The Volcano Monsters
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This was my first feature film (screenplay), so I worked very, very hard on it, but of course the movie was not made and it's hard to say how it would have turned out.
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— From 1992 interview with screenwriter Ib Melchior[8] |
The Volcano Monsters is an unfilmed 1957 American screenplay that called for the reuse of considerable footage from the 1955 Godzilla film Godzilla Raids Again and the use of newly made Toho monster suits. After a group of Hollywood producers who had previously worked on Godzilla, King of the Monsters! struck a deal to distribute Godzilla Raids Again in the U.S., they changed plans and hired writers Ib Melchior and Ed Watson to create an original screenplay for a new film incorporating special effects and pandemonium sequences from Godzilla Raids Again. Melchior and Watson's screenplay would have changed Godzilla and Anguirus to gigantic forms of Tyrannosaurus rex and Ankylosaurus, respectively, on the loose in San Francisco, and would have called for numerous additional special effects shots. AB-PT Picture Corp. - which would have financed and produced the film under the title Volcano Monsters - delayed shooting and scrapped the project from their 1957 slate for unknown reasons, even after receiving suits built by Toho and hiring Howard Anderson to provide special effects. Melchior and Watson's agent Forrest J Ackerman continued to promote the project through 1958, but by January 1959, Godzilla Raids Again had been more conventionally re-edited, dubbed, rescored and retitled Gigantis, the Fire Monster, and released theatrically by Warner Bros. in May of that year.
Plot
Paleontologists investigate a prehistoric cavern, unearthed in the eruption of Japan's Noshiro volcano. Inside, the scientists discover two enormous dinosaurs, theorized to be related to Tyrannosaurus rex and Ankylosaurus, both still living thanks to a specific mixture of volcanic gases. Arrangements are made for the dinosaurs and the gases to be studied at a university laboratory in San Francisco. En route, however, the tyrannosaur is lost at sea during a turbulent storm.
No longer subdued by the volcanic gas, the ankylosaur awakens and heads for Golden Gate Bay, where the tyrannosaur has surfaced. Being prehistoric rivals, the monsters resume their ancient battle and destroy the city's Chinatown. The tyrannosaur kills its opponent and returns to the sea. Some time later, it surfaces at an island in the Arctic Ocean, where scientists theorize that the monster will lay its eggs. U.S. Navy jets bombard the island, trapping the dinosaur under tons of ice, where it will be preserved for scientists to study.
Meanwhile, a monstrous claw emerges from the Noshiro cavern.[9]
Appearances
Monsters
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Weapons, vehicles and organizations
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History
Edward Barison, Harry Rybnick and Richard Kay,[2][10][note 1] who had previously been involved in the localization and U.S. distribution of Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, acquired U.S. rights to Toho's Godzilla Raids Again.[11] Unhappy with the film's story, the three men decided to make a new U.S. film while reusing pandemonium and special effects shots from Godzilla Raids Again. Rybnick hired Ib Melchior and Ed Watson to co-write a new story and screenplay, with Forrest J Ackerman acting as their agent. In March 1957, Ackerman announced in the fan magazine Imaginative Tales that "Ib J. Melchoir (sic) and Ed Watson are engaged on a story outline for Topaz Productions called Spawn of Hell";[1][note 2] in the same month, Ackerman announced in the fan magazine Nebula the two writers' assignment for a screenplay that would be called The Volcano Monsters.[11][12][13]
Melchior and Watson delivered a 129-page shooting script on May 7, 1957, about giant cousins of Tyrannosaurus rex and Ankylosaurus on the loose in San Francisco.[10][14] Their script specifies which shots from Godzilla Raids Again were to be used, along with notes to cut all views of Japanese faces and all footage of Godzilla's atomic breath.[8] Despite the intent to disguise the dinosaurs' true identities and the Japanese origin of the reused footage, Ackerman reported in the fan magazine Imaginative Tales in May 1957 that "Godzilla returns – and meets up with Anzilla, another prehistoric [Japanese] monster – in The Volcano Monsters, an English version co-scripted by Ib Melchior & Ed Watson. The nightmares from [Japan] raise a hullaballoo [...] in this Topaz presentation."[15]
Barison, Rybnick and Kay were set to produce the film through American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres Pictures Corporation (AB-PT Pictures Corp.) under the title Volcano Monsters.[10][8][note 3] Originally launched as Am-Par Pictures Corp. on November 19, 1956 and changing its name on February 21, 1957,[16] AB-PT Pictures Corp. was formed as the wholly-owned subsidiary[17] and production wing of the now-defunct theatrical circuit American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, Inc. with the intent of addressing the decline in U.S. theatrical production rates and directly producing films for its own theaters. An established distributor would handle distribution in other U.S. theatrical circuits and other countries following runs at AB-PT theaters. Films would be budgeted in the range of $250,000 to $500,000, shot on the Republic Pictures lot, and processed at Consolidated Film Laboratories in Hollywood and New York.[18][19]
Melchior and Watson's The Volcano Monsters screenplay called for the addition of numerous new special effects inserts requiring the use of optical mattes, rear projection, prosthetics of the dinosaurs' spikes and feet, storm effects, miniature buildings, and new monster suits based on the designs of Godzilla and Anguirus. Toho built two monster suits that they shipped overseas, and effects artist Howard Anderson was hired to produce the new special effects inserts. Anderson later went on to provide photographic effects for Varan the Unbelievable, an Americanization similar to The Volcano Monsters with its added opticals and prosthetic monster foot.
