ALL SCI-FI

[Bogmeister]

First there was... The Giant Behemoth (1959); then there was... Gorgo!

I just watched this one a couple of nights ago (again - I've seen it several times before). I opened up a DVD which was released not too long ago, to see the quality; the picture quality still wasn't all that super - I get the feeling that only mediocre prints exist for this one. This is the British Godzilla/Beast From 20,000 Fathoms.

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The plot is simple: a prehistoric-type creature rises out of the sea at a small fishing village and ends up getting captured (the capture is unreal - a fishing boat somehow nets the monster, even though it's like 60 ft long and maybe 20 tons). The creature is taken to London as a sideshow attraction, but soon a 2nd creature rises from the sea - a much larger one. Whoops - goodbye, London.

I've always felt that there was something a bit clearly different in tone about this one from the usual Godzilla pictures and the various USA Big Monster pictures (Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, King Kong, etc.); it was apparent to me what it was during my latest viewing: there were no female characters. The usual expectation in these types of movies is: a male lead, a female lead and perhaps a 2nd male lead, sometimes forming a triangle. Not this time - this stars Bill Travers and William Sylvester (2001) as a couple of not-so-heroic opportunists.

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There's also a little kid character - and he is a little annoying as with most kids in such films. I didn't really understand what was up with him during most of the film; he was fixated on helping the first creature, taking strange risks and behaving foolishly for the most part, even as the message to the audience is that he is wise beyond his years. Then, something happened at the very end - there's a close up shot of the kid staring at the creatures as they wade out to sea and he does indeed look like an old soul; I dunno how the filmmakers managed it but they brought the kid's arc to a satisfying close at the conclusion.



---- London Bridge is Falling Down...... Falling Down..... Falling Down...
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[Bud Brewster]

My God, Bogmeister, is this a post you pasted from the old All Sci-Fi?

If so, I'm ashamed to say I don't remember reading it! I watched this movie with Bulldogtrekker a few months ago from a Stagevu download, and even though the picture wasn't great, we enjoyed it. But the FX weren't very good, even when compared to other movies from the same period.

It's amazing how much FX have changed in the last few decades. Movies like Godzilla are downright embarrassing today when compared to the 1998 Godzilla —



— and the recent Pacific Rim. How could we have been impressed by these movies when they first came out, regardless of the fact that we were just kids?

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bongopete]

Bottom line though is that it STILL has an annoying PEPE character!!!!

Kidding aside, it really does give a logical explanation as to why the creature attacks London. Something most films blow off except with a real flimsy reason (like ancient spawning ground).

[Bud Brewster]

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This is a first rate trailer that really sells the movie well. Makes me want to watch it again — which is the whole point, of course.

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____________________ Gorgo (1961) - Trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

[Rick]

GORGO was the first movie I remember for its TV ads. They ran constantly and were just overwhelmingly exciting.

There was no way I could get to the south side of the Ohio River to see it first-run, which meant waiting and hoping that it would eventually show up at the LeRose Theater. Usually this would be a wait of months for a movie to work its way down to LeRose level — if it ever got there at all.

But fortune smiled and GORGO showed up in my hometown just a few weeks after closing on 4th Street in Louisville.

The excitement in my childhood circle was almost palpable. My friends and I had watched those commercials absolutely goggle-eyed. And I had clipped a stack of newspaper ads from the Louisville papers, some as large as 1/4 page. They showed a huge, fearsome creature being bothered not at all by the feeble weapons on the ground while apparently snapping its teeth at the pesky jets buzzing around its head. We couldn't wait.

So, a troop of us raced to the theater one Saturday afternoon during the summer of 1961. And, despite our enormous expectations, we were thrilled and delighted. Not one of us expressed the tiniest iota of disappointment or criticism. There was no carping about the effects or the kid or anything else.

I'll admit that, at 11 years of age, I had no idea how the monster had been created for the movie. I knew it wasn't stop-motion because I'd already seen KING KONG and MIGHTY JOE YOUNG and THE BLACK SCORPION by then. I knew it wasn't a lizard photographically enlarged.

I don't think it ever even crossed my mind that it might be a man in a suit. Frankly, I don't think I worried about how it was done. It was a movie monster and movies had magic and that was enough.

Today I still love GORGO. It's still vastly entertaining, and there's something so eternally satisfying about the whole 'mother love' aspect of the story.

I know now, of course, how the monster was done. And — Godzilla fans forgive me — I think it's the best man-in-suit giant monster ever. So there.
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Man need not kneel before the angels,
Nor lie in death forever,
But for the weakness of his feeble will.

[Bud Brewster]

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Ah yes, the Gorgo TV ads. Vivid memories, yes indeed.

I too prefer Gorgo's design to that giant reptilian sumo wrestler with a tail. I mean, be honest, folks — which of these really looks better?





And that's not even Gorgo's "good side", so to speak. Gorgo might not match Harryhausen's rhedosaurus in the looks department, but when it comes to terrorizing people in a bathysphere (something they both did . . . and under the same director, too!), good ole' Gorgo had these guys screamin' and wettin' their pants!





And Gorgo had class, too. He didn't just stomp on things with his big clumsy feet — he took things apart in a thoughtful manner, examined each piece carefully, and then ate them with elegant dignity.

Gorgo: The Gentleman's Monster.





The 1961 article in Famous Monsters of Filmland gave me a high opinion of Gorgo (a bit more than it deserved) —


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— and I remember the b&w version of the picture below very vividly.





