Double Standard - Toho genre films & AIP's other films

[SuperMonsterZero]

We all know that Japanese fantasy films, and Godzilla films in particular, don't have much esteem in the US. They're mocked for the quality of their special effects, their dubbing, etc.

Now, most Americans would probably consider most of AIP's non-Toho films to be garbage as well. However, I came across something interesting.

I was in the film section of my university library and found a book about American International Pictures. The book is from 1985 and lists every film theatrically released by AIP, alongside cast and crew information and a brief summary of each film. The author seems to be a fan of exploitation films and is generally respectul to the subject matter, but his attitude towards the Toho films distributed by AIP is rather condescending. The author seems to have two different mindsets about exploitation films depending on if the film is by Toho or not (although for some unknown reason he considers Atragon to be of higher quality than most any other Japanese science-fiction film). I thought it would be interesting to share his comments with you so you can see the difference for yourselves.


Atragon
"Atrogan [sic] is a cut above most other Japanese science-fiction films in that it is actually watchable." 

Godzilla vs. The Thing
"This is another in a series of of monster and science-fiction films from the prolific director Inoshiro Honda. As always, Godzilla vs. The Thing should be viewed for its special effects (such as they are) instead of for the acting."

Destroy All Monsters
"Toho Studios made this film as a celebration: it was its 20th monster film. Destroy All Monsters is fun of sorts, in a mindless way."

Yog, Monster from Space
"To ascribe auteurist tendencies to Inoshiro Honda would lead one on the road to an asylum, but his films are interesting in an innocent, childlike way." 


For the sake of comparison, here are some of his comments about the non-Toho output of AIP:

Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde
(1971 Hammer film distributed by AIP in the US)
"The plot deficiencies are more than made up for by an attractive visual design on a small budget."

Blacula (1972)
"The panache with which William Marshall performs his role makes Blacula the best of that small group of black horror films."

Frogs (1972)
"Frogs is an ecological disaster film wrapped up in an allegory about American economic greed."

I find the last one particularly funny. It made me wonder what he thought about Hedorah (Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster, rather), but he only gave a summary. Frankenstein Conquers the World is likewise lacking the author's insightful commentary, although he does write briefly about who Nick Adams was.

What do you have to say?

[ScootaVaran]

Who was the author? I ask because i have a Godzilla book where the author has the same attitude.

[SuperMonsterZero]

The book was "American International Pictures: A Filmography" by Robert L. Ottoson.

[edgaguirus]

Ottoson is entitled to his opinions. He obviously doesn't like Toho Sci fi, with one exception, but I don't give a care about what what he and others think about Godzilla and Japanese sci fi.

[ScootaVaran]

Ottoson is entitled to his opinions. He obviously doesn't like Toho Sci fi, with one exception, but I don't give a care about what what he and others think about Godzilla and Japanese sci fi.

Well, since he packaged and sold his opinions for profit to the public, I think we should be able to talk freely about it. This is a forum to talk about all things Toho after all.
Plus, if it makes you feel any better, we don't really plan on grabbing some old pitchforks and torches so we can chase him up to an old windmill.

OT: The author I was thinking about was named Robert Marrero. That guy really disliked the Showa era. What I found funny was that he talked very highly for any Heisei movie that was (at the time) not released to the US.
It was like "That movie you're watching on TV sucks, But this movie you can't watch is Amazing!"

[Mecha-SpaceGhidorah]

ScootaVaran, do you have the title of that book by any chance? I'd like to track both of these down personally, for comparative purposes if nothing else. I am intrigued to say the least.

[Starsteam]

ScootaVaran, do you have the title of that book by any chance? I'd like to track both of these down personally, for comparative purposes if nothing else. I am intrigued to say the least.

See the third post in this thread, he says the title.

[Mecha-SpaceGhidorah]

See the third post in this thread, he says the title.

Scoota said his book had a different author, I'd like to see if I can find both books to read through and compare.

[SuperMonsterZero]

ScootaVaran, do you have the title of that book by any chance? I'd like to track both of these down personally, for comparative purposes if nothing else. I am intrigued to say the least.

Robert Marrero's book was called "Godzilla: King of the Movie Monsters". There's actuslly a review of it on Toho Kingdom.

http://www.tohokingdom.com/books/godzil ... arrero.htm


However, if you're very amused by spelling and grammatical errors, and are in the mood to see someone say a lot of crazy things about old monster movies, you should check out Marrero's other book, "Giant Monster Movies".

http://www.tohokingdom.com/books/giant_ ... movies.htm

[Dr. Nishiyama]

ScootaVaran, do you have the title of that book by any chance? I'd like to track both of these down personally, for comparative purposes if nothing else. I am intrigued to say the least.

Robert Marrero's book was called "Godzilla: King of the Movie Monsters". There's actuslly a review of it on Toho Kingdom.

http://www.tohokingdom.com/books/godzil ... arrero.htm


However, if you're very amused by spelling and grammatical errors, and are in the mood to see someone say a lot of crazy things about old monster movies, you should check out Marrero's other book, "Giant Monster Movies".

http://www.tohokingdom.com/books/giant_ ... movies.htm

I had both those books as a kid. Also in the Giant Monsters book, Marrero plagiarized some of the content written in the Kong and Godzilla chapters from Don Glut's (MUCH BETTER) book Classic Movie Monsters*... which was released in the late 70s!

*It's actually one of the first books to treat Godzilla and his history with respect

[Mecha-SpaceGhidorah]

Damn! Now I've got four books to find instead of just two. Oh well, if I can manage to track these down, they sound like they could be some very interesting reads.

[ScootaVaran]

ScootaVaran, do you have the title of that book by any chance? I'd like to track both of these down personally, for comparative purposes if nothing else. I am intrigued to say the least.

Very sorry it took me so long to get back to you on this.

As SuperMonsterZero said, it was "Godzilla: King of the Movie Monsters".