One of the most satisfying giant monster movies of the 1960s or any decade, Gorgo, is a 1961 joint effort between American, British, and Irish production companies. It was directed by Eugene Lourie, who also helmed one of the best Stateside giant monster pictures, The Beast with 20,000 Fathoms (and one of the stiffest – The Giant Behemoth). Producers the King Brothers had scored a hit in 1957 with Rodan, which they had re-edited and distributed in the United States, and took a few tips from that Ishiro Honda film for their own creature feature. As in Rodan, Gorgo features two monsters with a close connection — the amphibian dinosaur Gorgo is revealed to be the offspring of its much larger mother — which lends some weight and purpose to mom's rampage through London beyond just wreckage (though it's pretty impressive all the same).
Lourie, who also conceived the story with co-scripter Daniel James (an uncredited writer on 20,000 Fathoms), also echoed Rodan by investing equal energy into the monster and human components of the film. The relationship between treasure hunters Bill Travers and William Sylvester and scrappy Irish orphan Vincent Winter (later a production manager and/or assistant director on all three Superman movies with Christopher Reeve) again boosts the picture above the usual smash-and-crash monster material. Charlton Comics later issued a 23-issue series which pitted Gorgo and its mother against a host of equally oversized menaces.
