Creature From The Black Lagoon
Apparently, the lagoon gives you soft, pouty lips
Dracula. The Wolfman, Frankenstein's monster (Frankenstein is the
name of the doctor, people). The Mummy. These classic movie monsters
receive lots of love and attention and rightfully so. They've had
countless remakes and adaptations, appeared in video games, comic
books, and products. To this day, people still get dressed up as
these monsters for Halloween. There is one classic monster that
always seems to be left out: The Creature from the Black Lagoon. What
is it about the creature that doesn't put it on the same level as the
others? Is it because the creature doesn't really come from a
well-known novel? Is it a lack of sequels and remakes? Is it because
it doesn't actually have a name? It's certainly not because the movie
is bad.
Creature From The Black Lagoon is a 1954 monster movie starring
Richard Carlson (It Came From Outer Space, The Magnetic Monster) as
Dr. David Reed and Julie Adams (The Rifleman, Maverick) as his
girlfriend, Kay Lawrence. While on an expedition in the Amazon, Dr.
Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno, The Searchers, The Spanish Dancer)
discovers the skeletal remains of an arm that appears to have a
webbed hand. Maia is able to convince his friend Dr. David Reed, an
icthyologist, to aid him in the excavation of the skeleton. They are
joined by David's girlfriend Kay and Dr. Mark Williams, who funds the
expedition. The take the steamer Rita down the Amazon to the
camp site, where they find Maia's team brutally murdered by some sort
of animal. Unknown to the group, the killer was actually an
amphibious humanoid, the same species as the skeleton that Dr. Maia
discovered. The group travels into the nearby black lagoon in hopes
of finding more of the skeletal remains. The creature, or Gill-man,
watches the expedition as the search the lagoon and becomes
infatuated with Kay. It eventually kills two of the crew members on
the ship. They poison the water and are able to capture the creature
for a short time, but it escapes. Will they be able to capture this
creature before it takes Kay?
"Has anyone seen my chapstick? I'm feeling chappy."
In classic monster movie fashion, Creature From The Black Lagoon has
an equal mixture of mystery, action, romance, and traditional scares.
While the movie may be almost 60 years old, it still manages to be
quite entertaining. The action starts out almost immediately despite
not showing the creature right away. We only see it's amphibious
webbed hand, but it's enough to whet the audience's appetite and send
imagination's soaring. Gill-man is essentially a man in a rubber suit
(technically two different men, one for land shots and one for
swimming), it looks far better than other monsters from the same era.
Strong detail is given to the suit with authentic looking skin and
fins. The face does have some motion to it and actually appears to be
breathing when out of water. Many of the underwater scenes look very
good, thanks to being shot in a studio rather than an actually body
of water.
Originally filmed in 3D, the movie doesn't have the usual hallmarks
you see in modern 3D films. There are no blatant scenes where someone
is specifically pointing something at the screen for 3D purposes. The
horror of the film is helped along thanks to the music in the film,
which consisted mostly of blaring trumpets. It serves it's purpose,
but tends to be a little grating by the end. Director Jack Arnold has
a good eye for capturing both the action and terror in the movie. The
acting is good, especially considering the creature is just a guy in
a suit. Julie Adams doesn't play the straight damsel in distress
role, giving the character more depth. There are just enough
characters involved to kill off a few without diluting the story. The
movie has a good amount of action, but since it's from the 1950's, of
course there is no blood. C'mon, there are kids watching!
"Attica! Attica! Attica!"
Creature From The Black Lagoon is a fun monster movie from an era
where a man in a rubber suit was still terrifying. The story movies
quickly and has a good amount of action for the time period. The
underwater scenes look great and the makeup used for the monster is
spot-on. The combination of good acting and directing helps elevate
the movie to a better level than other contemporary monster movies.
The movie doesn't have the built-in story that other classic monster
movies do, but it still manages to be entertaining. Why Gill-man
doesn't get as much attention as it deserves, it's still a classic
monster from a classic movie. Maybe you should dress up like Gill-man
for Halloween tomorrow.
8/10
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