GOG

US, 1954, 85 minutes, Colour.
Richard Egan, Constance Dowling, Herbert Marshall.
Directed by Herbert L. Strock.

Gog was made in 1954, three years before the Russians put the Sputnik into space and even more years before astronauts. It is an interesting film insofar as it shows imagination in the mid-1950s about the possibilities for space exploration and the technology needed. The dialogue of the film includes discussions about jet fighters, computers, it has special robots, talks about high frequency sound and its effect, cryogenics of pilots going into space, electronic surveillance and satellites.

This kind of work was going on in the United States at the time but was not known to the public. It reminds us that this was the kind of preparation needed for many years, especially before the moon walk of 1969.

However, for dramatic purposes, and in the spirit of the Cold War, an enemy jet plane is flying over the installation in the United States and sabotaging all the experiments. This leads to some dramatic tension along with the detailed tour of the facility and the scientific explanations of what is going on and the demonstrations of the experiments.

Richard Egan was a solid, stolid hero. Constance Downling gives strong support as the assistant and a security officer. Veteran Herbert Marshall is the senior scientist.

The film was directed by Herbert L. Strock, best known for his television work and for such small-budget films as I Was a Teenage Frankenstein. The film was produced by Ivan Tours who specialised in science fiction features.

1.A film of 1954? Space exploration? Technological experimentation? Security and the Cold War?

2.The use of Technicolor (and the original 3-D)? The aerial sequences and the poor special effects for the jet? The good effects for the experiments in the laboratory? The detail of the laboratory and the explanations?

3.The title, the biblical references to the enemies Gog and Magog (the Book of Revelation, the prophet Ezekiel)?

4.The installation, the scientists and their skills, their personalities? The range of experimentations on the different floors? The atomic experimentation? The preparation for building the space station? The diagram of the building?

5.Doctor Van Ness and his work, the other scientists, their egos? The fact that they were being killed and their work sabotaged? The opening with the experiment in freezing, the monkey, the scientists then trapped in the freezing room and dying?

6.The arrival of David Sheppard, his friendship with Joanna Merrett, their touring the facility? Checking security? The information about the sabotage in the freezing room? The experiment with centrifugal force? The data being made available? The sun shields and their being manipulated? The reasons given, electronic and radio signals?

7.The detail of the work in the facility? The detail of the examination? The possibilities for sabotage within? The deaths of the various scientists?

8.The central brain, its being interfered with? The robots – and the attraction to body heat, attempting to kill David and Joanna, Doctor Van Ness?

9.The atomic reactor, the danger that it was being turned on, fusion? Being turned off just in time?

10.The jet, its being shot down by the American forces?

11.The resolution of the problems? The body count? The sabotaging of progress? Doctor Van Ness and the model space station – and his assuring the secretary of state that it would be sent into space?

12.A visionary kind of small-budget feature of the mid-1950s?