GIGANTIS THE FIRE MONSTER was the first Godzilla sequel. In a lot of ways, it's become the forgotten Godzilla movie, although a pretty great one. Although the Japanese version was churned out in '55, the American version wouldn't materialize until 1959. In between those years, there was an attempt to import the film as "The Volcano Monsters" with new footage written by Ib Melchior. Toho even provided a couple of monster suits for the project, but for whatever reason it failed to reach maturity. (Interesting trivia note: Bob Burns and Paul Blaisdell found themselves taking cover behind the crate containing the new Godzilla suit when an overzealous technician added too much gunpowder to an explosive miniature effect for INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN.) In the late 80's, a new video title, "Godzilla Raids Again" was tacked onto the film. Frustratingly, this title is now the only one under which the film is sold. Those with a good VCR can track down the old Video Treasures VHS to see the original movie (which is unfortunate as Video Treasures cassettes were usually cheap tapes, though the company had some wonderful titles in it's catalog). The plot concerned the discovery of a new Godzilla at war with another giant dinosaur, and how this battle impacted Japan -in particular the country's fishing community. Neat stuff.
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