This is the 1956 American version of the 1954 Japanese monster movie Gojira – released by the same Japanese studio for the American market, with many of its best scenes cut, and with many scenes added featuring an American actor, Raymond Burr, as a reporter, whose inserted scenes made it an “acceptable” story line for U.S. moviegoers. It’s interesting to watch, but only in the context of realizing how much better the original movie is – a movie that, by the way, is now available in a special golden-anniversary restored edition. One odd factoid about America’s Godzilla? The character played by Burr is named… Steve Martin.