One of the greatest things that can ever be said about Jack Arnold's 1954 3D-minded creature feature "Creature from the Black Lagoon" is that it was one of the last truly great monster movies ever produced by Universal Studios, and the titular "Creature" was one of the last truly memorable, if not the last truly memorable, old-school movie monsters to ever join their ranks (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Wolf Man).
I remember "Creature from the Black Lagoon" as one of a handful of black & white monster movies ("The Thing from Another World," "Them!") from the 1950s that I grew up watching as an impressionable youth in the early '90s. But unlike the old-school Universal Studios movie monsters from the '30s and '40s, "Creature from the Black Lagoon" differed from its predecessors in that instead of being set in a Gothic, fog-drenched Universal studio back-lot, the action has been moved to the Amazon River in the jungles of Brazil. But this big change in scenery does not automatically mean that Jack Arnold was not able to create an atmosphere of fear and dread and suspense, and he still manages to get great mileage out of the almost-oppressive yet sweeping panoramic jungle views and spectacularly beautiful underwater photography (more on this latter part in a bit).
What gets the ball rolling in "Creature from the Black Lagoon," is that geologist Dr. Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno) has just discovered fossilized evidence (a clawed hand with webbed fingers) while working in the jungles of the Brazilian rain forest; Maia believes that this finding proves the so-called "missing evolutionary link" between human beings and fish. He then recruits his old friend and former student ichthyologist Dr. David Reed (Richard Carlson), along with his beautiful fiancée Kay Lawrence (Julie Adams), and David's financially-minded boss Dr. Mark Williams (Richard Denning) to lead a scientific expedition back to the jungle site where the claw was first discovered so that they can try to find the remainder of the skeleton.
What they discover, to their terror, is a mythical creature that time forgot: "The Creature" (dually played on land by stuntman Ben Chapman, and professional swimmer/diver Ricou Browning for the underwater sequences), a.k.a., "The Gill-Man," a half-man/half-fish amphibious humanoid beast that sets its sights on Kay, who looks quite stunning in a contour-hugging swimsuit (and also represents a doomed love story echoing "King Kong," which was said to have served as an inspiration on the story), and an epic battle between Man and Fish-Man where the hunter becomes the hunted.
Film producer William Alland was said to have gotten the idea for "Creature from the Black Lagoon" 13 years earlier while attending a dinner party for Orson Welles's "Citizen Kane" (1941) after listening to stories told to him by Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa about half-man/half-fish creatures living in the rivers of the Amazon rain forest. He produced story notes that later fed into a script treatment by Maurice Zimm, and screenwriters Harry Essex and Arthur Ross later wrote the final feature-length screenplay for Jack Arnold to film.
While it is true that certain aspects of the picture have not aged well (i.e., the screaming damsel-in-distress, heroic male saviors, racial minorities in cannon-fodder supporting roles), "Creature from the Black Lagoon" still does represent something of a departure from the legacy it would eventually become a part of. Its key defining attribute in this regard (aside from the drastic change in setting, remember) is that it was also one of the only original movies of its kind. The Gill-Man was a completely original - not to mention decidedly low-tech, a man in a suit - monster design; it was not based on a novel or firmly established folklore. No. "Creature from the Lagoon" was created completely by the filmmakers, which earns the film a highly distinguished reputation in the old-school Universal Studios movie monster canon.
The underwater photography for this picture was quite stunning and breathtaking for the time it was filmed, and even today Hollywood has yet to shoot underwater sequences that match this film's sweeping grandeur. (Of course, everything on this production was done manually by someone holding an underwater camera - in this case, by Charles S. Welbourne, with direction by James C. Havens; a film made today would most likely use CGI to accomplish this arduous task.) Also, if the movie were to have been filmed in color, it would be even more beautiful to look at but I think that it would still somehow diminish its overall impact and the atmosphere that Jack Arnold painstakingly created, as well as the genuinely thrilling underwater action sequences that dominate the film's second half.
"Creature from the Black Lagoon" is a monster movie classic, truly one of the last great pictures of its kind, and it also served as a major influence on future major Hollywood "B"-movies like "Anaconda" (1997) and its sequel "Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid" (2004), as well as satire in the character of "The Missing Link" (voiced by Will Arnett) in the DreamWorks Animation feature "Monsters vs. Aliens" (2009).
