CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954)
A Retrospective of the Classic Universal Monster Movie
Grade: A-
Like all genres of film, horror has gone through many changes throughout the years, depending on what audiences wanted to see and what was acceptable to show them. In the 1950s, horror combined with science fiction to create classics such as Them! (1954), The Blob (1958), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), and The Thing from Another World (1951). As time passed, the edge was taken off most of these movies; seen today, they come across as entertaining at best and dated at worst. One of the most famous examples of 1950s sci-fi is Universal’s Creature from the Black Lagoon. While not as terrifying today as it was back when it was released in 1954, it is still a well-produced and entertaining creature feature which proves that, even after all these years, a movie about a man dressed in a rubber monster suit can still be thrilling.
Taking place in South America, Creature from the Black Lagoon follows a scientific expedition into the Amazon led by Dr. David Reed and Dr. Carl Maia after a fossilized claw which seemed to have belonged to an amphibious humanoid was discovered in the area. Their journey ultimately takes them into the “Black Lagoon,” a beautiful and secluded area from which no one is said to have ever come back. They eventually discover not fossils, but a living prehistoric “Gillman,” a missing link between aquatic creature and modern man. Although initially curious and not hostile toward the group, the gill-man quickly becomes violent after the ambitious Dr. Mark Williams attacks it with a spear gun, and soon the expedition members are fighting for their lives.
Special effects in 1950s monster movies varied drastically in their quality; some effects, like the stop-motion dinosaur in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), have aged better than others, like the giant mechanical ants in Them! The effect in Creature from the Black Lagoon is the costume for the Gillman which, for the most part, has aged magnificently. An incredible amount of detail clearly went into the design, including the scales, head, and dorsal fins. The suit does not appear cumbersome, either; the Gillman moves stealthily, both above and under the water. One of my favorite features on the costume is how, when the creature breathes above-water, its gills appear to expand.
The creature also has a distinctive personality; it never attacks unless provoked. When it approaches a tent early on, it doesn’t kill its occupants until they attack it out of fear. Later, when the expedition arrives at the Black Lagoon, the Gillman watches them from afar. It’s not until Dr. Williams spears it that it decides that they are its enemies. This makes it easy for the audience to sympathize with the Gillman, similar to how they can sympathize with Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein Monster; they are both innocent creatures who are curious but driven to hostility by human beings.
After the humans antagonize it, the creature becomes truly vicious. The excitement levels increase when it goes on the attack, including a well-staged scene set at night when it scratches up one of the scientists’ faces (after an expertly timed fake jump scare where we think the creature made a noise, but was actually Julie Adams’s character Kay Lawrence), only to be set on fire after Kay throws an oil lantern at it, forcing it to retreat underwater. In the years since its first appearance, the Gillman has joined the ranks of other classic Universal monsters, like Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, and the Wolf-Man-and deservedly so.
Several scenes in the film reminded me of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975). When the creature is following Kay, who is going for a swim, several underwater shots from the creature’s point of view of Kay invite parallels to similar shots of actress Susan Blacklinie’s swimmer in Jaws just before the shark eats her. When the creature gets caught in the net of the expedition’s river boat, it struggles so hard to get free that one of the ship’s masts breaks; this is not unlike the shark in Jaws breaking the mast of the ship it’s been tethered to. Even Dr. Mark Williams, in his relentless pursuit of the creature, has a Jaws counterpart in the form of Robert Shaw’s shark-hunting Captain Quint who, much like Williams, is ultimately killed by the very monster he is chasing. These similarities suggest that Creature from the Black Lagoon may have been a possible inspiration for Jaws.
Creature from the Black Lagoon is an exciting adventure and a great monster movie. It may not be the best of its kind, but its story, execution and monster make it a cut above the average 1950s sci-fi horror film. And those factors alone help it to stand the test of time.
Director: Jack Arnold
Producer: William Alland
Screenplay: Harry Essex, Arthur Ross
Cast: Richard Carlson (Dr. David Reed), Julie Adams (Kay Lawrence), Richard Denning (Dr. Mark Williams), Antonio Moreno (Dr. Carl Maia), Nestor Paiva (Captain Lucas), Whit Bissell (Dr. Edwin Thompson), Ben Chapman (Gillman on Land), Ricou Browning (Gillman Underwater)
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