The fine artwork on the cover did exactly what any good piece of art can do — make something less-than-perfect look like a masterpiece. As much as I may dislike Godzilla, for example, artist Jim Peavy made him look terrific in his own cover painting for Wonder magazine (on the right) years ago, much like the painting on the left does for Gorgo. (I don't know who painted it, though.)





Gorgo's bat-wing ears are a cool touch. He holds those big scary claws the way a velociraptor does, and who doesn't love those guys?





Back in 1961, I remember the tag line in the trailers was, "This . . . is the BIG one!", and I thought it meant something like, "This is the biggest monster ever!" (the usual hyperbole of movie trailers).

I didn't find out until later that "the big one" was the mother, and that Gorgo was actually just relatively big (like, bigger than my Aunt June, my biggest relative, and she was pretty big as aunts go . . . ).





But I like your memories better, Rick, and I'm living vicariously through you and your Monsterkid tales of bus trips with your band of buddies, and theaters that made a national holiday out of movies like this.

I mean . . . damn . . .


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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There are only 17 trivia items on IMDB for this movie, but four of them are fairly interesting.
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The original script had no military action indicated. Director Eugène Lourié argued that gunfire would kill a beast, no matter how big. The King Brothers wanted guns and they got them.

Note from me: Eugène had a good point. The destruction and panic provides enough action without an excess of artillery fire. And that brings us to this next amusing item.

Eugène Lourié later acquired a 35mm print of the movie for private use and cut out all the stock footage military shots.

Note from me: "I TOLD those guys I didn't want the damn military in my movie!"

Scenes in which the baby Gorgo is driven through London were shot on a Sunday morning, which meant hardly anyone was in the streets. This was then explained away by a "TV announcer" who said that people were told to stay indoors.

Note from me: "Attention please! The government has requested that everyone go to church this Sunday. And if you think you see a flatbed truck driving down the street with a dinosaur on it . . . you're hallucinating because of a guilty conscious!"

Although this was a British production, It had its world premiere in Japan in January 1961, nine months before it premiered in Britian.

Note from me: Maybe the producers thought the Japanese would go ape over this Godzilla-like monster and give it a ton of positive press. I wonder what they actually thought of it.
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I learned today that Charlton Comics published 23 issues of a Gorgo comic book with art by Steve Ditko, co-creditor and original illustrator of Spider-Man!

I found copies of all the covers and a few pages (the best of which are shown below), but I couldn't find any complete comics.


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Famous Monsters of Filmland did a nice article about this movie in issue #11. The text can be easily read if you zoom in close enough.

Enjoy!















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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[scotpens]

[Gord Green]

[Bud Brewster]

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I'm sorry, Gord, but in a recent post on another thread I explained how I was impressed by the really good sci-fi movies when I was very young . . . but the ones that were NOT well done failed to impress me.

As I stated in that other post, that's why I have very few "fond favorites" from my youth which disappointed me in later years. Great movies like Forbidden Planet, This Island Earth, and anything by Harryhausen had the qualities I yearned for and recognized . . . even when I was a kid.

Other movies which lacked these qualities were obviously inferior to me . . . again, even when I was a kid.

In short, I was definitely not equally dazzled by everything I went to see just because I was young and easily impressed. I could tell the good from the bad, even back then.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

My recollection of watching sci-fi movies as a kid involved real-time critiquing of the special effects. Comments such as, "Oh, that was so phony!" and "Oh, cool!" flowed as freely as root beer from the snack bar. We got our money's worth even out of the bad ones. Granted, there wasn't much money at stake back then.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Bud Brewster]

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I realize that there are lots of folks who enjoy bad movies when they are unintentionally humorous, but I've never managed to do that. A poorly made film just saddens me because I see it as a missed opportunity to do something inspiring and exciting.

It also bothers me to see fine work done by the actors and the film crew when the producers of the movie have made bad decision which torpedoed the whole project. It irks the hell out me to think that the average movie goer can see the big honkin' flaws in the film when the producer and the director seem blind to them!

Or worse . . . they think we're blind!

I guess I'm a little like a snooty art critic who strolls through a museum, disdainful of the folks who ogle paintings that are "valuable" just because their old and rare and rendered by some famous artist. They're letting someone else tell them what's "good", instead of using their own tastes and their common sense to decide for themselves.

Some think this is a great painting.


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Give me one like this any day!


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

It does seem like too many producers, writers, directors treat their audiences with little respect. As though such movies are beneath their "Orson Welles" immense talents.

They regard the audience as ignorant sheep. To that end they then appeal to the lowest common denominator. Then when the lcd's respond positively, the production people see that as confirmation that their disdain for the project, as well as the fans, is fully warranted.

I have a friend who is an intelligent fellow. However, whenever I try to engage him in a debate about the merits of a particular sci-fi movie or television series, he will only discuss it for a few minutes.

He has said to me when I have pointed out issues I might have with a film or TV show, "Now, now, let's not over think it."

I enjoy a robust debate. It's taken me years to figure out he wants to avoid such discussions. Not sure exactly as to why.

Maybe he's not interested, maybe it produces anxiety (he grew up with a bi-polar mother) because in his childhood home you never disagreed with mama...or else

Bud, that's the fun of coming here to discuss these films or tv shows with you & the rest of the gang.

Sometimes I make a good point in one of my observations.

Sometimes I see the flaw in my thinking, or just that someone else has a different take on an item that causes me to consider the situation from another point of view.

Fun for me, but apparently not for others such as my buddy.