Gamera (film) - English Versions

English Versions

Gamera was originally presented in the United States by World Entertainment Corp. and Harris Associates, Inc., who renamed the film Gammera the Invincible. Reportedly the extra 'M' in the monster's name was to prevent confusion over the pronunciation. Premiering in New Orleans on December 15, 1966, this was the only film in the original Gamera series to receive a theatrical release in America.

Gammera the Invincible was heavily re-edited from its original Japanese version. To Westernize the film for American audiences, director Sandy Howard filmed new footage starring Albert Dekker, Brian Donlevy and John Baragrey. Many of these new scenes replaced similar scenes from the original cut that featured Caucasian extras. Several other scenes from the Japanese version were removed altogether to make room for the new American scenes. Although not credited in the film, it's likely that the remaining Japanese dialogue was dubbed into English by Titan Productions, Inc. in New York. Notable Titan performers such as Bernard Grant, Paulette Rubinstein and Larry Robinson all lent their voices to the film. Future Speed Racer voice actors Peter Fernandez, Jack Curtis and Corrine Orr also participated in the re-recording sessions.

In 1985, American producer Sandy Frank purchased the rights to five of the original eight Gamera films (he passed up Virus, Zigra and Gamera Super Monster for some reason) and distributed them to television and home video via King Features. Frank retitled and re-released the first film under the title Gamera. Unlike the previous American version of the film, Frank changed very little from the original Japanese cut of the film. New opening credits set against a stock shot of the ocean were attached to the film and a new English dub Americanized most of the characters' names ("Toshio" became "Kenny", "Kyoko" became "Katherine", "Aoyagi" became "Alex", etc.). None of the footage shot by Sandy Howard for the 1966 American version was seen in this version of the film, which is grossly inferior to the 1966 version starring Brian Donlevy.