Gorgo (1961)

Bill Travers does his best Stephen Boyd impersonation here as "Ryan", who leads a gang of scavenging sailors who survive an underwater earthquake that delivers a giant lizard into their hands (or nets). Determined to capitalise on their luck, they do a deal with "Dorkin" (Martin Benson) to exhibit this beastie in London and off they go. Now obviously, they had never read any "Godzilla" stories, because even we know that it's only a matter of time before somebody realises that this is only "Gorgo"-lite. Mummy or Daddy is sooner or later going to get fed up shouting him in for tea and come a-looking. This benefits from having had a surfeit of plasticine and virtually no budget at all for effects, lighting or sound - and so what we are left with is hardly going to keep Ray Harryhausen awake. That said, it's quite an entertaining fantasy adventure that once again illustrates the ability of the military to do far more destruction to the surrounding monuments that these big, bullet-proof, monsters could ever do. It's too long - it takes way too long to get going towards an ending that we all anticipated as the titles rolled, but I did - sneakingly - quite enjoy it.