Gorgo (1961) Review

What do you get when you make a knock off a movie that copied of one of your own films? You get another sea monster played by a man in a rubber suit rampaging through a capitol of a nation, but this time it’s London! When a giant monster is found in the depths on the North Sea and captured, it sets the stage for one of the angriest mothers in cinema history. Combining death and carnage with the heart of a family film makes Gorgo an oddly sweet story. Updated review with new HD screen captures and Blu-ray details!

One of the inspirations for Gojira aka Godzilla, King of the Monsters was 1953’s The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. So it is rather interesting that the director of that film, Eugene Lourie, was also the director of Gorgo, which is obviously inspired by Godzilla. After being berated by his young daughter for killing the Beast, Lourie decided to make a monster film with a gentler take. Well, the movie isn’t that gentle, but it is not as somber as Gojira, that’s for sure.

Oh and if you are looking for a review of the new Blu-ray release, it can be found in the Technical section. If you want the best copy of the movie, the Blu-ray is a must buy.

Gorgo opens up with a group of salvagers working on a wreck off the coast of Ireland. The captain of the ship, Joe Ryan (Bill Travers), is concerned about a strange bubbling in the water nearby. When his best friend and diver Sam Slade (William Sylvester) is late coming up, he becomes even more concerned. It turns out to be a false alarm, but what happens next is completely unexpected: a volcano emerges from the sea and erupts! Nearly capsized, the ship suffers enough damage to be dead in the water.

Taking a small boat to the nearby Nara Island, the duo find an isolated fishing village filled with hostile Gaelic speakers. It is pointed out that they speak English, but choose not to when dealing with Joe and Sam. Fortunately for them, a little boy named Sean (Vincent Winter) takes them to where the harbor master lives. There he shows them a back room where Viking relics salvaged from wrecks abound.

Finding the outsiders in his house, the harbor master coldly informs them they have to leave the area within the day. Oddly, he refuses to help with repairs and only allows them to get fresh water. Something strange is going on besides the eruption.

Talking to the only friendly person there, Sean, they discover the lad is an orphan. My first impression is that he was straight out of a Disney film and the way he is lensed added to that feeling. There is a wistful air about him complimented by a hints at a childhood lost in a hard scrabble environment. Of course you know what his being an orphan means for the movie, right?

While returning to the ship, the sailors run into a group of fishermen in rowboats waiting for a diver to return to the surface. Finally he does, only to die in the boat of the salvagers. Something frightened him to death, yet he clenched something in his hand. What they find in it explains a great deal and prompts them to sneak a dive in later themselves.

Underwater, Joe and Sam find out what killed the local before they even have a chance to look for what he was. Quickly they surface, because there is something huge down there. Huge and alive.

That night, the villagers return with torch lit rowboats bearing harpoons. Yeah, it is kind of easy to see where they are going with this, isn’t it?

Spotting the creature’s head, one fisherman launches a harpoon into it. For some odd reason, the monster does not take it well. Finally we get to see it emerge and do battle with the rowboats. They are no match for his overdeveloped claws, to say the least. The monster looks a great deal like Godzilla, but with webbed ears and glowing red eyes. Angered, he wades to the harbor, but is driven off by thrown torches in a classic monster movie moment.

What is it with monsters being afraid of fire in these movies? Especially small fires? It isn’t like they are flammable.

Getting back to unreality, Captain Joe has quite a confrontation with the harbor master. He and Sam force the truth out of the man and make him an offer he can’t refuse. I have to say, none of the adults in this movie are coming off like good guys.

When catching a fish, you need bait. When catching a giant sea monster, you need big bait. So Joe goes down in a diving bell to play lure as they troll the water. In this scene you will see a difference in effects philosophy from this era’s kaiju movies of Japan. Where most of the time miniatures are used to portray everything from the start there, this one uses them to duplicate actual objects used by the actors. While you can tell the difference, it still helps with suspension of disbelief for some reason.

A salvage ship is one of the few vessels capable of taking on such a monstrous creature, so at least one plot device is explained there. With the sad looking creature cocooned in metal fishing nets, the captain decides to notify the world. Scientists from Dublin arrive to give advice on keeping it alive and to make sure he delivers it to them for scientific research.

Being men of money over principle, the decision is secretly made to take the critter to London. An offer of thirty thousand pounds plus part of box office take at a circus is irresistible. I still haven’t seen a likeable adult in the flick yet.

