The Shrine of Gamera: Gamera the Invincible (1965)

Gamera the Invincible (Popular Title)		[XVid Codec - 13318 kB]
Year of Release:	1965
Japanese Title:	Daikaijû Gamera
Also released as:	Gamera (1965) Giant Monster Gamera (Literal English translation)
Credits:	Directed by: Noriaki Yuasa Sandy Howard (US Version) Writing credits: Nisan Takahashi Richard Kraft (US Version) Cast: (Original & US combined) Brian Donlevy .... General Terry Arnold Albert Dekker .... Secretary of Defense rest of cast listed alphabetically Walter Arnold .... American Ambassador John Baragrey .... Captain Lovell Gene Bua .... Lieutenant Clark Bob Carraway .... Lieutenant Simpson Diane Findlay .... Sergeant Susan Embers Eiji Funakoshi .... Dr. Hidaka Jun Hamamura .... Dr. Murase Bokuzen Hidari .... Old Man George Hirose .... Japanese Ambassador Harumi Kiritachi .... Kyoke Yoshiro Kitahara .... Sakurai Mort Marshall .... Jules Manning John McCurry (I) .... Airman First Class Hopkins Dick O'Neill .... General O'Neill Alan Oppenheimer .... Dr. Contrare Michiko Sugata .... Nobuyo Yoshiro Uchida .... Toschio Junichirô Yamashiko .... Aoyagi Steve Zacharias .... Senator Billings Louis Zorich .... Russian Ambassador Produced by Masaichi Nagata (Executive Producer) Yonejiro Saito Cinematography by Nobuo Munekawa Film Editing by Tatsuji Nakashizu Production Design by Hajime Oikawa Special Effects Yonesaburo Tsukiji

Gamera, a.k.a. Gamera the Invincible, was the first of the Japanese monster movies to feature a child in the lead role, and the last of the genre to be filmed in black and white. Gamera was also the only movie in the series to be released to theatres in the United States, unlike the following installments of the series which were only shown on American television, with new footage featuring Brian Donlevy and Albert Dekker added. It is a period of war, and an aircraft equipped with nuclear weapons is shot down in the Arctic. The plane crashes and causes a nuclear blast, awakening the giant prehistoric turtle, Gamera. Gamera attacks a nearby ship, then heads to Japan, where he destroys a geothermal power plant. A plan to temporarily freeze the creature and turn it on its back using explosives proves unable to stop it, and Gamera heads for Tokyo and wreaks havoc on the bustling metropolis. A new plan to use a trail of fire to lure the giant turtle into a rocket that will be shot into space is put into effect, but just as Gamera begins to follow the trail, rain begins to fall and extinguishes the trail.

Shot in Black and White, this film is obviously "the start of it all." At least it is for Gamera. The common opinion that Gamera was just weak competition for Godzilla is starts here, too. The first Godzilla film was in b&w and the only kaiju in the film was the title creature. Also, the first film could bea singular contained film - complete with a definite beginning and end . Primarily this is a giant-moster-on-the-run-rampage movie. While Gamera is destroying Japan, mankind must decide how to get rid of him. They shoot him into outer space with a giant rocket-cage. I guess I can't complain about any logic being thrown out the window; I love these films! I think that I'd rank Daikaiju Gamera film in the lower half of my famorite Gammy movies. The treatment is more serious than following films like Gamera vs. Guiron and Gamera vs Zigra, but we do get to see some of that "Friend of All Children" vein in this episode of the Gamera series.

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Cast and crew credits were taken from The Internet Movie Database Gamera and Gamera character design © ™ DAIEI Co., LTD. 1965 © 1998 Freakshow Web Media, Inc. All rights reserved.