It's disappointing that they have War of the Gargantuas but not the far superior film it's essentially a sequel to, Frankenstein Conquers the World. Unfortunately, the English dub glosses over the Frankenstein connection in favor of the "Gargantua" label, perhaps because American audiences would've been confused by referring to Bigfoot-like creatures as Frankensteins. FCtW is not only one of the very best kaiju films -- dark and moody and sad, a commentary on the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing, with an unusually humanized and sympathetic kaiju and a great Akira Ifukube score -- but it's also significant for the introduction of Baragon, also seen in Destroy All Monsters and the 2001 Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. So it's got more of a connection to the rest of the Toho kaiju universe than WotG does, since the only later film to reference WotG is Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla with a brief stock-footage cameo by Gaira ("Green Gargantua") in its opening minutes. So FCtW would've been a better film to include in this marathon all around.
They might show up on TCM's on demand around their air date. If you can access TCM you should be able to access it either through your cable provider or via their website. I'm not sure if one or the other has better offerings. https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm
I didn't stay up all night to watch them; neither did I record them to DVR; so I can't be certain for "Godzilla Raid Again". But "Godzilla/Gojira", "Godzilla vs. Mothra" and "Mothea" were all presented in the original Japanese dialogue track with subtitles. Well, "Gojira" is pretty much a given and "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" was edited for a English speaking audience, anyway, but I, personally, have not seen the original version of "Mothra", so last night was a pleasant surprise for me. Oh, in case you're wondering, I woke to visit the bathroom and turned on the TV for a bit. "Godzilla vs. Mothra" was concluding and then "Mothra" started. I now wonder if the others in the October Friday night lineup will be aired in Japanese with subtitles? I enjoy the notion this is now almost becoming the norm, presenting the Toho productions as originally released. I recall when TCM first aired Honda's cut of "Gojira"; I felt a certain bridge concerning broadcast choices had finally been crossed. Oh, Ben Mankiewicz introduced "Gojira" with proper respect, no denigrating the subject matter or jeering the techniques used to create it. He gave it the same reverence as one would a "pivotal" Hollywood production like, say, "Citizen Kane".
TCM has an article up about the movies: http://www.tcm.com/godzilla/films/ It makes an interesting observation that the Godzilla costume "brought to mind kabuki theater traditions," suggesting it was seen as more symbolic/performative than an attempt at realism. That explains so much about kaiju eiga and tokusatsu.
Looks like Haxan and the Godzilla movies from the other night are indeed up on the TCM website and presumably would be available on demand as well.
There’s nothing on Syfy as egregiously off brand as Ancient Aliens. The only problem with Syfy is general quality. Since Stargate and BSG went away they have been “Hilariously Bad Monster Movie Channel”.
Damn, I wish I had know the Godzilla movies were up on the TCM site, I would have watched one of them this morning instead of the live action movie based on the anime/mange Bleach.
Oh please they were that WHILE Stargate and BSG2003 were airing (Mansquito anyone?) <--- Sci Fi/SyFy has always had the made to be 'bad' weekend films since they started.
Few networks are just one thing 24/7. It's just common sense for a network to offer a range of different programming options for different audiences.
Not really. Since then we've had Warehouse 13, Eureka, Killjoys, Dark Matter, Wynonna Earp, The Magicians, The Expanse, and any number of original series I'm probably forgetting. It has never been all "Sharknado" all the time.
You left out my favorite (which hell, I skipped at first because it sounded dumb/ridiculous, but I caught a couple episodes during a marathon of it on their channel and found I liked it)...Eureaka! - It was funny, offbeat, and thankfully didn't take itself too seriously.
Some of my favorite SFF shows of the last decade or so have been on Syfy. Eureka, Warehouse 13, and The Magicians are three of my all time favorite shows.
Damn. Just tuned into TCM to discover that, overnight, it is no longer part of our basic cable package. I am royally pissed. That was our favorite channel!
Uh oh. That may have happened to my Mother, too. I tried to turn it on after we got back from A Midsummer's Night Dream last night and it told me to subscribe. I assumed it was the Nor'easter at work. Luckily, a quick dash upstairs tells me that I still have it. Which is weird, because we both have Comcast....
Yeah, that just happened to me too. It really sucks. TCM introduced me to so much, it made me a Kurosawa fan. I've seen stuff on there that I would never have seen anywhere else, like Haxan, Hotel Monterey, Devi...