So that leaves us with the child of the film who has stowed away. Feeling sympathy for the monster, Sean tries to free it and is caught. Having nowhere to go, Joe and Sam take him to London with them.

One of the best bits in Gorgo is the parade through London of the full size prop. It appears they managed to get some real life publicity and film it for the movie at the same time, which is very clever marketing. The creature is named Gorgo after the gorgons of Greek myth, we are informed. It just happens to be coincidence that the name starts with a “g” like Godzilla; wink, wink.

Having set off a media circus to promote his circus, Mr. Dorkin (Marin Benson) sees pound signs before his eyes and the attraction hasn’t even opened up yet. He’s a classic showman on the make. Looking around, there still isn’t a sympathetic adult in the movie yet.

All the hype leads to a very rash action by a photo journalist, who decides that jumping the security lines to get a close up picture of Gorgo while he is being freed from his nets is a terrific idea. You know, since animals love flash bulbs going off in their eyes and all.

A deadly tantrum follows before Gorgo is put in his pen. Some surprisingly good special effects are used in the scene. Though another crewman is dead there are no worries for the show must go on and so it does. People crowd the circus to watch the rather pathetic giant shuffle around his enclosure. Also watching is Sean, who looks as miserable as the beastie.

If the announcers are to be believed, Gorgo is 60 feet tall, but he seems smaller than that. I could buy thirty. The costume looks a little flimsy in the brighter lighting of the circus scene, but it is a pretty good design for the most part. It works well in compositing most of the time, which is a testament to the special effects crew hard work with an insufficient budget.

Guilt begins to enter the picture when Sam starts drinking after realizing the human cost of getting rich off from Gorgo is getting too high. Joe blames him listening to Sean for the change of heart, which confirms to me that the boy is the voice of conscience -- if not a stand in for the daughter of the director.

The ring of the telephone interrupts the human melodrama to reveal a slight problem has developed. No, it has nothing to do with the cut of the ticket sales, at least on the surface. Instead, it is those pesky Dublin scientists again who have figured out something urgently important about the monster.

Gorgo is underage. Joe and Sam have caught not just a youngster, but they have robbed the deep sea version of the cradle. What does this mean? Ever tried to get near the cub of a momma grizzly bear?

There is nothing in nature more angry than a protective mother, which Nara Island quickly finds out. I admit it was satisfying to see the greedy harbor master get his well deserved fate. By the way, the adult of the species is around 200 feet tall, so the humans are going to need more than sturdy nets to stop this one.

The British government is prepared and sends out the fleet to intercept momma Gorgo. Or more accurately, the movie sends stock footage out to defeat the sea monster. Some of the clips even have British equipment in them. Some. Check out the “Royal Navy” jet fighter above. Yep, that is the “stars and bars” on the F9F Panther.

Couldn’t they have found some footage of Sea Hawks, Sea Vixens, Attackers, or Scimitars somewhere? Instead we see footage of an FJ-3 Fury and F9Fs from the Korean War era. Even the ships are culled from WWII films and the terrible quality of the stock is glaring.

With the humongous amphibian in their sights, can the Royal Navy stop her? Or will they run out of stock footage first?

Thoughts

When I was a child, the only way I would find out about rare films was from magazines such as Forrest Ackerman’s  Famous Monsters of Filmland. I remember seeing a picture from Gorgo and wanting very badly to see it. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I finally got to.

Gorgo is an oddly sweet film that tries to be for kids while having enough seriousness to pull in adults. Even though I first saw it on Mystery Science Theater 3000, I felt a growing affection toward it despite its many flaws. Seeing it by itself reinforced my fondness for it and it has everything to do with watching a tough orphan boy soften a couple of greedy sailors in a cold world. Then there is the mother’s love for her child part of the plot.

Simply put, the film’s heart is in the right place.

The effects are actually pretty good for the time with the miniatures being very well made. Unlike Japanese efforts, there is quite a bit of weathering done on the models. To a scale model builder such as me, that is a big deal. But there is one place where more could have been done and that has to do with the interiors of the buildings destroyed. They lack detail and though the exteriors are superior, it is nice to have some debris that looks like furnishings.

