Like nothing you've ever seen before...unless you've seen Godzilla. Or King Kong. Or Mothra. Or Gamera.Gorgo (1961)
Directed by Eugene Lourie
Genre: Anglo Kaiju
In the swinging '60's, every country had to have their own giant monster. Japan had Godzilla and co., Korea had Younggary, and America was frequently overrun by irradiated insects and spiders. Not to be outdone, En-guh-land came up with its own homegrown giant monster movie, Gorgo. Gorgo has all the elements of 1960's kaiju cinema: a giant monster, minature sets, landmarks destroyed, a kaiju single parent, military battles and even an annoying little kid.
Gorgo went on to start his own Skiffle band.In Gorgo, an earthquake awakens a giant prehistoric reptile that has been slumbering off the Irish coast. When it comes ashore, it is subdued and transported to London to be shown off to the public by some people who have obviously never watched King Kong. They are also unaware of The Grendel Rule of British Monsters, which states that all British monsters have bigger more vicious mothers waiting in the wings. Kaiju-licious mama Gorgo comes to London in search of her son, and also enjoys some of the sites and attractions of the British capital. By "enjoy," I mean "goes all blitzkrieg on."
In Britain in the '60's, you could be a sex symbol and still have bad teeth. It didn't matter.THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS
Compared to the contemporary Japanese giant monster movies, the effects in Gorgo are pretty crude. This is particularly true of the minature work, which lacks the detail of the Japanese kaiju movies. It is interesting to note that Gorgo really features two scales: what we find out to be the infant Gorgo is about thirty feet tall and there are sets scaled to him and then there is the more traditionally gigantic scale for mama Gorgo.
The creature design is pretty unimaginative, Gorgo is typical of the upright vaguely saurian monsters we have seen a million times in giant monster cinema. Gorgo has some little finlike appendages on either side of her head that highlight her aquatic roots and give her a bit of a Nessy vibe. I'm surprised they didn't try to tie her more into the many legends of lake monsters that spring from Great Britain. She also has some big mitt-like hands, unlike the rather fine pianist fingers of Godzilla.
SEQUELS
None.
MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT
This movie gets the Golden Meh Award.
HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY
On DVD, and available on Netflix.
TRAILER
Compared to the contemporary Japanese giant monster movies, the effects in Gorgo are pretty crude. This is particularly true of the minature work, which lacks the detail of the Japanese kaiju movies. It is interesting to note that Gorgo really features two scales: what we find out to be the infant Gorgo is about thirty feet tall and there are sets scaled to him and then there is the more traditionally gigantic scale for mama Gorgo.
The creature design is pretty unimaginative, Gorgo is typical of the upright vaguely saurian monsters we have seen a million times in giant monster cinema. Gorgo has some little finlike appendages on either side of her head that highlight her aquatic roots and give her a bit of a Nessy vibe. I'm surprised they didn't try to tie her more into the many legends of lake monsters that spring from Great Britain. She also has some big mitt-like hands, unlike the rather fine pianist fingers of Godzilla.
SEQUELS
None.
MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT
This movie gets the Golden Meh Award.
HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY
On DVD, and available on Netflix.
TRAILER
Patrick Garone
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