King Kong and Frankenstein's "Other" Appearances in Japanese Sci-fi Films

Toho, the Japanese film studio and king of Japanese Giant Monster films, made two fully licensed movies with King Kong, King Kong vs. Godzilla in 1962 and King Kong Escapes in 1967.  It also made two films about Frankenstein's monster, Frankenstein Conquers the World in 1965 and War of the Garguantuas (Japanese Tile : Frankenstein's Monsters: Sanda vs. Gaira) in 1966.  For the former, Toho studios licensed the character from RKO Studios and for Frankenstein Conquers the World it licensed the distinctive Jack Pierce designed Frankenstein's Monster look from Universal.

While Godzilla had been introduced to the world in 1956, two years after his Japanese debut, King Kong and Frankenstein's Monster were of an earlier generation of movie monsters.  King Kong was released in 1933 and Universal's Frankensteinin 1931 (the latter appearing in six subsequent Universal films).  The films were highly regarded in the 1960s and 1970s and the characters were far better established in much of the movie-going world than Godzilla and other Japanese movie monsters.

Godzilla and other Japanese films were released in different countries at different times.  While Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again were generally released with those or similar titles across the world, when it came to Toho's later films, all bets were off when it came to the naming game.  West Germany, in particular, rarely gave Godzilla the title credit the film itself intended.  Instead, the distributors came up with a variety of creative titles for the films released in that country.

Japanese Title (Translation)	U.S. Theatrical Title	German Theatrical Title (Translation)
Gojira	Godzilla, King of the Monsters	Godzilla
Godzilla		Godzilla
Gojira no gyakushu	Gigantis the Fire Monster	Godzilla Kehrt Zurück
Counterattack of Godzilla		Godzilla Returns
Kingukongu tai Gojira	King Kong vs. Godzilla	Die Rückkehr des King Kong
King Kong vs. Godzilla		The Return of King Kong
Mosura tai Gojira	Godzilla vs. the Thing	Godzilla und die Urweltraupen
Mothra vs. Godzilla		Godzilla and the Primeval caterpillars
San daikaiju: Chikyu saidai no kessen	Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster	No Theatrical Release
Three Giant Monsters: The Greatest Battle on Earth
Kaiju daisenso	Monster Zero	Befehl aus dem Dunkel
The Great Monster War		Command from the Dark
Gojira-Ebira-Mosura: Nankai no dai Ketto	Godzilla Versus the Sea Monster	Frankenstein und die Ungeheuer aus dem Meer
Godzilla, Ebirah, Mothra : Big Duel in the North Sea		Frankenstein and the Monsters from the Sea
Kaiju shima no kessen: Gojira no musuko	Son of Godzilla	Frankensteins Monster jagen Godzillas Sohn
Monster Island's Decisive Battle: Godzilla's Son		Frankenstein's Monsters hunt Godzilla's Son
Kaiju Soshingeki	Destroy All Monsters	Frankenstein und die Monster aus dem All
Attack of the Marching Monsters		Frankenstein and the Monsters from Space
Gojira-Minira-Gabara: Oru kaiju daishingeki	Godzilla's Revenge	No Theatrical Release
All Monsters Attack
Gojira tai Hedora	Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster	Frankensteins Kampf gegen die Teufelsmonster
Godzilla vs. Hedorah		Frankenstein's Battle against the Devil's monsters
Chikyu kogeki meirei: Gojira tai Gaigan	Godzilla on Monster Island	Frankensteins Höllenbrut
Earth Destruction Directive: Godzilla vs. Gigan		Frankenstein's Hellspawn
Gojira tai Megaro	Godzilla vs. Megalon	King-Kong - Dämonen aus dem Weltall
Godzilla vs. Megalon		King Kong - Demons from Outer Space
Gojira tai Mekagojira	Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster	King Kong gegen Godzilla
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla		King Kong vs. Godzilla
Mekagojira no gyakushu	Terror of Godzilla	Konga-Godzilla-King Kong - Die Brut des Teufels
Counterattack of Mechagodzilla		Konga, Godzilla, King Kong – The Spawn of the Devil
Sora no daikaiju Radon	Rodan The Flying Monster	Die fliegenden Monster von Osaka
Rodan the Giant Monster of the Sky		The Flying Monsters of Osaka
Chikyu Boeigun	The Mysterians	Weltraum-Bestien
Earth Defense Force		Space Beasts
Bijo to Ekitainingen	The H-Man	Das Grauen schleicht durch Tokio
Beauty and the Liquidman		The Horror creeps through Tokyo
Uchu daisenso	Battle in Outer Space	Die Bestie aus dem Weltenraum
The Great Space War		The Beast from Space
Mosura	Mothra	Mothra bedroht die Welt
Mothra		Mothra threatens the World
Sekai daisenso	The Last War	Todesstrahlen aus dem Weltall
The Great World War		Death rays from Outer Space
Yosei Gorasu	Gorath	Ufos zerstören die Erde
Suspicious Star Gorath		UFOs to destroy the Earth
Kaitei gunkan	Atragon	U 2000 - Tauchfahrt des Grauens
Undersea Battleship		U 2000 – Submarine Voyage of Horror
Uchu daikaiju Dogora	Dagora, the Space Monster	X 3000 – Phantome gegen Gangster
Space Monster Dogora		X 3000 – Phantoms vs. Gangsters
Furankenshutain tai chitei kaiju Baragon	Frankenstein Conquers the World	Frankenstein - Der Schrecken mit dem Affengesicht
Frankenstein vs. the Subterranean Monster Baragon		Frankenstein – The Terror with the Ape Face
Furankenshutain no kaiju: Sanda tai Gaira	The War of the Gargantuas	Frankenstein - Zweikampf der Giganten
Frankenstein's Monsters: Sanda vs. Gaira		Frankenstein – Duel of the Giants
Kingu Kongu no gyakushu	King Kong Escapes	King-Kong, Frankensteins Sohn
Counterattack of King Kong		King Kong, Frankenstein's Son
Gezora, Ganime, Kameba: Kessen! Nankai no Daikaiju	Yog: Monster from Space	Monster des Grauens Greifen An
Gezora, Ganime, Kameba: Battle! Monsters of the South Seas		Horror Monsters are Attacking
Wakusei daisenso	The War in Space	Der große Krieg der Planeten
The War in Space		The great War of the Planets
Gojira	Godzilla 1985	Godzilla: Die Rückkehr des Monsters
Godzilla		Godzilla: The Return of the Monster
Gojira vs. Biorante	Godzilla vs. Biollante	Godzilla, der Urgigant
Godzilla vs. Biollante		Godzilla, the Primordial Giant

