These notes were provided by the inimitable Glenn Erickson, of Wtf-Film favorite DVD Savant, for inclusion with a now defunct DVD review of Gorgo. The original review may be gone, but Glenn’s notes remain. An updated review can be found here.
You’ve prompted me to unload my brain on the subject of GORGO. Here goes:
I “experienced” GORGO as a 9 year old kid living on an air base in Hawaii. The TV spots were so glorious that I asked my parents to take me downtown to see it (downtown Honolulu, off the base). They dropped me off, thinking I was experienced enough to know ‘what to do”, as I’d been going to the base theater for over a year already, by myself.
Mom deposited me in the crowd after buying my ticket and finding out when the movie would be finished … I entered with a MOB of people. In those days everyone just went into the movie when they felt like it — right in the middle — and exited when they caught up with the story. I came in just when Gorgo Jr. was being paraded through London. The movie was half over. I watched the rest of it in a trance; it was the greatest thing I’d ever seen. I identified with the little kid staring up at the giant mother 1,000%, and cheered when the monsters prevailed and went back to the ocean. Perfect ending!
When the movie was over I got scared, because the Air Base theater showed only one film at a time and then cleared the house. (I’d stayed for a second showing of THE TIME MACHINE by scrunching up in my front-row seat and not being noticed). I was also terrified of breaking rules, so when an usher got mad at some kids for acting up I panicked and left the theater.
That meant that I had to stand on the sidewalk in front of the theater for more than three hours, staring at the posters for GORGO and CALTIKI THE IMMORTAL MONSTER, realizing that I’d cheated myself. It also wasn’t the best part of town. It was packed with all kinds of people that looked strange (presumably, Japanese and Filipino- Americans), so I sort of cringed. Nobody bothered me in the slightest.
When my parents finally found me I cried. Another childhood tragedy!
GORGO played a few months later at the base theater and I saw the whole thing. It became my instant favorite movie. What’s missing today is the impact of the Technicolor prints with the Freddie Young cinematography. The night scenes were incredible and many of the effects that worked (as opposed to the real loser shots) were photo-real — you mention them in your review. The brief shot of Gorgo Sr. and Big Ben with that giant sky was astonishing, with about eight colors of red and purple in those clouds of smoke. On a big screen, when Gorgo’s head came out of the water and the camera zoomed in, you thought the thing was eating you!
I saw it a lot on TV in the later 1960s, mostly in B&W. In 1975 FILMEX showed it at midnight and it was the third and last time I saw a 35mm Technicolor print … devastating. The movie has a BIG, big feel, powerful music and strong emotions.
After cutting short versions on video, I realized several things about the movie. I think that the King Brothers had a serious financial disaster in mid-shoot. They filmed their location stuff in Ireland and built those giant miniature sets for London. (I was a clerk in the miniature shop for 1941 and we studied GORGO in old issues of American Cinematographer.) But something went wrong and they couldn’t finish the live action. There are indications that perhaps two reels of material are missing. What could it be. I’ve imagined scenes with the circus and the Irish scientist, or perhaps some not-so-good subplot about young Sean’s status as an adopted stowaway (as opposed to Gorgo Jr’s status as a kidnapped monster). Sam’s alcoholism comes on pretty quickly, too. Either this stuff wasn’t filmed, or it wasn’t any good.
William Sylvester and Bill Travers were known liberals, and the screenwriters worked under pseudonyms. That makes us wonder if GORGO’s script originally had a more overt pro-ecology, anti-free enterprise slant (those are the general themes) and whether scenes were slashed to get rid of gabby dialogue.
Welcome savior Eric Boyd-Perkins, editor (look up his impressive credits). Perkins really makes the London panic scenes swing with radical (for 1960) editing, Eisenstein cutting patterns that evoke the THINGS TO COME air raid scene. Look closely and you’ll see the footage multiplied by repeating shots and then flopping some shots and repeating them again — watch the posters on the buses. The height of the ‘stampede’ scene turns into a expressionistic blur of hysteria … as a little kid, I felt the Flight Reflex kicking in.
Of course, like INVADERS FROM MARS, the movie suffers by having too much indifferent stock footage, although it’s cut well. Today they could probably work over the scratchy, color – challenged stock shots and make them look good. Perkins cuts them for maximum impact and great sound effects do the rest — somebody really cared. We Air Force kids always cheered whenever jet planes where shown saving the day, so we went nuts when the jets fired up and took off to a really terrific “Tally Ho” music cue (not part of the Lavagnino score, it appears). Some of the rapid fire cutting indicating the air cannon shooting is as effective as similar cuts in APOCALYPSE NOW.
Most of the editorial tricks speed up the pace, making GORGO finish in record time — 74 minutes is great for multiple daily shows but barely as long as a Roger Corman quickie. Up front, Boyd-Perkins extends things. While the salvage ship watches the sea boil, Sam is scuba diving below. His two dives are really one .. watch the positions of actors and you’ll see that his exit from the water up front, originally belongs after the dive. This stretches out the suspense and makes it seem like more is happening before the underwater explosion.
Yes, some of the effects are pretty weak. I’d love to have all the film elements available to re-compose shots and replace ridiculous matte paintings — like the dockside circus shot with the painted, static bandleader — with decent shots. Even more effective (and still possible, if someone wanted to do it) would be to improve the effects when all those shell explosions – double exposed white patterns – flash around Gorgo senior. The explosions flash, but no light falls on the monster. What the effect needs for each blast is a “lighting kick” painted onto Gorgo’s hide.
Turner says it no longer has a Technicolor 35mm print, which perhaps explains why the American Cinematheque has never shown the film. Its status as a PD item or owned by somebody is also not clear. I wish someone would claim it, establish copyright and properly restore it.
A big thanks to Glenn for sharing his experiences and insights – Wtf-Film certainly wishes he’d been able to see Gorgo on the big screen as a child.
