Some Very Absorbing Film Factoids!
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Godzilla actually speaks in one of his many film incarnations! Horror actress Barbara Steele portrayed twin sisters in an outstanding role! The very same scene was used to end a pair of classic serials!
- Godzilla speaks! In 1972's Godzilla Vs. Gigan ( aka Godzilla On Monster Island), as Godzilla and the spiny dino Angillus are swimming together in the ocean, toward a confrontation with Gigan and Ghidrah(the 3-headed monster), balloons enclosing Japanese characters indicating speech appear with a Japanese voiceover as they talk about peace and individuals getting along together.
Ruehl Fact: This film marked the first time that Godzilla received a bloody wound: first, Gigan swooped down and wounded him in the shoulder, then, as an exhausted Godzilla was virtually defenseless, struck him repeatedly in the forehead!
- Three interesting dual roles: In the 1933 mystery, The Sphinx, Lionel Atwill portrayed twin brothers who were master criminals: one was a deaf mute who offered his loquacious bro a perfect alibi! In the 1943 horror film, Dead Men Walk, George Zucco essayed the role of a doctor who slew his evil twin, only to be menaced by him upon his return from beyond the grave! And, in 1966's Nightmare Castle, brunette Barbara Steele played a woman viciously murdered by her jealous husband as well as her step-sister (in a blond wig)... as a phantom, she slew her spouse, preventing him from offing her step-sis!
Ruehl Fact: In 1942's Black Dragons, Bela Lugosi portrayed a bearded Nazi plastic surgeon imprisoned by his double-crossing Japanese cohorts. He also played his clean-shaven cellmate, only briefly seen, with whom he exchanges identities via cosmetic surgery, ultimately escaping to exact vengeance on the men he transmogrified into American businessmen!
- In the 1952 Republic 12-chapter serial, Radar Men From The Men, the lunar leader Retik (portrayed by Roy Barcroft), who was seen garbed in a regal robe, tired of Commando Cody repeatedly frustrating his plans for world conquest and came down to earth to coordinate the takeover himself in Chapter 11. He was now attired in a flight suit, identical to the one he wore in a previous Republic serial from 1945, The Purple Monster Strikes, where he was a Martian attempting to vanquish terra firma. This was done so that the same ending from the '45 serial could be used again, in a cost-cutting measure, for the final chapter here, where he is seen attempting to escape in a rocket which is blown out of the sky by an annihilation ray!
Ruehl Fact: Retik's chief human henchman on earth was played by Clayton Moore, with his face clearly visible, although he had already donned the Lone Ranger mask for television in 1949!
Video: Godzilla Vs Ghidrah
Follow Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/drruehl
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