I wrote that the rubber suit was a good design, but it is literally a little light in the britches. This was done for mobility, but it can be distracting to see the unnatural folds in some shots. The remote controlled jaws, eyes, and ears were hydraulically powered and operated by the suit actors, so it was quite a leap from what was seen in Gojira.

Gorgo was a monster hit worldwide easily dominating at the box office. At the time, Godzilla hadn’t been seen since Godzilla Raids Again aka Gigantis the Fire Monster, which was a bomb. Part of this success was due to the fact that it a giant monster trashing a city in widescreen color for the first time.

In fact, Gorgo had its first screening in Japan in December 1960 before being officially released. It was a smash success and I wouldn’t be surprised if it helped encourage Toho Studios to resume the Godzilla series. This is fitting since the film was supposed to be set and made in Japan in the first place!

There is a lot of death and destruction in the movie including a man on fire, but it is all bloodless. Nothing gruesome is ever shown and no profanity is used. There is drinking and and a fistfight between characters with a child present, but this unrated film is at the lighter end of PG, in my opinion.

I recommend Gorgo to lovers of B-movies, kaiju (giant monster) fans, and kids. Oh and anyone who likes watching cities be destroyed! Can’t forget that fan base.

Technical

UPDATED for the Blu-ray release!

VCI released a new restored version of Gorgo on Blu-ray in March 2013 that more than makes up for their awful 2005 DVD. The evisceration of that edition can be found after the Blu-ray section.

Blu-ray

Thanks to a surprise find in a salt mine storage archive, better elements for the movie were found several years ago. Restoration of those film elements have brought forth the best presentation of Gorgo we can expect. Please keep in mind the movie didn’t have the budget it really needed, that the quality varies due to this and the film stock’s condition, and that this isn’t an expensive Lawrence of Arabia kind of restoration.

The quality of the anamorphic 1.78:1 picture is miles above anything else released to home video formats. Compared to more modern movies or very expensive restorations it is grainy and a tad soft. Contrast varies quite a bit, but after seeing the restoration before and after shots in the extras, VCI did the best they could with the material. They’ve done a much better job and haven’t lost detail due to increasing contrast too much like they did before. Colors are vibrant and most importantly in register! There is no bleeding like with before.

Underwater shots are much better and you can see what is going on more clearly. One thing that became noticeable is the poor blue screen compositing in some shots. If there is one drawback to good high definition video it is seeing the limitations of special effects of old films.

Sound quality will be something mildly controversial to diehards, I think. The English, French, and sound effects plus music (weird choice that) tracks are PCM stereo format rather than DTS-Master HD or DolbyHD. Despite that choice, I found them much clearer than the DVD surround sound mix and a vast improvement – with one complaint. Dialogue is crisp with Irish brogues coming through beautifully while the lovely score is nearly as vibrant as the Technicolor.

Now for the complaint. Starting with the finale, an oscillating low frequency hum had me looking out the window to see if a diesel truck was driving around the neighborhood. No such luck, so I turned down the subwoofer on the 5.1 speakers and voila it went away. This isn’t a loud hum and I suspect many people won’t even hear it, but it was annoying to me.

Subtitles are in English only.

Extras on the Blu-ray are plentiful thanks to a new documentary and donations by collectors. Amazingly, all are in 1080p. The entire first issue of the tie-in American comic book adaptation is scanned in and presented in a half hour slide show to read. So is a rare fumetto, or comic book using still photos, from France. Clever use of CGI graphics make the galleries of posters, theater cards, toys, and photos more visually appealing than normal.

Ninth Wonder of the World: The Making of Gorgo is the afore mentioned documentary that is the crown jewel of the extras. Running at half an hour in length, it covers the career of Eugene Lourie from his beginnings as an art director in Hollywood to directing then back to effects and design. Also covered is career of the King brothers, the shady duo who came to California to make movies and surprisingly were good at it.

It is also somewhat psychedelic. When you see it, you’ll understand.

DVD

Oh boy, where to begin?

VCI Entertainment’s 2005 “Widescreen Destruction Edition” of Gorgo on DVD is a huge disappointment. On the back of the case it trumpets “Digitally Remastered” which unfairly raises expectations. While it is presented in 1.85:1 ratio, it is letterboxed 4:3 which simply doesn’t cut it for a DVD released after 2000. The remastering is atrocious, which compounds the video quality issues. Too much sharpening combined with aggressive denoising results in a movie that has halos around the edges of just about everything seen.

