"Godzilla: King of the Monsters" - which version? (1 Viewer)

[Eric Huffstutler]

I am trying to expand my Drive-In / Chiller Theatre themed Horror and Sci-Fi collection and yet to have a decent Godzilla movie. Knowing that there is an original full length, non English version out mainly through 3rd party sources, I am not concerned with it.

What I do want to know is about the 1956 American remake. Seems to be at least three from major distributors: Goodtimes, Simitar, and Sony. Looking at various threads, the suggestion as to which is the best is all over the page. To me (plus the features) the Simitar version is the one to go having a better transfer. But, the Sony version is supposed to be re-mastered and re-released in November unless those plans have been shelved because of the MGM merger?

Bottom line is... which current version would you suggest as being the better of the American version (Region 1) releases for my collection?

Eric

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

Though released through Sony, the actual ownership of the American GODZILLA KING OF THE MONSTERS (and RODAN, GODZILLA VS MOTHRA ('64), GODZILLA VS. MONSTER ZERO, WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS, etc) currently belongs to Classic Media (who've also given us the BULLWINKLE, ROGER RAMJET and Rankin-Bass DVDs). They are a seperate company for whom Sony acts as a distributer, so I would guess that the Sony/MGM merger doesn't affect them in any appreciable way.

I only have the Simitar version of GODZILLA KING OF THE MONSTERS. The one plus to that is that it offers both widescreen and fullscreen versions on the same disc, and the widescreen version (non-anamorphic 1.66:1) has the original Transworld "spinning globe" film logo before the GODZILLA KING OF THE MONSTERS title.

I would imagine the print quality and authoring on the Sony disc is somewhat better, since Simitar was a small company, and their GODZILLA dvd was produced way back in 1998.