cult film freak: YURIKO HOSHI UNCOVERS 'GHIDORAH: THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER'

Title: Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster Year: 1964 Rating: ****

It's ironic that Japanese bombshell Akiko Wakabayashi would soon be the first Bond Girl in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE since GHIDORAH: THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER has her character, an Asian princess turned into a Venusian/alien spokesperson, being dogged by a bevy of suited spy-goons looking straight out of the Ian Fleming universe...

But the real scene-stealing ingenue is the adorably energetic Girl-Friday reporter Yuriko Hoshi, returned from MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA, which this is a direct sequel in what's overall more of a connected double-feature than merely part of the long line of Showa-era Godzilla films that began in 1954, all with the same visionary director, Ishirô Honda...

Emi Itô and Yumi Itô in Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster

Who neatly balances suspenseful science-fiction ala 1953's WAR OF THE WORLDS with a meteor that's really a UFO landing in the woods, anticipated by nervously investigative scientists until the inevitable titular three-headed monster is unhatched and unleashed...

But by the time this happens, the movie's already in the final act, having previously involved battles between fan-favorite monster-bird Rodan pecking Godzilla while Mothra, in worm-form, slithers around in-between...

Yuriko Hoshi and Akiko Wakabayashi in Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster

At which point it's three against one, and the first time Godzilla becomes a protagonist savoir (albeit reluctantly) for Japan, at one point doing creature-speak alongside Rodan while Mothra's twin fairies translate to the onlooking Japanese crowd... which could have easily taken this installment down a campy point of no return...

And yet, with so many epic smackdowns and both starlets (the super-cute reporter and the gorgeous martian princess) carrying the human tale in a pulpy page-turning fashion, GHIDORAH remains one of the best-of-the-busiest 1960's Godzilla flicks.