Scientists drug and capture the creature, who becomes enamored with the head scientist’s female assistant (Julie Adams). The lonely creature, “a living amphibious missing link,” escapes and kidnaps the object of his affection. Chief scientist (Richard Carlson) then launches a crusade to rescue his assistant ans cast the ominous creature back to the depths from where he came. Well-acted and directed, and with Bud Westmore’s brilliantly designed monster, Creature From The Black Lagoon remains an enduring tribute to the imaginative genius of its Hollywood creators.Jack Arnold’s horror classic The Creature from the Black Lagoon spawned not one but two iconic images: the web-footed humanoid gill-man with a hankering for women and the leggy, luscious Julia Adams, the object of his desire, swimming the lagoon in a luminous white bathing suit. Not since King Kong has the “beauty and the beast” theme been portrayed in such sexually charged (though chaste) terms. Arnold turns an effectively B-movie plot–a small expedition up a remote Amazon river captures a prehistoric amphibian man, who escapes to wreak havoc on the team and kidnap his bathing beauty–into a moody, stylish, low-budget feature. The jungle exteriors turn from exotic to treacherous when the creature blocks their passage and strands them in the wilds. Much of the film is shot underwater, where the murky dark is animated by shimmering shards of sunlight, creating images both lovely and alien (the studio-built sets of the creature’s underground lair are far less naturalistic, but serve their purpose). As with most of Arnold’s ’50s genre films, he’s saddled with a less than magnetic leading man (in this case the colorless but stalwart Richard Carlson) and a conventional script, but he overcomes such limitations by creating a vivid and sympathetic monster (helped immeasurably by a marvelous suit of scales and fins) and establishing a mood thick with atmosphere. The film was originally shot in 3-D. –Sean Axmaker
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March 5, 2010
#1
not that good of a show but good for some well done part on the movi
March 5, 2010
#2
I couldn’t help wondering why there is always only one monster. In this movie it’s established that there was another 150 million years ago and there is one now. What happened to all the others? And why are monsters always attracted to human women? Also check out the creature clawing the edge of the swimming pool at the start. Great Saturday afternoon viewing.
March 5, 2010
#3
The Creature has a good reason for wanting Julia Adams for his own! She wears this hot bikini thoughout most of the movie, revealing much of her legs and figure. A dicription of her throughout the movie would be, Long black beautiful hair, small tight frilly bikini revealing her breast figure, most of back is naked , and so are shoulders. The bathing suit comes up short on her hips revealing both legs. Barefoot throughout the whole movie. You might say half naked! If you are looking for a movie with true American beauty, watch Julia Adams in {The Creature From the Black Lagoon}
March 5, 2010
#4
To give a rating based purely on the strength (or weakness) of this hokey movie alone would only get perhaps 2 stars.
OK, I understand it is a rubber suit and I can smile at that. However some things, such as the creature having opposable thumbs (to facilitate strangling people), a few Hollywood conventions such as the slow-turn-of-the-head-over-the-shoulder-then-shocked-look-and-subsequent-scream-before-being-killed-offscreen, some continuity errors – the winch boom is broken in one scene then intact later, and the suspect geological dig (nearly intact forearm still in one piece), the fact that although the creature swims very quickly underwater he doesn’t catch the bathing beauty, etc. If you can let these types of things go by, then the movie will be even better for you. However, it was rather inventive for its time – extensive underwater photography, in “3-D” no less – with generally good acting and production values, and if you can excuse the corniness and blatant “non-science”, then it certainly rates higher.
Somewhat disconcerting scenes have the beauty (apparently a non-smoker in real life) take a puff from a cigarette, then casually toss it into the lagoon, and then the scientists poison the lagoon to hopefully force the creature to the surface – but end up with lots of floating dead fish.
The movie (and its sequel) was actually inspired by the King Kong movie, and therefore is another in the beast-loves-beauty and monster movies which includes The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Mummy, The Wolfman, and Frankenstein, etc. Not sure why any member of his species would find any human attractive in a romantic way, but there it is.
The DVD extras are very nice including an interesting commentary, a short documentary, and some text-based cast/crew/production notes.
March 5, 2010
#5
This film was another of Universal Studio’s accomplishments which I now rate at only 3 stars, however, at the time it was released would have rated at 5.
When I first went to see the CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON at the urging of my older brother, I was an eight year old who had no idea what he was in store for. I had no knowledge that this film was to be presented in 3D format by our local neighborhood theater and the projectionist did an excellent job.
There were no problems with visible double images, no headaches, and none of the usual complaints leveled against 3D films. In fact, if all 3D productions had been presented this well I think that technology would have caught on.
The plot was basic enough but more than adequate for the demonstration of the new technology. The full body Creature garment was amazing for any studio including Universal, and would have been advanced for a movie produced today. It enabled the actor to be filmed from all angles and aspects and looked very convincing. Again, this was more of a technical achievement than something like the makeup magic of a Jack Pierce or the like.
I hope that this film can be released in some future HDTV format along with a full and convincing 3D track. This is something I have read is well within the capability of certain modern LCD sets but will require the use of special glasses which block one of the stereo pairs while the other is permitted to be viewed, and so on. This will require a certain interest on the part of the public which currently appears to exist only in the gaming community.