A perennial favorite on Saturday-afternoon TV for decades, this decidedly Western riff on the Kaiju genre was helmed by Eugene Lourie - a man who knows a thing or two about rampaging sea creatures, having treated us to THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS and THE GIANT BEHEMOTH, among others. Eschewing stop-motion beasties in favor of the Japanese approach, Lourie's sweeping MGM Technicolor epic GORGO sits comfortably among the pantheon of sweaty guys in latex monster rigs stepping on model tanks and styrofoam buildings, and makes its second arrival on DVD in a fancy-pants remastered "Widescreen Destruction Edition," which nicely showcases this kooky carnival of monster mayhem.

William Sylvester (later immortalized as Dr. Heywood Floyd in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY) and Bill Travers star as a pair of mercenary old salts on a deep-sea salvage mission off the coast of Ireland, who narrowly avoid a trip to Davy Jones' locker after a massive undersea disturbance nearly capsizes their vessel and sends the corpses of several goofy-looking mutant fish to the surface. The men head for the relative safety of a quaint little island community, where the surly locals wear dingy sweaters and yammer angrily in Gaelic, and the harbormaster is none too pleased about their unannounced arrival: seems the old chap doesn't like visitors nosing about while his divers plunder ancient treasure from a Viking shipwreck nearby. Worse, there are reports of a giant sea creature shuffling about - a beast so horrifying, it causes one of the divers to die of fright.

It's only a matter of time before the monster - a 30-foot bipedal sea dragon with glowing red eyes, sharp teeth and cute floppy ears - emerges from its undersea lair to check out the beach and stomp the crap out of some yowling guys in wooly caps. Its first rampage is narrowly averted by a hail of flying torches, which doesn't so much harm the beast as annoy the hell out of it; its final screeching roar before plunging beneath the waves has a certain "I'll be back" tone.

Our opportunistic pals dream up the perfect scheme: in exchange for a few trinkets from the harbormaster's stash, they offer their high-tech (for 1961, anyway) salvage services in capturing the beast and saving the island. The added bonus is the chance to make a tidy fortune back in London for bringing the highly exploitable specimen back alive. (Obviously our heroes failed to screen KING KONG before undertaking this venture, or they would have realized that this is a really damn stupid idea.) The locals grudgingly agree - except for Sean (Vincent Winter), a Dickensian little urchin who believes the creature means no harm.

The first part of their plan succeeds (except for the people who get crushed to a pulp in the process), and the creature - dubbed Gorgo by the British press - is eventually put on display at a garish circus attraction owned by the unfortunately-named entrepreneur Dorkin (Martin Benson). Gorgo's pathetic wailing and stomping about in his electrified corral is seen by the punters as nothing short of charming, but is pretty distressful to Sean, who stowed away on the ship transporting Gorgo and is determined to set him free. Unfortunately for the general populace, no one pays attention to kids in monster movies (except in Japan, where they pay far TOO much attention to them). This inability to see through a child's intuitive eyes usually results in thousands of deaths, and this story is no exception.

Back at Gorgo's home turf, the island is virtually flattened by a similar but considerably larger creature. Turns out our captive monster is a mere hatchling, and his mommy is really pissed that he's been kidnapped. A blathering scientist helpfully illustrates the huge pile of doo-doo they're all in by opening a coffee-table-sized book with a picture of a dinosaur-like skeleton, then stabbing his finger dramatically at the sketch of a creature ten times larger, declaring: "The infant... the ADULT!" Whooooo.

If anything, the dimensions in that book were a bit understated, as the arriving parental unit is tall enough to slap the top off Big Ben tower - which, to no one's surprise (except the screaming cast of thousands), she does almost immediately, as well as taking out numerous other touristy landmarks while overturning the town in search of her offspring. To this end, despite the usual stock footage (something the director reportedly fought against) and wonky process shots, we mainly get to see some really cool model-stomping mayhem courtesy of Oscar-winning FX guru Tom Howard (who also did miniatures for 2001). The destruction escalates as the cranky gargantua thwarts every attempt to take her out (cannons, missiles, pointy sticks, warm beer, kidney pies, etc.) before she makes her way for the circus where little Gorgo is crying his huge glowing red eyes out. Legions die, historic edifices are razed to dust, families are torn asunder, and pubs close early. The End.

VCI improves on their previous release of GORGO with this special edition: the remastered image is sharper, and colors are much brighter than ever, through the 1.85:1 cropping seems a bit restrictive at top and bottom. The digital 5.1 surround track is beefy, and effects are used well, with special attention given to the monsters' ear-splitting roars and screeches, as well as the rich, oddly pastoral score by Angelo Lavagnino.

The entertaining (if a bit noisy) animated menus feature newly-created footage of Gorgo slam-dancing through London, and access a variety of lightweight extra features, including a brief documentary chronicling Lourie's monster-movie career, a flashy but sparse photo gallery, a rather beat-up theatrical trailer, a host of other trailers for various VCI releases, and cast & crew bios (unfortunately containing a few glaring factual errors) that self-scroll after a few seconds, which might lead one to believe the up/down arrows aren't working. Flaws aside, it's a garish and colorful package that captures the film's carnival atmosphere... and what the hell, it's only ten bucks.