KING KONG VS. GODZILLA is a fun movie even if it comes across as being very hokey. Obviously, one of the biggest problems is the AWFUL gorilla suit that was used for the titular ape, which looks even shoddier than the one which is used in a number of the "Three Stooges" shorts! The premise is interesting though the execution isn't exactly the greatest. I can definitely see why Willis O'Brien was disappointed to an extreme when his KING KONG VS. FRANKENSTEIN idea ended up like this! Here are a few other observations about this film:

1. Though Obie's idea was heavily reworked for this Toho "monster in a suit" affair, there are a couple of brief shots (the octopus, and the climactic battle between the titular characters) where (ironically) stop-action photography was employed.

2. There seems to be undeniable references to the movie which begat the entire GODZILLA series, THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS. As I point out in my book: "A sequel, King Kong Vs. Godzilla (1963), which was in reality the bastardization of Obie’s unrealized King Kong Vs. Frankenstein project, seems to give a few nods to Harryhausen. Godzilla emerges from an iceberg and heads “on a predetermined course” for Japan. Later, the gigantic reptile is thought to be inhabiting waters “where the depths go to about 20,000 fathoms.” "

3. it seems there must have been two gorilla suits used for Kong, as there are scenes of him running around where he has proportionally long anthropoidal limbs, but when he is throwing things or grabbing Godzilla this simian suddenly gets a human "short-arm disease"(!)

4. The rumored alternate ending is sheer bunk, as Godzilla doesn't "swim away" in the Japanese version of the feature. It apparently was one of those FAMOUS MONSTERS bits of misinformation, nothing more.

Roy P. Webber
author, The Dinosaur Films of Ray Harryhausen