Gorgo

Gorgo (1961)

Runtime: 78 minutes

Directed by: Eugene Lourie

Starring: Bill Travers, William Sylvester, Vincent Winter, Christopher Rhodes, Joseph O’Conor

From: King Brothers Productions

What memorable wanton destruction in the final act; that was my main feeling concerning Gorgo after viewing the restored version on Arrow’s streaming site. The only foreknowledge I had beforehand was that this was Britain’s attempt at a kaiju movie. I was invested in the story so the methodical pacing for the first two acts was not an issue—the effects (at least when they attempted to superimpose images to reflect destruction) haven’t aged well-at least the model work and the guy in a suit stomping over miniature sets still are old-school cool.

The plot isn’t too terribly original: a ship wrecks off the coast of Ireland due to volcanic activity that also released a prehistoric creature, bipedal in nature and looking like a lizard of sorts. It’s captured and because the pair that run the ship are greedy A-holes (one of them Heywood Floyd from 2001, i.e. William Sylvester), they swerve two Irish academics and instead sell the titular Gorgo to a London circus as a sideshow act. Regrettably for them, that creature is just a baby—his mother is on the warpath looking for her offspring.

I can nitpick over how despite the presence of several voices of reason (including a little orphan boy, who lives in an Irish village but stows away on the ship and suddenly is unofficially adopted by our two male leads) and opportunities to prevent the destruction of London, it happens due to sheer stupidity… I am more forgiving of those flaws when the final act delivered on the destruction of London. 

As sociopathic as it may sound, that’s not my intent when describing how some expected landmarks were wrecked, how many innocent deaths occurred, all the carnage, the skies turning orange due to all the fires in the area… those moments were well-realized, awkward superimposed images aside. The radio announcer that often provides OOT commentary to the audience (both fictional and us, the viewers) was tremendous.

The majority that view kaiju movies are predominately interested in seeing the calamity, the annihilation the creature delivers. In this case, Gorgo (the movie and the creature’s mother) was satisfying; the visuals were grand and while cliché in this genre, the message of hubris by humanity and how greed/avarice can have devastating consequences… that was delivered well and henceforth, I was charmed by this movie that wasn’t as campy as I erroneously presumed it would be. 

For clarification’s sake, I’ve never viewed the apparently similar Reptilicus-the draw of seeing Danes attempt to enter the kaiju market strikes me as curious. One day in the future I need to check out that ’62 film. I’ve also never peeped the UK’s other giant monster movies from this era: Konga and The Giant Behemoth. The former starring a young Michael Gough interests due to his presence alone.