Terror of Mechagodzilla - English Versions

English Versions

The film was given a North American theatrical release in March 1978 by Bob Conn Enterprises under the title The Terror of Godzilla. This version runs 78 minutes, five minutes shorter than the Japanese print. Just as Cinema Shares had done with the previous three Godzilla movies, Bob Conn Enterprises chose to utilize the Toho-produced English dub instead of hiring American voice actors to re-dub the film. The Terror of Godzilla was heavily edited to obtain a "G" rating from the MPAA. Several scenes with violent content were entirely removed, disrupting the flow of the narrative. Rumor has it that an unedited print, still titled The Terror of Godzilla, was shown in theaters as well.

Henry Saperstein, who sold the theatrical rights to Bob Conn Enterprises, also released the film to television in late 1978, this time under the title Terror of Mechagodzilla. This version runs 89 minutes, which is actually six minutes longer than the Japanese version. It included a prologue about the history of Godzilla, with footage from Monster Zero and Godzilla's Revenge (itself using stock footage from Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster and Son of Godzilla). The rest of this version was uncut with the exception of the shot of Katsura's breasts.

In the mid-1980s, the US TV version, Terror of Mechagodzilla, was replaced by the theatrical edit, The Terror of Godzilla, on television and home video. For some reason, the title was also changed to Terror of Mechagodzilla. The 1994 Paramount release of Terror of Mechagodzilla listed a running time of 89 minutes on the slipcase, implying that this release would be the longer version first shown on American TV. The actual video cassette featured the edited theatrical version. In a 1995 interview with G-Fan, Henry Saperstein was surprised to hear about this mistake. In the mid-2000s, the television version showed up again on Monsters HD, and in 2007, it made its home video debut as the US version on the Classic Media DVD. Although the added prologue was framed for fullscreen television, it was cropped and shown in widescreen on the disc. The rest of the movie featured the audio from Saperstein's television version synced to video from the Japanese version.

The first article about the movie's storyline was published in a 1977 issue of "Japanese Giants" (published by Brad Boyle) and was written by Richard H. Campbell, creator of The Godzilla Fan News Letter.