In May 1957, while working as an assistant to effects creator Paul Blaisedell on the filming of Invasion of the Saucer Men at Anderson's studio, effects technician Bob Burns found the Tyrannosaurus rex and Ankylosaurus suits inside of two already opened crates at the far side of the soundstage; in a 1996 interview, Burns described the physical condition of the Tyrannosaurus suit:[8][20]
The suit was in really bad shape, it looked like they were going to really have to patch it up, because it had burn holes all over it – you could really see where they had shot that thing up, and where they had run lines when they were shooting fireworks into it. I used to wear monster suits, and I'd have hated to be the guy in that thing! It There was actually a hole on the inside where it had burned through. I'm sure the actor who was inside that thing got burned. They didn't really fix it up at all [...] At that time, [Howard Anderson] didn't know what they were going to do with the suits. He told me, 'We just got those in, we're going to be shooting some inserts.' I never knew what happened to those suits.
A day before the final draft was delivered, AB-PT Pictures president Irving H. Levin announced that Volcano Monsters was slated to begin production on June 17, 1957, and this date was reported in both Motion Picture Daily and The Hollywood Reporter.[21][2] Two days later, The Hollywood Reporter gave a start date of June 18 for the film (possibly a typographical error); in the same issue, AB-PT took out a full-page advertisement for the world premiere of their first two films, Beginning of the End and The Unearthly, along with a list of films in production and in preparation, including Volcano Monsters in the latter category.[22][23] In Chicago on May 14 before an audience of over one hundred American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres executives, Levin asserted that the seven films currently on AB-PT Pictures' slate fulfilled the exhibitors' aim of "highly gimmicked and exploitable" product.[24]
On June 12, 1957, AB-PT finalized a deal with Republic Pictures whereby Republic would physically distribute their product in the U.S., its territories and Canada following runs at AB-PT circuits; at this point, Volcano Monsters was still listed as one of the seven properties scheduled for 1957, but its start date was no longer mentioned.[6] AB-PT's production of Volcano Monsters was evidently delayed, as a progress report written by Irving H. Levin and published in Independent Film Journal on June 29 of the same year indicated Volcano Monsters was a forthcoming project on the 1957 slate "soon to go before the cameras."[7] By July 17 of the same year, the AB-PT Pictures 1957 slate consisted of ten films, no longer including Volcano Monsters.[25] No trade magazine news items have been found that indicate cast assignments or location scouting on the film in the weeks preceding and following the initial start date.
