Mothra (1961)

What do you do as a follow-up to a giant radioactive lizard attacking Tokyo?

If you are Ishiro Honda, director of Gojira (Godzilla to American audiences), you make Mothra, a movie about a giant moth attacking Tokyo.

Monster movie fans are already familiar with this twisted tale of a scientific exposition heading to a mysterious island. They know about the two twelve-inch high women, played by identical twins Emi to and Yumi Ito, that the bad guys kidnap from the island and their evil plot to exploit them on the Tokyo stage. And they know how the natives of the island chant and dance themselves crazy to raise the island goddess, Mothra, out of her egg and onto her destructive trail of revenge.

What they also know, and what you will discover when you watch Mothra, is how downright hilarious the movie is to watch. Like almost all imported monster movies, it is badly dubbed into English with hilariously inept exposition inserted in place of realistic dialogue. It has truly cheap looking special effects, too, from the model buildings that Mothra destroys to the toy soldiers and toy tanks that fight back.

Above and beyond all that, though, Mothra is infused with a general silliness that only increases as the plot gets more serious. By the time the giant moth gets to the city (mind you he arrives as a giant caterpillar) your sides will ache.

IMDB Site.