10/10.
I remember "Creature from the Black Lagoon" as one of a handful of black & white monster movies ("The Thing from Another World," "Them!") from the 1950s that I grew up watching as an impressionable youth in the early '90s. But unlike the old-school Universal Studios movie monsters from the '30s and '40s, "Creature from the Black Lagoon" differed from its predecessors in that instead of being set in a Gothic, fog-drenched Universal studio back-lot, the action has been moved to the Amazon River in the jungles of Brazil. But this big change in scenery does not automatically mean that Jack Arnold was not able to create an atmosphere of fear and dread and suspense, and he still manages to get great mileage out of the almost-oppressive yet sweeping panoramic jungle views and spectacularly beautiful underwater photography (more on this latter part in a bit).
What gets the ball rolling in "Creature from the Black Lagoon," is that geologist Dr. Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno) has just discovered fossilized evidence (a clawed hand with webbed fingers) while working in the jungles of the Brazilian rain forest; Maia believes that this finding proves the so-called "missing evolutionary link" between human beings and fish. He then recruits his old friend and former student ichthyologist Dr. David Reed (Richard Carlson), along with his beautiful fiancée Kay Lawrence (Julie Adams), and David's financially-minded boss Dr. Mark Williams (Richard Denning) to lead a scientific expedition back to the jungle site where the claw was first discovered so that they can try to find the remainder of the skeleton.
What they discover, to their terror, is a mythical creature that time forgot: "The Creature" (dually played on land by stuntman Ben Chapman, and professional swimmer/diver Ricou Browning for the underwater sequences), a.k.a., "The Gill-Man," a half-man/half-fish amphibious humanoid beast that sets its sights on Kay, who looks quite stunning in a contour-hugging swimsuit (and also represents a doomed love story echoing "King Kong," which was said to have served as an inspiration on the story), and an epic battle between Man and Fish-Man where the hunter becomes the hunted.
Film producer William Alland was said to have gotten the idea for "Creature from the Black Lagoon" 13 years earlier while attending a dinner party for Orson Welles's "Citizen Kane" (1941) after listening to stories told to him by Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa about half-man/half-fish creatures living in the rivers of the Amazon rain forest. He produced story notes that later fed into a script treatment by Maurice Zimm, and screenwriters Harry Essex and Arthur Ross later wrote the final feature-length screenplay for Jack Arnold to film.
While it is true that certain aspects of the picture have not aged well (i.e., the screaming damsel-in-distress, heroic male saviors, racial minorities in cannon-fodder supporting roles), "Creature from the Black Lagoon" still does represent something of a departure from the legacy it would eventually become a part of. Its key defining attribute in this regard (aside from the drastic change in setting, remember) is that it was also one of the only original movies of its kind. The Gill-Man was a completely original - not to mention decidedly low-tech, a man in a suit - monster design; it was not based on a novel or firmly established folklore. No. "Creature from the Lagoon" was created completely by the filmmakers, which earns the film a highly distinguished reputation in the old-school Universal Studios movie monster canon.
The underwater photography for this picture was quite stunning and breathtaking for the time it was filmed, and even today Hollywood has yet to shoot underwater sequences that match this film's sweeping grandeur. (Of course, everything on this production was done manually by someone holding an underwater camera - in this case, by Charles S. Welbourne, with direction by James C. Havens; a film made today would most likely use CGI to accomplish this arduous task.) Also, if the movie were to have been filmed in color, it would be even more beautiful to look at but I think that it would still somehow diminish its overall impact and the atmosphere that Jack Arnold painstakingly created, as well as the genuinely thrilling underwater action sequences that dominate the film's second half.
"Creature from the Black Lagoon" is a monster movie classic, truly one of the last great pictures of its kind, and it also served as a major influence on future major Hollywood "B"-movies like "Anaconda" (1997) and its sequel "Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid" (2004), as well as satire in the character of "The Missing Link" (voiced by Will Arnett) in the DreamWorks Animation feature "Monsters vs. Aliens" (2009).
10/10.