Le robot qui tue

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.

Just picked it up on DVD. This is one of a very few movies that stuck with me from my childhood. Scared the crap out of me when I was 7 years old. Great flick...even now. Part of my childhood is remembered in black and white...from all those B grade science fiction and monster movies I saw on TV and in the theaters. Growing up in NYC, I would be able to catch some of them five to six times a week on Million Dollar Movie...every night at 8 PM and twice on Saturday afternoon. The movie title comes from the bible (Ezekiel 38) and has an end-of-the-world connotation. This flick is a must see for all of us who grew up in the 50'. The other movie that effected me was Spaceship XM-7 (Blood Rust). Gog was especially awesome for its interesting robots, Gog and Magog. They were short and rolled around on hidden wheel. Se this flick...it is a part of American history.

Not a bad little movie, with a touch more suspense than most movies of this type. The names of the two robots that are controlled by.....,well you should see the movie for that, Gog and Magog, comes from the Bible, Rev.20:8. They are the two nations to be led by Satan in the final battle at Armageddon against the kingdom of God. Is Ivan Tors trying to tell us that the Soviet Union is SATAN? Well, it was 1954! Worth the time if you can find it.

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 ****

GOG is quite an extraordinary, obscure film -- it has hardly ever been rerun on any channel, however I was lucky enough to catch it in its entirety [I'd edited it perfectly - without commercials] about 10 years ago on TNT [Turner network] ... in COLOR! I have hung onto this little GEM and view it occasionally and I must say that I still find this movie to be highly enjoyable! I cannot understand why TURNER/MGM/ WARNER has not EVER released this film in ANY format [never on VHS, DVD or LASERDISC] ... with all of the CRAP [old and new] that is being dredged up on a daily basis for video [DVD] releases, the mind boggles as to why so many classic [and decent "B" flix] SCI-FI & HORROR films have still yet to be released [ex: BURN WITCH BURN, DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, KING KONG, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, WORLD WITHOUT END, INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, TARANTULA, ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS, CONQUEROR WORM, THE POWER, ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF, BRIDES OF DRACULA, GAMMA PEOPLE, LAND UNKNOWN, MONOLITH MONSTERS, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, DR CYCLOPS, MOLE PEOPLE, IT CONQUERED THE WORLD, UNINVITED, INNOCENTS, SON OF KONG, MARK OF THE VAMPIRE, EARTH VS THE SPIDER, DEVIL DOLL, BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE, INVISIBLE BOY, TOBOR, etc etc this long list goes on and on ...]! Anyway, GOG is right on the mark [and ahead of its time - 1956] with Cold War conspiracies, Nuclear testing, computer programming, Biblical references [GOG & MAGOG] and it is indeed a well-constructed film with an interesting espionage approach. ANDROMEDA STRAIN was obviously influenced by this film! The acting is downplayed to a rather scientific level, but is good and on par -- you will notice many veteran stock actors within the cast. Most of the previous User Comments in regards to this film are quite accurate and thoughful, and can be blended into a final strong and POSITIVE review. Indeed, SEE IT - ENJOY IT - pray for DVD!