Gog


Release date(s) June 5, 1954

Running time 	85 min.

Distributed by 	United Artists

Directed by 	Herbert L. Strock

Produced by 	Ivan Tors

Written by 	Tom Taggart (screenplay)
                Ivan Tors (story)
                Richard G. Taylor (dialogue)

Starring 	Richard Egan
                Constance Dowling
                Herbert Marshall

Gog is a 1954 science fiction film directed by Herbert L. Strock and released in 1954 by United Artists. It is notable for having been shot in color, widescreen and 3-D. It stars Richard Egan, Constance Dowling, and Herbert Marshall.

It is the third episode in Ivan Tors' Office of Scientific Investigation (OSI) trilogy, following both The Magnetic Monster and Riders to the Stars.

"...and then without warning, the machine became a frankenstein of steel," says the sensationalist poster text. This is the third story in Ivan Tors' OSI trilogy. His first "Office of Scientific Investigation" story was Magnetic Monster in early 1953. The second was Riders to the Stars in early '54. With Gog the loose trilogy is complete. Unlike the Star Wars trilogy in which the stories build upon each other, each of the three OSI stories are separate tales which have nothing to do with each other. The common thread is the idea of there being a sort of Science FBI agency whose job it is, is to check out the scientifically strange. In that regard, Tors' OSI is a bit like a foreshadowing of the X-Files TV series, but without any of the New Age paranormal focus.

In keeping with the previous two stories, Gog is more of a detective murder mystery movie. Tors was a huge fan of "hard" science, not fanciful fiction fluff, so Gog, like the other two movies, is chock full of reveling in sciencey stuff in an almost geeky way. This reverence for real science keeps things from getting out on shaky limb, as many sci-fi films to. The events are much more plausible, less fantastic. 

Unaccountable, deadly malfunctions begin occurring at a top-secret government facility under the New Mexico desert where a space station is being constructed. OSI agents are called in to investigate.

Laboratory supervisor Dr. Van Ness calls in Dr. David Sheppard, a security agent from the Office of Scientific Investigation in Washington, DC, to find the cause of the mysterious deaths. Working with Joanna Merritt, an OSI agent already at the facility, Sheppard determines that the deaths among the lab's 150 top scientists are due to deliberate sabotage of NOVAC (Nuclear Operative Variable Automatic Computer), a central computer which controls all equipment in the underground facility.

But it is harder to determine how the sabotage is being done. The unseen enemy strikes again and again, snuffing out six scientists in quick succession, as well as Major Howard, the complex's Chief of Security.

Eventually, Sheppard determines that a powerful radio transmitter and receiver were secretly built into NOVAC during its construction. An enemy plane whose fiberglass body does not register on radar has been flying overhead, beaming precisely focused, ultra-high frequency radio signals, thereby controlling NOVAC's every function. The computer, in turn, controls Gog and Magog— 2 mobile robots with powerful gripping tools and other implements.

Magog is finally directed to go to the complex's nuclear reactor room and pull the safety rod out of the atomic pile, starting a chain reaction that will soon build to a nuclear explosion, which will destroy the entire facility. Sheppard arrives in time to push the safety rod back into the pile, stopping the chain reaction. He then attacks the robot with a flame thrower and disables it, but Gog soon follows its twin to the reactor room to finish the job. Sheppard's flame thrower runs out of fuel as the robot advances on him. Just when all seems lost, Gog suddenly comes to a halt, its metal arms falling limply to its sides. An American F-86 Sabre jet fighter has finally tracked down the enemy plane and destroyed it, ending NOVAC's reign of destruction.

A few days later, Dr. Van Ness explains the situation to the Secretary of Defense, and informs him that a working model of the space station is about to be launched into orbit. The new station will be equipped with telescopes and television cameras which will spot any further attempts to sabotage the complex in this fashion. The Secretary observes with satisfaction, "We'll never be taken by surprise again!" The film concludes with the successful launch of the rocket containing the working model from the complex.