Daisenso (1965)

It has a roundish head with wide eyes and a broad, frog-like mouth, and the body of the suit is rather baggy, with an underdefined musculature — from certain angles, it looks as though Haruo Nakajima is wearing a potato sack. Godzilla is also more fleet-footed in this film than before; in addition to the aforementioned dance (known as the Godzilla “Shie,” and reportedly adopted from a Japanese comic-book character that was popular at the time), Godzilla also hits King Ghidorah with a flying body slam during the first battle, and during the second fight he shuffles his feet a la Muhammad Ali. These silly monster mannerisms were introduced by Tsuburaya, whose power at the studio was at an all-time high, and who was increasingly conscious that the movies should appeal to small children, despite protests from his staff and colleagues. “When Tsuburaya-san talked about Godzilla doing the ‘Shie’ pose, I was totally against it,” said SFX cameraman Teisho Arikawa. “But Mr. Tsuburaya said, ‘Never mind, it will make children happy.’ … I shot the scene real reluctantly. The actor in the Godzilla suit [Haruo Nakjima] didn’t want to do it either….