Tossing Salt Presents:
Ultimate Movie Review:
The War Of The Gargantuas
April 14, 2022
DougMaynard.com

Greetings, salutations, and all of that stuff. Welcome to the Tossing Salt Movie Review. It’s not just a movie review, but it’s the Ultimate Movie Review. Yeah, I figure that since my Wrestling Q&A is the Ultimate Wrestling Q&A, then anything else I do for this site should be Ultimate as well. Makes sense to me.

And we’re in for a treat because I just finished watching a classic horror flick from 1966 called The War Of The Gargantuas. Is it good? Is it awful? Stick around and let’s find out.

Let me start off here with full disclosure. I’ve seen this movie before, way back on the late-night television when I was 13 years old and visiting my Dad in the lovely town of Hurricane, West Virginia, a town so small that the “Welcome To” and “You Are Now Leaving” signs were on the same post. I’m serious, this town was small. It had a convenience store, a high school, and a set of apartments. That was it. What a wonderful place for a 13-year-old kid to spend their summers, right? Luckily, I had two amazing cousins and my Grandma who lived not far away, just across the state line in Ohio. A big shout out to Clint (RIP) and Cliff. I miss you guys!

Oh yeah, now back to the movie. I was looking through Tubi and came across this movie and said to myself, “Damn, that looks familiar!”. I remembered bits and pieces and so, what the hell, let’s watch it again. And I did. Oy vey.

The basic plot is this. Caution: Spoilers Ahead. A boat is attacked by a green monster called a Gargantua, who is presumed by scientists to be a baby Frankenstein that they once had possession of. This green monster, named Gaira, wreaks havoc and is eating people. Another Gargantua shows up, this one is brown, and this one is a good little monster who likes people and is a plant-eater called Sanda. So basically the green one is a bad-ass and the brown one is trying to get the green one to behave and be good. The two monsters finally end up fighting and the military gets involved, dropping bombs around both of the battling beasts. We get an underground volcano erupting and both monsters vanish.

Yeah, it is cheesy but not as bad as it sounds. It’s not good by any means, but it’s got a charm and aura about it that if you’re into the low aka no-budget movies from the sixties and like just appreciate the hokey stuff, you’ll like it. I really loved this movie when I was a dumb kid, and now that I’m an idiot adult, I still like it. This movie would be perfect for a night with a few friends, several bottles of cheap liquor, and take a shot whenever you feel the mood to roll your eyes at something on the screen. Everyone would be plastered within a half-hour. I guarantee it.

So on my personal scale, from 1 to 5, I’ll give it a big old 2. It has some redeeming qualities, and the monsters are pretty damn cool, but most of the Godzilla movies of the same era were far better.

Here’s an interesting note that I just found out while looking up this movie on Wikipedia to get the technical info. Originally, Nick Adams was supposed to be the star of this flick and then he was replaced by Tab Hunter in pre-production, who was then replaced by Russ Tamblyn. So we almost got a classic Tab Hunter flick instead. That would have been cool.

And another trivial note. This movie was originally supposed to be called, “The Frankenstein Brothers” and was intended to be a sequel to the movie, “Frankenstein Conquers The World”. But the name was changed many times during the entire filming and production process and was finally released with the name, “The War Of The Gangantuas!”

So, the more you know. Anyhow, unless you’re drinking or have a bit of a masochistic streak, I’d pass on this one. It’s not all bad and some consider it a cult classic, but the Reverend Jim Jones had a cult classic in Jonestown, Guyana, and that one could have been a lot better as well.

And there you go. Any thoughts, comments, or questions are welcome and appreciated. If you want to go see this movie, it’s on Tubi. Until the next time, take care and be good, my friends. I’ll see you at the Concession Stand.

Ubuntu!