Gorgo (film)

Gorgo is a 1961 film about sailors who capture a giant lizard off the coast of Ireland and sells it to a London circus only to its mother shows up.

Directed by Eugène Lourié. Written by Robert L. Richards.

Neither Bombs, Bullets, Jets or Rockets Can Stop Gorgo...But This Little Boy Knew His Secret! (taglines)

Radio reporter

• Attention. This is a special bulletin. Civil defense authorities have declared a state of emergency for all London areas within three miles of the River Thames.
• Bridge is gone! One of London's oldest landmarks smashed like matchwood! Nothing has stopped this beast so far, nothing!
• Picadilly. The heart of London. Words can't describe it. There's been nothing like it, not even the worst of the Blitz! This section is complete shambles. People running, mad with fear.
• We prayed for a miracle. Maybe our prayers have been answered. A great city, overwhelmed, exhausted, lies helpless under the immeasurable power and ferocity of this towering apparition from before the dawn of history. Yet, as disdaining the pygmies under her feet, she turns back! Turns with her young, leaving the prostrate city, leaving the haunts of man, and leaving man himself to ponder the proud boast that he alone is lord of all creation.

Dialogue

Sam Slade: We might be able to catch it in the nets. But how do you propose to kill a thing like that?

Joe Ryan: Oh, I don't know. Dynamite, maybe?

Sam Slade: Ever stop to think what a thing like that might be worth alive?

---

Professor Flaherty: Captain Ryan. The creature that you have captured is not an adult specimen.

Sam Slade: You mean it isn't fully grown?

Professor Flaherty: No. In fact, we believe it is in rather early infancy.

Sam Slade: You're trying to say there may be a fully grown one of these things around somewhere?

Professor Hendricks: It's a fair assumption. Where there are offspring, there are generally parents.

Joe Ryan: How big would a full-grown one be?

Professor Flaherty: An approximate guess? [He shows them two scale drawings of the creatures] The infant. The adult.

Joe Ryan: That would make it nearly two hundred feet tall!

Professor Flaherty: At the very least.

Professor Hendricks: Obviously, the proper authorities must be notified at once.

Joe Ryan: What are you trying to do? Stir up a whole hornet's nest because of a few calculations made on a piece of paper? Nuts to that!

Professor Flaherty: I'm afraid, Captain Ryan, the decision is no longer in your hands.

Taglines

• Neither Bombs, Bullets, Jets or Rockets Can Stop Gorgo...But This Little Boy Knew His Secret!
• It's Alive!
• Like nothing you've ever seen before!
• This is the Big One!

Cast

• Bill Travers — Captain Joe Ryan
• William Sylvester — Sam Slade
• Vincent Winter — Sean
• Christopher Rhodes — McCartin

External links

• Gorgo (film) quotes at the Internet Movie Database