gog

The technological singularity - a hypothetical moment when artificial intelligence becomes self-aware and destroys all human life just for spite - isn't exactly a new concept. But with each new generation of iPhone and SmartTV the actual act of wiping us out seems to become easier and easier. Just blocking Amazon might send half the population into a depressed suicidal state. Think of how difficult computers had it back in the '50s when their processors took up a few city blocks and were programmed by punch cards. Now that's a challenge!

And that's exactly what a group of plucky scientists are up against in Gog (1954), a cold-war sci-fi thriller set in a secret bunker where the Nuclear Operative Variable Automatic Computer (his friends call him NOVAC) has run amok, sabotaging one experiment after another and leaving a behind a body count of some of the best American minds.

Actually, it turns out that NOVAC is being manipulated. By whom or what is the film's central mystery, but it doesn't take much imagination to sort out the culprit. And to make matters worse, the facility's two robotic bodyguards - Gog and Magog - have fallen under enemy control as well, giving the computer a pair of steely arms with which to wreak even more havoc.

The last chapter in producer Ivan Tors unofficial OSI trilogy (Office of Scientific Intelligence), Gog is an usually colorful piece of '50s science fiction that avoids the alien invader clichés, choosing instead to construct a menace of our own making. But that also means the audience is forced to sit through lots of conversations about exactly how it was made! You'd be hard pressed to find a movie with more buttons and dials and this one. In fact, the opening 10 minutes of the film is nothing more than watching three technicians freeze a monkey in the most uncinematic way possible.

But director Herbert L. Strock has some tricks up his sleeves. The experimental "accidents" including a runaway gyroscope, out of control heat ray and the aforementioned deep freeze are all plenty suspenseful. And it leads up to a big robot vs. flamethrower showdown staged like a snapshot from a 1950's model kit (I mean that in a good way). In short, when Gog isn't rattling off scientific faux pas ("The doctor said you'll be fine, it's just a little too much radiation") or getting lost in its own logic it makes for one hell of a good time.

But a big part of that good time was cut for budgetary reasons. After being shot in 3D, Gog has the misfortune of being released at the tail end of the 3D craze so it was released "flat" to save costs. But Kino Lorber and the 3D Film Archive have restored the film to its original state, giving home viewers with the right equipment a chance to see Gog as it was intended...in stunning 3D! Extras include archival interviews, a restoration comparison and a spot-on audio commentary from sci-fi expert Tom Weaver.