Creature
from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Directed
by: Jack
Arnold.
Written
by: Harry
Essex and Arthur A. Ross and Maurice Zimm.
Starring:
Richard
Carlson (David Reed), Julie Adams (Kay Lawrence), Richard Denning (Mark
Williams), Antonio Moreno (Carl Maia), Nestor Paiva (Lucas), Whit Bissell (Dr.
Thompson), Bernie Gozier (Zee), Henry A. Escalante (Chico), Ricou Browning (The
Gill Man - in water), Ben Chapman (The Gill Man - on land), Art Gilmore (Narrator),
Perry Lopez (Tomas), Sydney Mason (Dr. Matos), Rodd Redwing (Louis - Expedition
Foreman).
There
are a few reasons why Creature from the Black Lagoon has survived so many years
– and is still watched nearly 70 years after it came out, even as its special
effects now look amateurish, and the acting and writing probably always did. The
Creature aka Gill Man was the last addition to Universal Monsters – the lineup
from the 1930s that including Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Mummy
and The Invisible Man – coming out decades after those films, which at the
time, were being rediscovered by newer audiences on TV. So perhaps, the movie
was in part a cynical ploy to cash in on some intellectual property that
Universal already owned. But that doesn’t explain why the film continues to be
watched – and enjoyed all these years later.
For
that, you have to watch the brilliant underwater sequences in the film – which
remain stunning all these later. A group of researchers head deeper into the
amazon, searching for more fossils of a creature once a fossil of its hands was
found – never dreaming that a still living, breathing example was still alive
down here. The lone woman in the group – Kay (Julie Adams) decides, stupidly,
to go from a swim in the black lagoon. As she glides along the surface, we see
the creature swimming beneath her. The camera cuts back and forth between her
on the surface, him underneath – and most beautifully, with the two of them
swimming together – the creature knowing it, Kay not. It’s a sequence that is
incredibly creepy of course – the monster could attack at any moment. But it’s
also beautiful – almost serene. You can see how someone like Guillermo Del Toro
could watch this movie, and be inspired to make The Shape of Water –
essentially turning it into a love story. That underwater sequence is brilliant
– and most of the rest of them are as well. They remain stunning to look at all
these years later.
The
film was directed by Jack Arnold, and in addition to those underwater sequences
– the biggest thing the direction does here is slowly increase the tension and
sense of dread in the movie. It is a movie that builds slowly for a 78-minute
creature feature, but that tension serves the movie well. The creature only
gradually reveals himself – and then still moves slowly, deliberately. For a
movie about a man in a giant rubber suit, it is amazing how much tension the
film generates.
When
the movie isn’t underwater, or isn’t deliberately building tension – meaning
when it focuses on its human characters, its nowhere near as good. The
characters are basically stale archetypes – and even if Julie Adams’ Kay is
supposed to be a researcher herself, she is basically spoken to as if she was a
child, by everyone on board the ship. The dialogue is wooden and stale – and
you really don’t care about the various people other than a Gill Man fodder.
Still,
its remarkable how well this film works all these years later. Yes, its easy to
snicker at the special effects – or lack thereof – here. But taken on its own
terms, the film works remarkably well. It’s still tension filled and beautiful
all these years later.
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