Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1954/1956)

GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS  (1954/1956) 
    D: Ishiro Honda, Terry Morse                                     ¢ ¢ ¢
    Raymond Burr, Takashi Shimura,
    Momoko Kôchi, Akira Takarada
The original Japanese special-effects monster movie, in which a miniature Tokyo is ravaged by a giant reptile played by a man in a rubber suit. Toy helicopters tip over, toy cars are crushed, toy buildings catch fire and toy tanks are deployed, but nothing can stop Godzilla. It's Armageddon, I tell ya. The retooled U.S. version has Raymond Burr in a framing story as a foreign journalist who witnesses the carnage. If the world has learned one thing since the 1950s, it's that it takes more than heavy-duty weapons and a massive dose of electricity to kill Godzilla. An oxygen destroyer, though, that might work. Followed (of course) by umpteen remakes and sequels, some of them with ridiculously inflated budgets. Godzilla's not Godzilla if he's not being played by a man in a rubber suit.