King Kong: The Toho Movies (1962–67)

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Dir. Ishirō Honda

I reviewed KKvG in my Godzilla: Shōwa Era Films (1954-74) post, but it was from a 'Godzilla movie' perspective, not a King Kong one. Logic says I should re-watch it from a Kong perspective, but I vowed never to suffer its woeful story ever again, so I've simply copy/pasted from the previous post, with some minor editing. I don't think my overall opinion would've changed much, anyhow.

The most positive thing that I can muster to say about KKvG is that it's the first King Kong movie to be shot in full widescreen and on colour stock. It's pretty terrible otherwise.

Fans who only want a monster bash will have to wait an hour before the two titans even meet, and when it happens it's laughable.

The Drowned World (1962)

The Drowned World (1962)

Author: J.G. Ballard | Page Count: 175

'Free of vegetation, apart from a few drifting clumps of Sargasso weed, the streets and shops had been preserved almost intact, like a reflection in a lake that has somehow lost its original.'

Ballard's first novel, expanded from an earlier magazine novella, is rife with symbolism and connectedness. Set in the year 2145, it explores the reactions of a group of research scientists stationed at a lagoon that in the not-too-distant past was a human populated city, before massive global warming caused rising sea levels.

The environmental extreme is due to increased solar radiation, not, as is often the case in post-apocalyptic sci-fi, a consequence of something that mankind did, but the result is much the same, meaning once-habitable locations are now inhospitable to mankind and are instead home to a burgeoning animal population.

The environmental upheaval has had a peculiar effect on certain species of flora and fauna, causing some plants and reptiles to grow larger than normal.

Godzilla: Shōwa Era Films (1954-74)

01. Godzilla (1954) 

Dir. Ishirō Honda

NOTE: for simplicity's sake I've used English language titles for each of my Godzilla reviews, but it's always the original Japanese language versions of the films that I refer to.

The monstrous growl that's heard over the film's opening credits foreshadows what's to come, which can be summed up as the Japanese people facing a monstrous terror that the rest of the world has never seen. It begins at sea and then moves inland.

The creature responsible for the inhuman roar — the monarch of kaijū eiga — is a force to be reckoned with, for sure, and is more than just an excuse to have a guy in a rubber suit trash tiny models. You don't need to be a history scholar to pick out the many wartime parallels: nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific, irradiated wells, air raid sirens, and footfalls that sound like distant bombs impacting and exploding are all highlighted.

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962)

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962)

Author: Ray Bradbury | Page Count: 272

“He knew what the wind was doing to them, where it was taking them, to all the secret places that were never so secret again in life.”

Green Town, Illinois, is a quiet Midwestern town, home to best friends William Halloway and Jim Nightshade, both aged thirteen; one was born as the day ended, the other born as the day begins. They've much in common but also reflect each other, thriving on the mirror image differences. You'll recognise them. They’re you and me. They’re everyone that ever lived or ever will. Tapping into the archetypal and imbuing it with meaningful magic is one of Bradbury's many talents. His currency is emotion and he spends it without reservation.

SWTWC is a timeless study of childhood and loss of innocence, wrapped up in a dark fantasy that will excite or terrify depending on the age of the reader.

Roger Corman / Edgar Allan Poe (1960-65)

The Fall of the House of Usher (1960)
Dir. Roger Corman

The first of seven Roger Corman films that claim to be based on the works of American author Edgar Allan Poe relies heavily on the deep, rich textures of Vincent Price. The dialogue he's given only occasionally sounds like it came from Poe's own mind, but the hinge on madness — the deranged grip of nervous agitation that many of his protagonists find themselves inexorably in — is firmly in place, the crumbling house reflective of the Ushers' state of mind.

It invents a new character and does away with an original one, while the shift to third person robbed it of a potentially weighty V/O, but it's something that I've come to accept.

The paintings hanging in the halls are atypical of the era, but they’re amazing, nonetheless.