Directed by Eugène Lourié, starring Bill Travers, William (2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY) Sylvester, Vincent Winter, Christopher Rhodes, Martin (THE 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER) Benson and Joseph (THE GORGON) O’Conor. A King Brothers production.
Captain Joe Ryan (Travers), his First Officer buddy Sam Slade (Sylvester) and his crew discover and capture a gigantic prehistoric creature off the coast of Ireland after an underwater earthquake releases it.
Accompanied by an orphan called Sean (Winter), Joe and Sam take the large beast to London, where it is put on public display. But then… the critter’s even bigger mother arrives and demolishes the capital city in search of her offspring!
From the director of THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953) and BEHEMOTH THE SEA MONSTER (1959), this giant monster movie stands out for several reasons.
Firstly, the film really makes an effort to show the effects of the parent creature’s attack on the inhabitants of the city, with the streets jammed with fleeing crowds, many of whom are engulfed in falling masonry.
Secondly, the central idea of the story is really cool: Gorgo, the monster on show at a London circus, is only an infant… and its huge mother goes on the rampage to save the youngster!
In fact, it was such a good idea the story was ‘borrowed’ for the Japanese film GAPPA THE TRIPHIBIAN MONSTER (1967).
Momma Gorgo gets to wreck such famous landmarks as Big Ben, Piccadilly Circus and Tower Bridge, plus a rollercoaster and a Royal Navy frigate.
This colourful creature feature eschews the need for a tacked-on love interest subplot, and the movie finishes with a happy ending… for the monsters! Hooray!
Check out some Gorgo-tastic posters…
Here’s an example of original poster artwork by Joseph Smith for GORGO. Joseph did another concept for the film that was actually used on all the posters, but he personally considered this design to be far superior…
Francisco Fernández Zarza (aka Jano) created this gouache and tempera rendition of the Gorgo monster… making the critter look just like Japanese kaiju turtle-beast Gamera! It is a nicely painted poster, nonetheless…
The GORGO pressbook…
The cover for issue #11 of Famous Monsters of Filmland…
Some covers and interior art for the Gorgo comic book series from Charlton Comics…
A behind the scenes pic of the monster suit under construction…
Finally, one more look at Britain’s finest kaiju…
Monster Zone 
A number of films besides Gappa have borrowed Gorgo’s premise: “The Sentry”, an episode of Kolchak: the Night Stalker, (About a giant subterranean reptile) the 1998 TV movie “Gargantua”, (About giant sea amphibians).
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There was a baby & mum shark in JAWS 3 too.
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