You may notice that King Kong and Frankenstein appear very frequently in this list of German titles, more often than the name Godzilla.  Apparently for King Kong Escapes, the distributor felt free to add the Frankenstein name to the title for even more marquee value.  However, not until Godzilla vs. Megalon did the German distributors find the courage to use the King Kong name for a movie without King Kong in it.  Thus Jet Jaguar and Mechagodzilla are renamed King Kong in the last three Showa Godzilla movies.  Continuing with the reappropriating of the names of monster movie apes, in Terror of Godzilla, Titanosaurus is renamed "Konga", presumably from the 1961 British film of the same name.  The remake of King Kong by Dino De Laurentiis was being made and shown around the time when these films were being released in West Germany, which may explain the change from Frankenstein to King Kong.  These "King Kong" and "Frankenstein" films were released by Constantin Film.  

The Germans were not the only country to use the King Kong name when the real King Kong was not in the movie.  The Italian title for Destroy All Monsters was Gil Eredi di King Kong, or The Inheritors of King Kong.  This actually does make a kind of sense, as Godzilla and later films owe a large creative debt to King Kong.  The movie posters do show King Kong, however.  Again, for Terror of Godzilla, the Italians distributed "Distruggete Kong! la Terra e in Pericolo" or Destroy Kong!, Earth is in Danger.  King Kong is the only monster featured on the contemporary film poster.  Titanosaurus is renamed "Titan Kong" in the dubbing.  

For Godzilla vs. the Thing, the Italians renamed the film Watang! Nei Favoloso Impero del Mostri, Watang! The Fabulous Empire of Monsters.  Godzilla is still called Godzilla in the film, "Watang" refers to Infant Island.  Godzilla has been renamed Gorgo in the title when Italian distributors re-released Son of Godzilla in the late 70s to coincide with a showing of the British classic Gorgo.  Also, for Spain the film Godzilla vs. Megalon became Gorgo y Superman Se Citan en Tokio, Gorgo and Superman Fight in Tokyo.  According to my source, Jet Jaguar was dubbed Superman and Gigan became Gorgo.  Like in the Italian case above, the distributors also had the rights to the real Gorgo film and some episodes of Super Giant, which was renamed Superman in Spain.  At least the European distributors had enough sense not to try and rename Godzilla to "Gorgo" or "Watang" or something else.  In the United States, the distributors renamed Godzilla to "Gigantis" for the second movie and the box office rewarded them in an appropriately stingy fashion for that blunder.  

My original inspiration for this article was the recent Blu-ray release of Ghidrah the Three-Headed Monster in Germany.  This movie is the only Japanese Godzilla Film Blu-ray release in 2013 anywhere in the world.  The movie apparently was never released in West Germany theatrically.  The current German distributor has given the title "Frankensteins Monster im Kampf gegen Ghidorah", Frankenstein's Monsters in a Battle against Ghidorah.  Either Frankenstein's name is still often used for monster or horror movies in Germany, or the distributor is trying to evoke memories of the old films, as the West Germans may have remembered them. In this film, according to the title at least, apparently Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra were all created by Dr. Frankenstein.  The Blu-ray is subtitled and not dubbed and presumably faithful to the Japanese, where Frankenstein is not in the dialogue.  Otherwise, Frankenstein may be a generic word in German for fantasy, at least when the word Monster follows it.  It is curious that while Frankenstein may have been a German scientist, the book which introduced him was published by Mary Shelly, an Englishwoman.  (Also compare the embrace of Dracula in post-Communist Romania by Irish author Bram Stoker).

Frankenstein was often, via dubbing, inserted into the plot.  For a movie like King Kong Escapes, it was easy enough to rename the villain from "Dr. Who" to "Dr. Frankenstein."  For other films the connection becomes a bit more tenuous.  In Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, in the German dub the Red Bamboo are working for Frankenstein.  In Son of Godzilla, the Kamacuras and Kumonga are said to be Dr. Frankenstein's creations.  Similar conventions may occur in later films.  Godzilla vs. the Thing was released very late theatrically in West Germany, in 1974, so by that time Godzilla's name apparently had sufficient marquee value to displace Frankenstein's.  I guess no one thought to rechristen Mothra.