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| Nobuyuki Yasumaru in December 2018. Photo by Brett Homenick. |
The topic of Gorosaurus' unexplained substitution for Baragon when the Arc of Triumph collapses in Destroy All Monsters (1968) has been the subject of speculation for decades. In the West, the most common explanation is that the Baragon suit, having been reused and recycled so many times since its debut in Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965), just wasn't ready in time for the shoot, so the filmmakers decided to use Gorosaurus instead.
This, however, is not what happened, according to Gorosaurus suitmaker Nobuyuki Yasumaru. In December 2018, I had the privilege of interviewing Mr. Yasumaru, who recounted the situation.
In the interview, Mr. Yasumaru states:
[T]he monster Baragon was supposed to destroy the Arc of Triumph in Destroy All Monsters (1968). However, he had big ears like an elephant that would get stuck inside the Arc of Triumph. So they decided to use Gorosaurus instead of Baragon.
This seems rather definitive to me, especially coming from the man who created the Gorosaurus suit. Of course, I would welcome any additional citations, as opposed to idle speculation and connecting-the-dots guesswork, to paint a fuller picture. It's always difficult to say with complete certainty what happened on movie sets 50 or 60 years ago, as participants pass away, and memories fade. But Mr. Yasumaru's recollections are probably about as close as we will come to knowing for sure.
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