The first "Godzilla" movie in 1954 introduced the world to the terrors of Gojira in beautiful black and white. The film launched the longest continuously running film franchise ever made, and it did so by putting a guy in a rubber suit and having him tear through intricately built miniature sets. "Godzilla" wasn't the first movie to use suitmation, but it set a standard that would influence monster movies for decades.

Ishirō Honda managed to terrorize moviegoers while remaining true to his message about the horrors of nuclear war. That's no easy task, and the director was the only person who could make it happen. Sure, you can watch it and ignore the message, but doing so eliminates the whole point of the movie. That's essentially what happened with the 1956 Americanized U.S. release, titled "Godzilla, King of the Monsters!" 

If you're more into horror than campy escapism, you can watch this and skip to the 16th film in the Japanese franchise, "The Return of Godzilla." If you'd like to watch the original and then skip to the end of the century, you can seek out to "Godzilla 2000: Millennium," the 24th film overall in the franchise.