But this is the tip of the iceberg, folks. One of the things that made Gorgo special was that it was filmed in Technicolor, which was a special process using three different strips of film with each corresponding to a primary color. Combining the three strips produced a vivid color that was the pinnacle of film technology before digital took over.

Sadly, it appears they used a copy of the movie that still had all three strips glued together. Due to differing shrinkage rates over the years, the strips can become misaligned and that clearly is the case here. Check the screen captures and you will notice that the red is aligned higher than the rest.

This causes two problems: First is the massive color bleed. Once you notice it, you will keep seeing it because it isn’t a small error and the red is all over the place. The second problem is that to get proper definition and detail, all three strips need to line up. Could this be the reason for the over sharpening? Perhaps.

Contrast is cranked up to 11 on a scale of 1 to 10 and the color saturation is as well. A greenish cast in many scenes does not help things either.

In short, the video is a mess.

The audio has issues as well. English and French tracks are clear most of the time, but they decided to remix the mono to surround sound. Expect to hear a lot of bizarre and muddy reverb in certain scenes.

I should also point out how ridiculously loud and exhausting the DVD main menu animation is. You will want to mute it, believe me.

Extras:

Bonus Video: Behind the Scenes Mini-Documentary – This almost ten minute long look at the production was written by Tom Weaver and narrated by Steve Garfinkel. Plenty of trivia tidbits are included along with a smattering of photos and storyboards. Most of the time footage from the movie is recycled to match the narration.

Photo Gallery – Posters and shots from movie ads are shown; once again you will want to hit the mute button.

Bios – Text biographies of the director and the two adult mains. They scroll by and can’t be controlled by you. There is actually some interesting information in these.

BEWARE! HERE BE SPOILERS!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Momma’s arrival in London is great fun and one of the better effects sequences. The last fifteen minutes of the short (76 min) film depicts her rampage through the city. Gorgos may not have radioactive breath, but those glowing red eyes are certainly cool.

Oh look, it’s Nigel Green from Zulu! It is only a tiny part as a dispatcher, sadly

What would a giant monster movie be without the military called out and panicked civilians fleeing? Gorgo is no different in this regard and more stock footage is brought out to attack momma. It was used over the director’s objections and he didn’t even want the military involved in the plot. Producers always called the shots back then and even now.

The attack on the bridge is the highlight of the rampage for me, which is a pity since it is early in the attack. Here was some of the best model work in the movie.

While it is no Tokyo Tower, Big Ben makes a good substitute landmark. The sad thing is the damage starts with the rocket attack trashing one of the clock faces. Not only do the humans fail to faze momma, they wreck their own cultural treasure in the process. Mind you, the behemoth completely destroys the tower a moment later. Urban renewal will happen no matter what.

These would be great shots if it weren’t for the terrible haloing. The Blu-ray got rid of the haloing that plagued the DVD in these scenes. I do admire the ironic touch of Gorgo’s mother destroying the sign promoting his captivity. Coca-Cola was heard being sold at Dorkin’s Circus so it must have been a product placement.

Oh look, actual British fighter jets! I guess they decided to throw some in for patriotic purposes, despite the stock footage being daytime. Those are Hawker Hunters; the U.K.’s answer to the F-86 Sabre. They were excellent planes that stayed in service worldwide longer than the venerable Sabres did.

I love how almost every one of these monsters are dealt with by stringing up electrical lines to kill them. It never works, but it does show how influential Godzilla, King of the Monsters was. Rare dramatic tension is also there, because for just a moment it appears Gorgo’s mother was going to fail to rescue him. The foaming at the mouth was just a wee bit disturbing.

Interesting how the foot prop does not look like the costume at all, but more like a real dinosaur appendage. Updated: Actually, that is the costume! I couldn’t tell until seeing it more clearly in HD. Impressive improvement over Godzilla’s foot, isn’t it?

Proving that it has the soul of children’s film, Gorgo is reunited with his mother and Sean gets to say goodbye – from a distance. You know, he wasn’t an annoying kid at all, unlike just about every other one in this genre. I liked the boy because he wasn’t bratty in the least.

So Gorgo and his momma return to the sea. Wait… Did he suddenly shrink down? Actually, looking back his size in comparison to his mother varied constantly. So much for scale continuity!