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Godzilla attacked the ship at 3:30 AM per Raymond Burr's narration, but the scene is broad daylight when the first attack occurs.


In the Japanese screenplay, and all associated texts on the film, the scene is set at night. That scene is shot what is called "Day for Night", which was pretty common in cheat in those days. You shoot in daytime with filters that make it look like night. The Japanese called that technique "American Night", since it was used in so many American films of the period.

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Dr Yamane speaks to the Japanese council in English about Godzilla- since he's in Japan at a Japanese meeting- why not in Japanese? He talked Japanese language earlier council meeting.


This was the first foreign film dubbed into English, so you could say that it was Terry Morse's artistic license. American audiences weren't accustomed to foreign-language films in those days, which is why GODZILLA KOTM was dubbed in English in the first place. General audiences would not have accepted long scenes in a foreign language back in 1956.

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At customs, an officer tells Steve Martin he'll be detained for questioning. Later, Martin narrates everyone on the airplane was brought in for questioning. Then why didn't the officer make an annoucement to everyone at customs about being detained instead of singling out Martin?


The security people were being discreet. Taking people one at a time to not cause a panic, and Martin was the last of them to be questioned.

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Martin is brought in for questioning at an officials office, then he's brought across the hall to the steamship company office? What's a steamship company HQ doing there?


If that was the case, Tomo wouldn't have bothered to grab his hat if he were just going across the hall. There are time and space transitions in films that are sometimes subtle -- when they leave the security office in the airport, there is a cut to a close up of the map in the Maritime Safety Agency -- it's not necessary to have a shot of Tomo and Martin in a car, because the transition works as is. At least, no one that I know of, in the 30+ years I have watched this film, has ever brought this up.

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The way it comes across, there's two doors to the room - one that Martin and Tomo come in, and the other that Steamship officials enter.


Morse was trying to match the Japanese footage, and for the time and the money allotted, I'd say that he did an exceptional job in matching the original Japanese footage -- compared to many leadenly directed low-budget films of the time.

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Martin says he's enroute to Cairo, and makes a layover to Japan. Layovers for flights are usually a few hours at most, not a few days.


Today this is true, but not at the time the film was made. The insert scenes were written and shot in 1956, so they are appropriate for the time. Aircraft were not as fast or could carry as much fuel, and also less people were flying than in the last twenty years. So, making connections wasn't as relatively seemless as it is today.

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And he did this so he could have dinner with an old college friend. Plus he says "I'm a little rusty with my Japanese."


I don't understand your point. But, with that being said, I have lots of friends who go to Japan on a regular basis, and others who have close friends and are even married to Japanese women -- and they speak very little Japanese. In the 1950s, very few non-Asian Americans spoke Japanese.

I hope this answers your questions.