Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

Gorgo Blu-ray Movie Review

Kongzilla.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 29, 2013

One of the sad facts of the history of cinema is that we have many so-called “lost films” that were either never curated properly, suffered from nitrate disintegration or were destroyed through the years either due to tragedy or simple negligence. And yet Gorgo survives. But Gorgo has its own claim to “lost” significance, albeit on a decidedly smaller screen. Fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 know that the television series’ send up of this 1961 science fiction “spectacular” has been one of the harder episodes to find, at least prior to the YouTube generation. Gorgo is one of those films that seems to have been created solely to parody. A hilarious combination of elements from King Kong and Godzilla, Gorgo was the “brainchild” of Eugène Lourié, one of the relatively few Art Directors who matriculated into the world of “real” directing. Lourié’s production design expertise got him plum assignments through the years working with such legends as Jean Renoir and Charlie Chaplin, but his directorial oeuvre was decidedly less prestigious, and included one of Gorgo’s most direct ancestors, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. That film at least had the imprimatur of Ray Harryhausen creating its special effects as well as Warner Brothers distributing it, but Gorgo could barely muster enough clout to proclaim itself a somewhat notorious King Brothers production (albeit with distribution by M-G-M). For those of you who haven’t yet experienced the “joy” of a King Brothers outing, they were an infamously cheap set of producers who did a lot of bargain basement work at Poverty Row’s Monogram Studios before setting out on their putative “own”. (My favorite King Brothers anecdote deals with their little remembered 1943 opus I Escaped From the Gestapo. This was the film that legendary actress Frances Farmer was hired to star in—after her fall from Paramount grace—and the film where she completed only one partial day’s filming before she assaulted her hairdresser and soon spent the rest of the decade in and out of various mental institutions. The King Brothers were so stingy they actually utilized a few seconds of what looks almost like a test shot of Farmer lying in a bed as part of a montage sequence late in the film. Let’s not let even a second or two of celluloid go to waste, even if it’s of an obviously troubled actress who’s now locked away in a psycho ward.) For those of you who love to peruse credits in films, keep your eyes peeled early in Gorgo for one of the first (of many) laughs, as the King Brothers' names are prominently displayed, albeit with a very peculiar addendum appending Maurice's name.

Even the tagline for Gorgo is funny: “Like nothing you’ve ever seen before!”, which strictly speaking might be true if you’ve never been to a movie prior to this one. Gorgo is in fact an incredible hodgepodge of virtually every “giant monster” film that came before it, with a few details changed to avoid copyright lawsuits. Instead of the atomic blast that awakens any number of other quasi-dinosaurs, Gorgo is evidently brought up from the watery depths due to the sudden (and believe me when I say sudden) appearance of a volcano which magically surfaces from the ocean and then just as magically immediately erupts. But much like in King Kong, Gorgo is taken prisoner by some greedy folks out to make a quick buck, and again like the giant ape, Gorgo is thrust into show business against his will, becoming a carnival side show. However, it turns out that Gorgo, despite his immense size, is in fact a tot (so to speak), and the real trouble starts when “Mom” comes looking for him.

There is a certain cadre of rabid Gorgo fans that will no doubt take exception to this less than adulatory review, but the fact is the film is a certain amount of fun if taken in its properly cheesy context. While it takes forever to set up the final destruct-a-thon that is of course the best part of any giant monster movie, the film moves along at a decent enough pace and offers an early glimpse at two actors who would become much better known for other films involving animals, namely Bill Travers from the lion based Born Free and William Sylvester from the monkey filled 2001: A Space Odyssey. Performances are about what you’d expect, overly serious and filled with portentous dialogue, but then again, no one is probably coming to Gorgo expecting Harold Pinter or Noel Coward.

The film’s special effects are frankly pretty laughable, which perhaps will make some wonder about the pull quote from Leonard Maltin lauding them on the Blu-ray’s cover. Perhaps Mr. Maltin was under the influence of some mind altering drug when he reviewed Gorgo, an “enhancement” I personally wouldn’t recommend against if one wanted to truly get into the spirit of this goofy offering. Mr. Maltin is rather hilariously on display in the MST3K episode linked above, defending the film while admitting that two of his assistants were placed in intensive care after having watched Gorgo, a reaction my hunch is the vast swath of the viewing public which may not be overly enamored of men in rubber dinosaur suits may share.

