'Momoko Kochi', who played Emiko, reprised her role in Godzilla vs. Destroyah, her final film role.
"Godzilla" was the last known film for both Frank Iwanaga, who played Tomo, and Mikel Conrad, who played Steve Martin's editor George.
Akihiko Hirata, who played Dr. Serizawa, wore the same eye patch in Godzilla Versus the Sea Monster and Atragon.
Raymond Burr said that, contrary to popular belief, all his scenes were not done in one day, but over the course of six days. It was simply impossible to create all the sets in one day, especially the daylight scene filling in for Odo Island and the night scene on the hilltop during Godzilla's first rampage.
Al C. Ward, who later wrote the entire 171-episode run of "Medical Center," was given a choice of $2500 up front to write the American scenes for "Godzilla" or five percent of the profits. Ward, thinking the movie would bomb, second-guessed himself and took the money. He later admitted to telling students of his college movie writing classes that he always regretted the decision. It was estimated he could have raked in $5 million in his lifetime from residuals.
All the scenes with Raymond Burr were added after the Japanese version of Godzilla was finished and shown to Japanese audiences about two years earlier.
An uncredited Kenji Sahara, who plays one of the singles on the harbor cruise ship, would go on to become Toho's most prolific actor.
Godzilla's roar did come from a contrabass, but the echoing sound came from playing the sound in an empty toilet tank and recording it.
Godzilla's roar was made by dragging a resin-coated leather glove up and down a contrabass and having the subsequent recording slowed down significantly.
Godzilla/Gojira was the only film role for Toyoaki Suzuki, who played Shinkichi. However, his photo from Godzilla appeared in Godzilla vs. Destroyah.
In the American version, Godzilla's size was increased from 150 feet to nearly 400 feet because of the disparity between Japanese buildings (built short to meet earthquake codes) and American skyscrapers. It was felt that Godzilla's original size would be lost among the tall buildings of New York, the city most often compared to Tokyo.
In the original Godzilla, the electrical barrier is stated to contain 50,000 volts, which was actually the voltage rating of just one line. In the American version, the voltage was upped to three million volts because director Terry O. Morse felt no one would believe 50,000 volts could even faze Godzilla.
In the original Japanese version, there were several references not only to the atomic-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki but also to the firebombing of Tokyo. These were deleted in the American version of the film.
It is often said that "Since his contract said that he could only work for one day on the film, Raymond Burr was kept at the studio for 24 hours to shoot all of his scenes."; but, this is an urban myth with absolutely no evidence to support it. Between set construction and outside shots it took 6 days to shoot.
It was felt that an experienced editor was needed to direct this American version in order to maintain the continuity and make it appear that Raymond Burr was part of the original production, which was actually shot two years earlier as Godzilla. Terry O. Morse was selected because he had almost 30 years experience as an editor, as well as experience as a director of low-budget films.
Prior to the film's release, it was hyped that Raymond Burr spent two months in Japan working on his scenes. In actuality, his scenes were filmed at a studio in Hollywood in six days.
Several months before this film received its editing job, the original Japanese version of Godzilla was shown on a limited release in the United States.
Tôhô released this American version of its own Godzilla to Japanese audiences in 1957. The studio ballyhooed it as being a CinemaScope production, when in fact what Toho did was chop off the top and the bottom of the frame. These mutilated shots later made it into the studio's Daikaijû Baran.
The Japanese version of the film received a Japanese Academy Award nomination for Best Picture but lost to Seven Samurai. It did, however, win the award for Best Special Effects. It is the only Godzilla movie to receive a nomination for Best Picture.
The original Japanese footage and the added American footage were all shot in standard academy (1.37:1). However, the U.S. distributor indicated that the film was to be projected in spherical widescreen. The cast and production credits that ran following the final fade-out were produced in hard-matted widescreen. Those theaters that had not installed wide screens could still run the release prints, which were full frame, but the cast and production credits would appear with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. When the television version was being prepared, the distributor avoided the lab cost of having the cast and production credit footage enlarged and re-framed to fill the television screen (as required by then current Federal Communicatins Commission FCC regulations) by simply removing this footage. At the fade-out, there is an abrupt cut to "The End." The loss of this footage, which ran approximately 90 seconds, reduced the running time to just under 79 minutes. The footage is believed to have been removed from the original master negative so that all reduction elements, and all elements used to produce the U.S. home video releases, were missing all cast and production credits. The elements for this footage were assumed to be lost, but this footage still exists in the surviving 35mm theatrical release prints. In Japan, however, the film was released in anamor