Classic Movie Review: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

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.

The Best Films I Have Never Seen Before: It Came From Outer Space (1953)

It Came From Outer Space (1953)
Directed by: Jack Arnold.
Written by: Harry Essex based on the novel by Ray Bradbury.
Starring: Richard Carlson (John Putnam), Barbara Rush (Ellen Fields), Charles Drake (Sheriff Matt Warren), Joe Sawyer (Frank Daylon), Russell Johnson (George), Kathleen Hughes (June).

The 1950s were a golden age for Science Fiction in American film – especially the alien invasion movie. It really started in 1951, with the opposite films The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Thing From Another World. The Day the Earth Stood still told the story of a peaceful alien, coming to earth to warn them that their nuclear weapons were threatening not just their world, but other worlds as well. The Thing From Another World was about a creature thawed from the ice in Antarctica, who wanted nothing more than to kill humanity. Both films were reactions to the cold war, one indulging in fears of nuclear annihilation, the other in cold war paranoia. 1953’s It Came From Outer Space tries to indulge in both – and is surprisingly successful.

The film opens with something that looks like a meteor crash landing in the desert. Amateur star gazer, and aspiring writer John Putnam (Richard Carlson) and his girlfriend Ellen Fields (Barbara Rush) head out to see the crash site. There is a giant crater, and Putnam is the only one who risks going in. He sees not a meteor, but a spaceship and sees a door closing. But then a rock slide happens, burying the ship. When he tries to tell everyone the truth, they think he’s crazy. But he’s determined to not let the truth be buried. And when a few people around town start acting strangely – completely unlike themselves – others think that perhaps Putnam may in fact be right, and aliens have landed, and are inhabiting the bodies of those in town.

The story is similar, in ways, to Invasion of the Body Snatchers (who wouldn’t see the first screen adaptation for another three years at this point), with paranoia taking over. What if your neighbor is no longer your neighbor? Your husband no longer you husband? And worse, what if no one would believe you? These are classic sci fi tropes, and It Came From Outer Space handles them very well.

Yet, it is also different from many alien invasion movies, because it’s not really an invasion at all. The aliens don’t want to be here – they crashed. They think Putnam is the only one they can trust, and tell him that everyone will be fine – they just need time. Putnam has to try and stop the paranoia that starts infecting the town, especially the Sheriff (Charles Drake), who simply wants to kill the aliens. They are different, so they must be the enemy,

The film was directed by Jack Arnold, who made a few of the classic sci fi films of the 1950s. Alongside this one was The Creature from the Black Lagoon (more horror than sci fi) and The Incredible Shrinking Man. I haven’t seen those films, but his handling of It Came From Outer Space, makes me want to see those films as well. Apparently he – as well as Ray Bradbury who wrote the novel the movie was based on – never wanted to show the aliens in their true form, and I think that that instinct was probably correct. But the studio, who was making this film in 3-D, didn’t want that, and so the giant, iconic one eyed aliens of the film were born. They are effective in the movie, but I think that it would have been more effective to not show anything at all. But subtlety has never been Hollywood’s strong suit.

I don’t think It Came From Outer Space is quite as good as the best of the 1950s science fiction. It doesn’t have the same impact as The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Thing From Another World or War of the Worlds for example. Yet, it is still pretty damned good – and a must for lovers of the genre.