Gorgo (1961)

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Gorgo (1961)** 1/2 (out of 4)Sailors are fishing off the coast of Ireland when they spot a giant lizard-like creature. Instead of killing it they decide to capture it and then take it to London where it will be on display. As you can guess, the creature escapes and soon the entire city is destroyed.GORGO is a rather interesting low-budget movie. As you can tell, the story is pretty much KING KONG and the monster was obviously inspired by GODZILLA. What's interesting about this movie is that it manages to get the job done even though it's obvious that they're working with very little money. Filmmakers like Edgar Ulmer and Mario Bava were known for taking low-budget films and turning them into something that looked like a big-budget picture. Director Eugene Lourie doesn't quite do that here but it's still an entertaining film.Obviously the best thing about the picture is the monster. The guy-in-a-suit monster certainly looks rather silly and the thing isn't nearly as mobile as it needs to be but at the same time this is a giant monster movie and on that level the creature works. The final twenty-minutes of the movie is certainly the highlight. Once the monster breaks loose and goes on its rampage the film is a lot of fun as the monsters crashing through a number of buildings while trying to stay clear of the military who are constantly firing explosives at it.The performances are decent for what they are. On a technical level the film isn't the most impressive thing that you're going to see and I'm going to guess that the budget was lower than even some of the Godzilla films that would follow this. The story is about as unoriginal as you can get yet with all the campy things, GORGO manages to keep you entertained throughout its running time.

While Japan has led in this genre, and America has done a few good things in it, this is the British take. Which means everyone is totally calm no matter what is happening and no one gets terribly excited. I give it credit in that its monster has a motivation...it wants its baby back. As opposed to your average Japanese Kaiju who just attacks because, you know, Japan. The special effects aren't horrible, and Gorgo is a little more plausible than most of his Japanese kindred- he doesn't have lasers or fire breathe or something equally implausible. It's just big and it stomps things.

I do so remember seeing Gorgo in the theater when I was only 13. That's the place it should be seen on a full theater screen. Then you get the full impact of the terror he's spreading around London.A tramp freighter captained by Bill Travers puts in to a small port on the island of Nara off the Irish coast. As that name sounds Japanese it should have given someone a hint. Volcanic activity at the bottom of the Atlantic has torn the ocean bottom open and this prehistoric monster emerges. The Irish government claims it for research, but after Travers captures it he sells it to Martin Benson's circus in London at Battersea Park.British scientists say that this guy is just a baby and that must mean some adults are around. Sure enough a 200 foot high version of Godzilla's Atlantic cousin starts looking for her youngster and there ain't nothing stopping her from getting her child. This was as good as I remember it and Gorgo has a nice moral to it about letting sleeping dogs and monsters lie and that man isn't all powerful. I was impressed by the performance of Vincent Winter who plays a young Irish orphan kid who attachs himself to Travers. Winters comes across as a real kid and his performance was quite touching.I'll bet even with the advances in mankind's weaponry we'd still have big problems with Mama Gorgo today if she was on that same mission, looking for her child.

The British must have been really jealous of the legendary Japanese monster Godzilla destroying the city of Tokyo, as they insisted on having their very one mega-giant critter destroying the city of London. The result is Gorgo, a charming and easily aggravated sea lizard of Irish descent with adorable bright red eyes. The film opens with a diving expedition witnessing an underwater volcano eruption in the middle of the ocean. The impressive ecological phenomenon brings a lot of fake and inexistent species of rubber fish to the surface, but also awakens the bad-tempered sea monster Gorgo. See, Gorgo is a really cool monstrosity that doesn't waste any time and that's something horror fans will definitely always appreciate. Unlike most monsters in the film industry, Gorgo doesn't start by picking off sole victims somewhere in the middle of the sea; it promptly attacks entire seaside villages at one. That way, there are witnesses aplenty and the few hysterical survivors don't have to waste half of the script trying to convince the authorities about what they saw. Greedy fishermen catch the prehistoric critter and sell him/her/it to a sleazy circus owner in London. But then, and inevitably, it turns out that they only just captured Gorgo Junior, and mommy obviously doesn't like that her baby is downgraded to being a circus freak. "Gorgo" isn't a great or even highly memorable monster classic, but at least it's never boring. The titular monster is pretty cool, the special effects are reasonably astonishing considering the time of release and there are a few admirable attempts to generate sequences of mass hysteria and mayhem. The majority of miniature sets are delightful and let's not forget the various and hilarious use of stock footage! Military battleships and U-boats are firing off artillery into the open water and Gorgo isn't anywhere near the point of impact. The rampage through London itself is not as overwhelming as the aforementioned Godzilla crushing down Tokyo, but it's nice and exhilarating to look at nonetheless. Recommended if you have a soft spot for late 50's/early 60's ecological monster movies.