. Shigezawa), Jun Tazaki (as Gen. Masami Shinzo), Yû Fujiki (as Kinsaburo Furue) and Les Tremayne (in uncredited roles as the narrator and the dubbed dialogue for Jun Tazaki’s characterization of Gen. Shinzo).
Silver Screen Reflections 
