Movie Review: Gog (1954)

Synopsis: After two scientists are killed at a top-secret underground lab building a space station, Dr. David Sheppard is called in to investigate and catch a potential saboteur. After more researchers are killed via clear acts of murder, Sheppard begins to suspect the lab's supercomputer, NOVAC, is behind the deaths with the help from the two robots it controls, Gog and Magog, and must find a way to stop it before it destroys the entire lab.

Who's in it? The movie stars Richard Egan, Constance Dowling, Herbert Marshall, Valerie Vernon and John Wengraf.

Review: I've had Gog in my movie library for longer than I can remember but never got around to watching it until this morning. I honestly didn't have much for expectations when it came to this film, but it turned out to be a good choice.

The movie takes a little while to get going, with the early focus being a tour of the underground lab and introducing Dr. Sheppard (Egan) to the various characters while giving him a chance to rekindle romantic feelings for his tour guide, Joanna (Dowling). Once it does finally reach a point where stuff is happening, it becomes an entertaining film.

One of the things I liked best about this film was the mystery surrounding the deaths. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out NOVAC (Nuclear Operative Variable Automatic Computer) was causing the deaths using the two robots. However, it was unclear if the computer had developed some sort of artificial intelligence, if it was being controlled by its creator and caretaker, Dr. Zeitman (Wengraf), or if there was some other person controlling it. 

I am also going to give the movie some credit for creativity as far as the deaths are concerned. Films from this era tend to be very basic when it comes to murder, gunshot, strangulation, etc. This film managed to have quite a bit of variety that included everything from radiation poisoning, death via a centrifuge and even using the sun and a mirror to create a ray gun.

The final battle was also pretty intense with Sheppard and Joanna trying to stop both robots from blowing up the lab. I did, however, also find it a little funny the entire laboratory could be blown up simply by removing one safety rod that had virtually no security (or even a padlock) protecting it. It was as though the lab was designed by the same people who built the Death Star in Star Wars.

I thought the end of the movie was also decent. A lot of films like this tend to leave loose ends but the movie did a good job summarizing what happened and how while throwing in a not-so-subtle message about the importance of putting satellites in space. In other words, it brought decent closure to a good science fiction film.

Final Opinion: This is a surprisingly good science fiction film that proved to be more entertaining than I was expecting. I'd recommend watching it.

My Grade: A

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