Gog Movie Review

Sure, Gog doesn't have the cachet of Godzilla or Rodin, but it did terrorize my friend Clinton Vidal as an enfant terrible, and he's one of the roughest, toughest guys I know, ROWR! So there. Richard Egan is David Sheppard, Security Agent for something called the Office of Scientific Investigation. At this point, I should mention the number of women in the cast, which is above average for a science-fiction flick of this era. This is probably because the movie was made in 3-D AND Cinecolor, but it does pare down the number of “How can you possibly concentrate on science when you're wearing a bra?” questions which are DE RIGUEUR when there's only one (1) female on the project. However, a significant amount of screen time is devoted to LONG scientific explanations, time that might be better spent on more Sabre Jet action sequences, more close-ups of Novac (Nuclear Operative Variable Automatic Confuser, a poor misunderstood computer), more fights with Gog and his fellow robots, et cetera. Gog is still enjoyable, anyhow. The title alone has resonance, ditto Herbert Marshall as Dr. Van Ness and William Schallert as Engle. They don't entirely compensate for Constance Dowling's unflattering hairstyle as Joanna Merritt (eight years earlier, she was the nasty, cat-like Mavis Marlowe in Black Angel with GREAT hairstyling by Carmen Dirigo!). But Ivan Tors is at the helm here, not Roy William Neill. Having saved the world in 1955, the busy Richard Egan dashed off to Afghanistan in the 1890s to wrangle with Raymond Burr and woo Dawn Addams in Khyber Patrol.

1954 82m/C Richard Egan, Constance Dowling, Herbert Marshall, John Wengraf, Philip Van Zandt, Steve Roberts, Valerie Vernon, Michael Fox, William Schallert, Byron Kane; D: Herbert L. Strock; W: Ivan Tors, Tom Taggart, Richard G. Taylor; C: Lothrop Worth; M: Harry Sukman.