Directed by Sandy Howard and Noriaki Yuasa, this is the American version of Gamera. The footage was provided to Howard by Daiei and he was free to move it around however he wanted for Western eyes.

Gammera the Invincible was the only film in the original Gamera series to receive a theatrical release in the United States. It was sent to theaters and drive-ins by World Entertainment Corp. and Harris Associates, Inc. Amazingly, it played double features with Knives of the Avenger. The rest of the movies went directly to TV and were distributed by American International Television.

All of the romantic plots are forgotten, Gamera being from Atlantis is ignored and new footage of Gen. Terry Arnold (Brian Donlev) and the Secretary of Defense (Albert Dekker) has been added, so that it seems like Americans are in Japan. There’s also footage that wasn’t used in the original movie to add a little more to the movie.

I was just looking at the poster for this movie and had a sense memory. I was eight-years-old and it was a Saturday afternoon. Even on the weekends, I was nervous, anxious, worried for school to come Monday. I regularly got attacked on the playground and my teacher told me it was my fault. I talked too much. I studied too hard. And I never slept, which is where it all began, this lifelong insomnia. But Gamera was my escape. The idea of Gamera, a giant turtle throwing up fire, turning into a shell and spinning around, sure that might seem silly to you today. But I sat in class and knew I’d be beaten into unconsciousness in two hours and I’d just draw Gamera setting a city on fire. He and Godzilla and the rest of the monsters were so fantastic, so wonderful, so perfect, not like the kind of world where a little frightened fat kid threw up all night and tried to round off infinity and had OCD and could barely leave a room without trying to do even steps or flip light switches over and over again. I was a prisoner of my mind and all that helped me forget it, even if just for a few moments was movies like this. So here’s to you, Gamera. Thank you, Johnny Sokko. God bless you, well, Godzilla. I still never sleep, I have never stopped worrying, but you have always been here for me, smashing cities so that I can escape.

You can watch this on Tubi.