Godzilla almost began life as a giant octopus rather than a dinosaur
Toho's 1954 Godzilla rose from the wreck of a cancelled co-production, and its effects chief first pitched an enormous octopus. The finished film, a sombre story of a monster born from nuclear testing, drew mixed reviews, yet it launched what Guinness recognises as the longest-running franchise in cinema.
Director and co-writer Ishirō Honda worked alongside effects master Eiji Tsuburaya, who pioneered a technique later called suitmation: an actor inside a monster costume stomping through detailed miniature sets. Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka took turns inside the suit. Principal photography took 51 days, while the effects work needed 71. The cast included Takashi Shimura, Akira Takarada and Momoko Kōchi.
The story opens with freighters vanishing near Odo Island and fish disappearing from local waters, which an elder blames on an ancient sea creature. Paleontologist Kyohei Yamane finds radioactive footprints and a trilobite, and estimates the beast stands 50 meters tall, an ancient animal transformed by hydrogen bomb tests. He wants it studied, not destroyed. Depth charges and a 30-meter electrified coastal fence fail, and Tokyo is devastated. The key lies with the reclusive scientist Daisuke Serizawa, who has invented the Oxygen Destroyer but fears superpowers will demand it as a weapon. Persuaded at last, he burns his notes, deploys the device in Tokyo Bay and dies with his secret. Yamane warns that continued nuclear testing could produce another monster.
The film premiered in Nagoya on October 27, 1954, and opened across Japan on November 3. It earned ¥183 million in distributor rentals, eighth among Japanese films that year, and won the Japanese Movie Association award for special effects. In 1956 an American distributor released a heavily recut version, Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, that softened many of its political themes and added new footage.
Its reputation has grown enormously since. The film and Tsuburaya are credited with establishing the template for tokusatsu, Japan's tradition of practical effects filmmaking, and critics now rank it among the greatest monster films ever made. A sequel, Godzilla Raids Again, arrived in April 1955.
Source: Godzilla (1954 film)