On November 18, 1957, Forrest J Ackerman took out an advertisement in The Hollywood Reporter, listing the script of The Volcano Monsters by Ib Melchior and Ed Watson as one of Ackerman Agency's activities.[26] From September 1957 until July 1958, Ackerman continued to report in fan magazines that The Volcano Monsters was forthcoming. In the first issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland published in 1958, Ackerman declared the film "due this year."[27][3][4][5] On November 19, 1958, after making only four films and following eight months without activity from its production subsidiary, AB-PT abandoned production and heads Irving H. Levin and Harry L. Mandell bought the subsidiary.[11][10][28] On January 21, 1959, Variety announced that Paul Schreibman had re-edited, dubbed, and rescored a film entitled Gigantis from an "original, which was tabbed Angirus (sic)."[29] Schreibman's re-edit was released as Gigantis, the Fire Monster by Warner Bros. in May of that year.[30]
The fate of the Tyrannosaurus rex and Ankylosaurus suits is unknown. It is also unknown why The Volcano Monsters was never produced, or why the Tyrannosaurus suit appeared to have been extensively used already when Bob Burns inspected it. The last known photograph of the Tyrannosaurus suit - and only known photo of it stateside - shows it outside in color, being used for what is believed to be the August 1957 promotional campaign for the Lon Chaney biopic Man of a Thousand Faces. The suit is dark gray in color and relatively short, according to Burns' testimony and the color photograph.[8]
Gallery
First page of the February 14 draft of The Volcano Monsters
AB-PT Pictures advertisement in The Hollywood Reporter announcing Volcano Monsters as "in preparation" (May 9, 1957)
Tyrannosaurus rex suit under construction
Ankylosaurus suit under construction
From left: Yoshio Suzuki, Eizo Kaimai, Teizo Toshimitsu, and Yasuei Yagi with the Tyrannosaurus rex and Ankylosaurus suits
Tyrannosaurus rex and Ankylosaurus suits
Tyrannosaurus rex suit
James Cagney (?) posing with the Tyrannosaurus rex suit while wearing makeup for the Phantom used in the 1957 Lon Chaney biopic Man of a Thousand Faces
Trivia
- The Tyrannosaurus rex and Ankylosaurus suits that Toho created for use in The Volcano Monsters differ in design from the respective Godzilla and Anguirus suits used in Godzilla Raids Again. The Tyrannosaurus suit was later dubbed "Gigantis Godzilla" in official publications and merchandise, with companies such as Marmit and more recently Super7 creating figures based on it.
- The 1962 Danish-American film Reptilicus, also co-written by Ib Melchior, reuses many concepts from The Volcano Monsters other than the basic premise of one or more giant monsters on the loose in a modern city:
- Newly-discovered prehistoric dinosaur fossils are later found to be alive only after being removed from their original environment.
- A romance develops between a chauvinist, ill-tempered military commander and a woman scientist.
- The scientists are determined throughout the film to preserve the monster instead of killing it.
- A monster is let loose during a storm due to a negligent scientist.
- The military commander and woman scientist go out for a night on the town.
- A scientist in a lead role is sent to the hospital due to a life-threatening medical condition brought on by the stress of witnessing the havoc they realize they are responsible for.
- The scientists rush to create a sedative that will allow the monster to reenter suspended animation.
- The monster kills some of the main cast.
- An open-ended finale featuring a shot of a surviving monster's claw.
- Two Godzilla series films make similar references to suspended animation and volcanic gases with unusual invigorative properties:
- In King Kong vs. Godzilla, suspended animation and relevant examples in nature are offered by Dr. Shigesawa as an explanation to the press for how Godzilla, long presumed dead, survived his burial by the JSDF at Kamiko Island in Godzilla Raids Again.
- In Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, the Venusian prophetess foretells the resurrection of the monster Rodan by the volcanic gases in the caldera of Mount Aso.
- The KingGoji suit suit bears similarities to the Tyrannosaurus suit, such as the lack of ears, fangs or a fourth toe, and a thicker lower body.
Notes
- ↑ In an interview with Brett Homenick, Ib Melchior recalled that Paul Schreibman was one of the three producers who hired him to write the screenplay instead of Richard Kay. When interviewed by Steve Ryfle, Schreibman was not aware of The Volcano Monsters. A news item in The Hollywood Reporter states that Harry Rybnick, Edward Barison, and Richard Kay were the three producers, with no mention of Schreibman.
- ↑ Paul Schreibman was president of Topaz Film Corp. When interviewed by Steve Ryfle, Schreibman was not aware of The Volcano Monsters.
- ↑ All known mentions of the film in connection with AB-PT Pictures Corp. call the film Volcano Monsters.
References
This is a list of references for The Volcano Monsters. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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Bibliography
- Ryfle, Steve (1998). Japan's Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G". ECW Press. ISBN 1550223488.
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