Godzilla : King of the Monsters! 1956 Theatrical Aspect Ratio

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Great Hierophant
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Godzilla : King of the Monsters! 1956 Theatrical Aspect Ratio

Post by Great Hierophant »

When the Americanization of Godzilla was released in 1956 as Godzilla : King of the Monsters!, most theaters had converted their movie screens from the Academy Ratio of 1.375:1 to a widescreen ratio. In the mid-50s, three non-anamorphic single camera widescreen ratios were in use in the USA and each had their studio support, 1.66:1 (Paramount), 1.75:1 (MGM, Disney), and 1.85:1 (Universal, Columbia, Warner Bros.) While 1.85:1 was the eventual winner of this "format war", a particular theater would probably been able to adjust the curtains and projector to accommodate any of these aspect ratios without noticeable borders.

I did a personal project of cropping a copy of the Criterion Collection's release of GKTOM from 1.33:1 to 1:85, knowing that the end closing credits could lose some text in the process. I chose 1:85 because that would have the widest support now and perhaps back then. But then as I was doing something else, I saw that the end credits on the Classic Media 2006's DVD release were cropped to something like 1.62:1 whereas the rest of the film was in 1.33:1. More importantly, the credits were squeezed vertically so that no text was lost. Even with the squeeze, the resulting text did not look uncharacteristically stretched out when simulated at 1.66:1. That got me thinking, did I use the wrong aspect ratio?

The advantages to using a 1.66:1 aspect ratio have their appeal, all widescreens should have been able to accommodate it, less of the picture was cropped, less zooming in was required. But the Criterion Collection's credits, which were in much better shape than Classic Media's, were clearly meant for 1.33:1. I do not think that the makers of GKOTM would have gone through all the trouble of making 1.33:1 credits only to have text cropped off in most theaters. That would have been rather an embarrassing gaffe, and while these guys were cheap, they did have their pride. Could they offered theaters a version with and without widescreen-protected credits. It may be a little too far fetched, or to identify the version of the film with just "Godzilla" as the 1.33:1 version and the "Godzilla : King of the Monsters!" version as the 1.66:1.

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Terasawa
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Re: Godzilla : King of the Monsters! 1956 Theatrical Aspect Ratio

Post by Terasawa »

The May 12, 1956 Boxoffice review notes the aspect ratio as "standard" (so, 1.37), but that could also be a mistake. I don't believe there's any way of knowing how the film or credits were framed, and it's possible it differed from theater to theater. There's also no evidence at present that the version titled "Godzilla" was ever exhibited or that one version had different credits than the other. There are too many variables involved.

The credits on the 2006 Classic Media transfer were tacked on to a much older master from (IIRC) a 16mm print supplied by Ed Godziszewski. I can't check my copy of that disc right now but I think the cropping on those credits might have been done by Classic Media for some reason -- if they were in fact from a 16mm print, it seems unlikely that the credits would have been effectively letterboxed, especially if that print was struck for television. Additionally, I've seen a 16mm print of the film that had no end credits whatsoever. :shrug:
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Great Hierophant
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Re: Godzilla : King of the Monsters! 1956 Theatrical Aspect Ratio

Post by Great Hierophant »

The only thing I could think of is that the 16mm TV copy was taken from a 35mm copy which already had the end credits framed for widescreen.

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Here are the Classic Media versions of those screens :

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I find the placement of the credits on the Criterion release, which occur before "The End" more convincing than on the Classic Media release, which places them after "The End". The prayer of light music clearly continues immediately from that last shot of the ocean to the credits.
Last edited by Great Hierophant on Fri Dec 03, 2021 6:40 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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