From Zombos Closet

February 16, 2024

Godzilla Movie Radio Spots!

Godzilla King of the Monsters movie posterThe monsters are coming!

No, it’s not Halloween already, although if you hung around my house long enough you would think so, with all the creepy and scary-looking relatives of mine who just drop in whenever the spirits move them. But, the monsters ARE coming, or, more correctly, the GIANT monsters are coming.

This week’s offering begins a five-part series of spots featuring giant monsters on the attack. With one exception they all feature actors in costumes representing all sorts of creatures. I’ve always been a fan of these movies because of the awesome split-screen effects combining the monster with crowds running for their lives, and for the intricate models said monster usually destroys. How they made the miniature buildings crumble as realistically as they did has always amazed me.

This week I feature spots from Godzilla, King of the Monsters, a 1956 reworking of  Toho Studio’s Gojira, released in 1954. The American version features new scenes with Raymond Burr expertly inserted into the Japanese version and dubbed into English.  Both versions are interesting to watch.
Aside from the movies themselves, the one thing I always appreciated about these movies was the poster art: colorful scenes of destruction with the giant beast front and center.

Blind Alley (1939) Pressbook

Blind Alley with Chester Morris as the criminal holding a family hostage was remade in 1948 as The Dark Past. In the household is a psychologist who shrinks Morris’s nasty character into reliving his bad upbringing. Originally based on a play called Smoke Screen (as noted by TCM), it also had television productions, one with Darrin McGavin (Night Stalker, baby!). Rather idealistic in how quickly the psychiatrist solves the reason for all the criminal behavior, I still like Morris’s turn at being psychoanalyzed.

Blind Alley movie pressbook