Gog - Space Station U.S.A.

I was perhaps seven or eight years old when I saw "Gog" in the 1950s. The story was only somewhat comprehensible to me; although I understood that the laboratory was some type of research facility, it was unclear to me why things were going haywire. The jet flying overhead was a mystery: where did it come from, who was in it, and what was it doing?

The scientific devices were fun to watch, especially the "ray" weapon. Being unable to grasp the concept of sabotage, I didn't appreciate why the device was not operating as designed. But what had the biggest effect on me was the action of the robots. Their running amok in the lab scared me to death. Maybe I picked up on the terror of the lab's occupants.

The combination of confusion and fear made watching the movie (on TV) unpleasant but fascinating. It would be fun to see "Gog" now, knowing what I do about the plot, the actors, and the Cold War era in which it was made.

In my opinion this is one of the best films made by Ivan Tors. Tors created "Science Fiction Theater" for TV and made several SciFi films (like The Magnetic Monster) before this genre was really popular. He brought real science to the screen in plots that may seem dated today but afterall, it was 1954. In GOG, Tors brings in then brand new inventions such as jets, computers, robots, high frequency sound, cryogenics, sunlight as a weapon, electronic surveillance, atomic power and even man-made satellites (which would not become reality for 3 more years). To an audience unfamiliar with such things, it was exiting and scary. Especially scary when you were made to think such super weapons were under the control of a foreign power. The Korean War had just ended and the USSR was making aggressive comments about atomic war with us. This movie gave me nightmares for quite awhile.

-BullMoose

Saw this film when I was about 10 years old. I loved Sci-Fi movies so naturally saw this one. But something was different. There was some unusually tense undercurrent in the story. Actually scared me. Years later I realized the nervous tension was due to the underlying theme of the 'cold war'. The Cold War was very real back in the 50's and as a kid you would hear, now and then, things that would scare the pants off of you. What came first? The chicken or the egg? Was this a sci-fi flick that used the cold war tension or was it overwhelmed by the omnipresent tensions of said war? Don't know but it scare the heck out of me back then.

"The Return of Gog" - sounds good doesn't it? Shot in 3-D, but unseen in that format for 50 years, GOG hit the big screen at the Hollywood Egyptian last weekend as part of a 3-D film festival. After its premiere in Hollywood, UA decided NOT to release GOG nationally in 3-D, setting the stage for a film which has been more read about than seen properly for decades. For, once its theatrical (non 3-D) release was completed, the film apparently was sold to TV in B&W prints which further robbed the film of its production lustre. Only in the last few years did a color print show up courtesy of Turner Television. And, now, a 3-D dual print (complete with intermission to change reels!) has been unearthed.

Sounds exciting?

Unfortunately, all this buildup is for a small, talky B-picture. It IS refreshing to look back at a time when SF films weren't just glorified Chase/Action films (ie: T3), but GOG is mostly banal. Still, there's a lot of gadgetry, political intrigue and genuine science (!) packed into its brief running time. The unseen enemy behind it all is clearly the old Soviet Union, setting the film apart from so many films which depict the science itself as evil or suspect.

Director Herbert Strock was there along with Joe Dante and Leonard Maltin. Dante interviewed Strock, who was still spry and proud of his film. Ironically, Strock (like Andre De Toth) has monocular vision and couldn't guage the 3-D effects himself. Indeed, Strock's decision to keep garish 3-D effects to a minimum also may have contributed to the studio's decision to forego a costly 3-D release. And even Strock was amused at a line in the film where someone is hospitalized by an overdose, "It was only a little radiation!"

There's a saboteur afoot at a secret government facility in the desert; a professor from the Office of Scientific Investigation and a female agent seek answers to the malfunctions which have resulted in the deaths of top scientists. Producer Ivan Tors, who also gets an original story credit, loved mixing science-fiction with science-fact, but perhaps gets too carried away here with his love of teaching science (the tour of the facility's many laboratories constitutes nearly half the film's running-time). While the exhibitions and scientific theories are certainly interesting, the technical jargon becomes monotonous. Nicely-produced on a low budget, and with some suspense near the finale, but--as a thriller in the sci-fi genre--it lacks a good old-fashioned charge of excitement. ** from ****