Gorgo Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Gorgo is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of VCI Entertainment with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. There are two criteria by which Gorgo should be measured, The first of these is how good the film looks compared to previous shoddy home video releases or even broadcast prints, and in that regard the answer is rather spectacular. The restoration demonstration shows that the film has undergone some significant color timing improvement (water is no longer pea green) as well as a deepening of contrast, which helps the many fog enshrouded or otherwise dark sequences. However, on a more objective level, one has to admit that Gorgo still looks pretty ragged. The overall image here is fairly soft, though it's obviously been digitally sharpened to the point that there's persistent ringing in more brightly lit scenes. The blue screen work here also reveals its seams, especially around foreground characters' hair, while the rear projection and stock footage just look pretty shoddy overall. While the film has obviously been cleaned of scratches and other debris, the good news is that there doesn't appear to have been any over aggressive DNR applied, since grain is more than evident throughout this presentation, especially in the ubiquitous opticals. Fans of Gorgo will no doubt be thrilled with this upgrade, however minimal it may seem to those who don't have a long history with the film.

Gorgo Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Gorgo features an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 track, though I personally could not detect any real stereo separation and am thus assuming that this is simply a mono track pumped out over two channels (any definitive word to the contrary would be appreciated and I am happy to update the review). There's some persistent distortion in the upper midrange of this track which is especially apparent in some of the music cues (strangely, it's noticeably largely absent from the music only track). Otherwise, though, this sounds fairly spry, if awfully boxy. A decided lack of fullness on the low end keeps Gorgo's rampage (not mention dear old Mom's) sounding perhaps a bit less visceral than some might have hoped. Dialogue is clear for the most part, though it's occasionally obscured by effects.

Gorgo Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Original Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:29)


• Gorgo The Monster From the Sea! Video Comic (1080p; 34:02) is a kind of unusual presentation in that it doesn't offer pages per se, but moves through the comic with close-ups of various cels, etc., so have your pause button handy on your remote if you actually want to read it.


• Lobby Card and Poster Gallery (1080p; 5:41) is another kind of strangely presented supplement, with the various art pieces scrolling by horizontally, instead of stills of them that can be viewed and then chapter skipped through sequentially. They're also presented from a kind of peculiar perspective that looks at many of them from the side, making the lobby cards for examples trapezoids rather than rectangles.


• Toys and Collectables (1080p; 2:57) does the same thing as the Poster Gallery, with pictures of the various toys flitting by, sometimes superimposed over each other.


• Ninth Wonder of the World – The Making of Gorgo (1080p; 31:08) is probably the best supplement in this package, a very nicely done documentary detailing the background of the film filled with probably unintentionally humorous comments by a glut of Gorgo experts.


• Pressbook Gallery (1080p; 1:51) does the same thing as the Poster Gallery and Toys Gallery, with images scrolling horizontally.


• Original Production Notes (1080p; 2:05) is more of the same, only even more peculiar, in that the overlapping way the pages are presented hides some of the content.


• Stars Cine Cosmo "Fumetto" Comic (1080p; 40:41) is a French comic which is presented in much the same way as the American comic above is, so have your pause button handy again (but only if you read French).


• Photo Gallery (1080p; 2:12). You know the drill—horizontal scrolling.


• Restoration Video – Before and After (1080p; 2:52) shows a split screen offering before and after versions of several scenes. There was substantial color correction and contrast improvement done as well as some fairly vigorous clean up.


• Optional Music and Effects Track

Gorgo Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fans of Gorgo (and they are legion) will rejoice that this Blu-ray offers the best looking edition of this film ever seen on home video, which may be a backhanded compliment. Probably the best thing about this release is the excellent supplementary package, which is really pretty impressive (at least by the usually modest VCI standards). Lovers of giant monster movies will probably get a bigger kick out of either King Kong or Godzilla than they will from Gorgo, but the film still has a certain cheeky allure that will appeal to lovers of low rent cheese-fests.