Originally published at www.themariontheatre.org.
Richard Carlson
Julie Adams
Richard Denson
Directed by Jack Arnold
"The boys around here call it "The Black Lagoon"; a paradise. Only they say nobody has ever come back to prove it."
The Universal Monsters were dead. They had been for years. They had a good run for almost fifteen years becoming the Gold Standard in horror films. By 1954 the last relevant Universal monster movie, House Of Frankenstein had was ten years old. Universal had started pairing the classic monsters up with the comedy duo Abbott & Costello (who were probably past their prime) to squeeze an extra buck out of the franchises. Try to imagine Twentieth Century Fox today making Martin Lawrence Meets Predator and you're in the right ball park.
Then came the Creature. Some prefer the Gill-Man but I always thought that sounded like a bad Space Ghost villain. It's hard to imagine it now but the Creature From The Black Lagoon was the Alien of its day. When you look at the movie monsters that came before it, they're essentially men in masks. Frankenstein is a flat head and bolts but the guy's wearing a blazer and a turtleneck. The Wolf Man has furry hands and feet but it's the transformation that sells that effect. In fact, most of them you could probably get as Halloween costumes. The Creature was different. He was an effect from head to toe and he looked real... well, 1950s real.
I always find it interesting when time goes by and morals change and you look at a movie in a different way than it was intended. Watching Cruella De Vil in 101 Dalmatians knowing her gaunt, fur-wearing, chain-smoking self is ten times more vulgar now than it was in the 1960s now that those things are out of fashion. I watch Black Lagoon and clearly I side with the Creature. He wasn't bothering anyone, minding his own business and not only are there intruders, they're bent on killing him. He's like those mountain lions that wander into neighborhoods or the crocodile that grabs a kid in three feet of water. If I found a crocodile in my living room I'd try and kill it (who am I kidding, I'd call someone for that as I screamed like a nine-year-old girl). There is a part of me that thinks they were asking for it.
Then there is that music cue. If you've seen the movie you know what I mean. It's the cue that warns you something is going to happen and it's used about a dozen times too many and I laugh whenever I hear it. It's a precursor to the cha-cha-cha that precedes Jason Vorhees in a Friday The 13th movie.
The story isn't much different that modern slasher movie. A bunch of people go some place they don't belong, tamper with the natural order of things and the Creature kills a bunch of people. Now it's campy but it's fun. People are more sophisticated now. My father told me stories of people fainting during screenings of Frankenstein (1931) when now that wouldn't scare a ten year old. My eight-year-old nephew recently stumbled across The Blob (1958), laughed, and suggested the stop it with a giant biscuit.
There were two sequels to Black Lagoon (Revenge Of The Creature (1955) and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)) and as usually the case, all degrading in quality from the original. I have a friend who affectionately refers to the trilogy as Revenge Of The Creature From The Black Lagoon Who Walks Among Us. The third ends with the Creature being burned and through reconstructive surgery make him look more human which really makes him look more like a dork and reinforces my theory that man can't leave well enough alone.
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT "CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON"
- Portions of the film were shot at the Silver Springs Theme Park as well as Jacksonville FL.
- In much of the production art the Creature is portrayed with bright red lips. Although the film is black & white, the actual Creature lips are a lighter shade of moss green.
- It's the only classic Universal Monster exclusively owned by the studio. All the other characters are public domain (Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, The Invisible Man) or premises (The Wolf Man, The Mummy).
- The original design for the creature was less scale-like and more like an eel. When the concept was abandoned it was to be reused for a female creature in a sequel but never was.
- Clint Eastwood appears in the sequel, Revenge Of The Creature (1955), as an uncredited scientist.
