Michael_Elliott 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.

felixoteiza Gorgo is the one flick I've seen in my life that impressed me so much when watching it in a theater that I couldn't wait to get home to put the whole plot down on paper. True, I was only 11 at the time but already, I think, with enough vision to realize that I had just seen a great movie. One more of those little masterpieces the U.K. was bringing out at the time as buns from a hot oven, and one more that has been widely ignored by the public for half a century, only because of the badmouthing they received when they came out.Gorgo has been derisively referred to as an unoriginal spin off of the Japanese monster flicks of the 50s--Godzilla with fish & chips--and lost and buried in this name calling is the fact that this is a movie that can perfectly stand by itself. And while inspired on Godzilla, even trying to capitalize on it, it is quite superior to it. For starters, the acting is appropriate, which is good considering that the star here is a mountain size monster coming from the depths of the sea. Nowhere you'll see in Gorgo the overacting that had become a staple of Nipon monster flicks of the era, as if their producers would have feared that they didn't have enough FX to scare the public and they needed on top of that the actors themselves infected them with their panic. Of course the final effect of all this hamming up was the opposite, as Western audiences disregarded them as unfit for mature audiences and classified them as simple camp with cheese special effects, more fit to have fun at their expenses than to be taken seriously. Gorgo on the other hand comes out as a pretty mature movie, one that I have no qualms recommending to adults; they may not like it as I did but one sure thing is that they won't come back at my criticizing me for making them lose 76 min. of their lives watching a kiddie flick. One movie also with a far deeper and more vast philosophical meaning than all other monster flicks of the time. As the closing words put it so well, the presence of Gorgo in one of the centers of global power, tearing it apart, should serve us as a stark reminder that we men are NOT the kings of Creation.Speaking of which, one other thing going for Gorgo is the nature and identity of what he destroys. All great disasters in History, like the Hindenburg, the Challenger, the Titanic, etc, have one thing in common which makes them so awesome and compelling: they contain an element of hubris. We feel, when watching them unfold, that there's something, a supreme force or will teaching the powerful of this Earth a stark lesson in humility. That' s why a monster destroying Tokyo will never have the same effect on us so Godzilla can't win: either we won't take the flick seriously, as most of us do, or if taken by it we'll feel sorry for the victims, because we are to much used to see the Japanese, specially the civilians, as victims more than oppressors because of all we know of their History, their natural disasters, so there is no joy in watching them suffer. On the other hand I felt myself some kind of mischievous joy watching Gorgo tearing apart The British Parliament, the Tower Bridge and other London landmarks—though he wisely stays clear out of Downing 10 and the Buckingham Palace!.Surprisingly enough, the most important "human factor" or emotion, or feeling in the movie doesn't come from any human, but from the monster itself. Which brings us to the plot: some volcanic activity in the Earth crust offshore Ireland opens up some ways in the depths of the ocean through which a 50 feet tall monster comes out and harasses a small fishing village until he is trapped. Some shady impresario comes up then and, instead of letting the two protagonists send the beast to be studied by scientists, convince them to take it to London to make money out of it. Everything seems to be gong OK for the show business until scientists realize that this beast is just a baby, the kid of a mom monster who must be looking for him right now and that must be about 300 feet tall. There is where the fun begins. Tightly directed, impeccably edited. Great cinematography and camera work, with abundant use of color--they really milked the scenery in that Irish fishing village. Superb use of backgrounds all along, of light and shadows, of mist, smoke, fire and every other visual element possible; this is a rare movie where I spent the time watching the background as much as I did the action in front of the camera. A pace that never lets up, not a slow moment in the entire film but that really picks up at the 50 min. mark and becomes frantic the last 20 minutes, in which so many things happen as in a 2 hrs. movie. A score and sound effects that complement the whole, down to the evocative piece of the end. So, never mind Gorgo is just a guy in a rubber suit destroying small scale sets, buildings, power towers, bridges.Just suspend your disbelief for a mere 76 min. of your life and you won't regret the experience. 8/10..

gigan-92 Who can forget this gem from the good old 60s? The British answer to Godzilla, this film is by no means original but tremendously fun. The score by Angelo Lavagnino is pretty awesome and the lighting is really well done. And if you're a monster movie nut like me you'll notice Gorgo's design seems to really have inspired the look of the Toho monster Titanosaurus from 1975's "Terror of MechaGodzilla". Gorgo has the better roar as you know, but enough about that.The plot doesn't waste time and zooms by at a pace anyone can appreciate. In some monster movies, especially early Gamera, there's always a sadistic need to have a kid who sympathizes with the beast, my only real complaint but at least it's not overly cheesy with it…wait..cheesy? What am I saying; the name of the movie is Gorgo! Definitely check this one out for a trip down memory lane.

Coventry 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.