Creature From the Black Lagoon
By Dixon H. Chandler II (http://www.dixonsez.com)

October 01, 2002

Starring: Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning. With Ginger Stanley, and Ben Chapman/Ricou Browning as The Gill Man.
Directed By: Jack Arnold
Written By: Harry Essex, Arthur A. Ross. Story by Maurice Zimm.
Rated: NR; would be G by today's standards


Reviewed by Dixon H. Chandler II

Creature from the Black Lagoon is the last of the great Universal Studios "monster" movies from the classic era, but it's also a product of a new wave in horror programmers. Released in 1954, Creature bows to then-current trends in science fiction, and experiments with exploitation gimmicks (the movie was originally presented in 3D). As such, it's a stellar example of many different elements of 1950s popular cinema. It's also a humdinger of a movie! A menacing fish-man, a bathing beauty, and a beefcake hero with a spear-gun; who could resist it?

Steven Spielberg certainly couldn't. Look at early scenes in Jaws (1975), and you'll see visual echoes of Creature. Spielberg shows us water-treading legs from underneath by way of introducing his monster, his camera assuming the point of view of the shark. Creature's Gill Man, in a famous scene, is fascinated with the water-treading gams of Julie Adams. (Those legs must also have been a prime contributor to the success of Creature. The movie was geared toward the growing Baby Boomer audience, dominated by the mid-50s by adolescents É but more about Creature's sexual subtext below!)

Set in a steaming Amazon backwater, Creature opens with a bang - literally. A pseudo-scientific prologue begins with the Big Bang, 3D boulders hurtling toward the audience. A narrative voice (with all the vocal charisma of Ben Stein) describes how life on Earth began in the primordial soup, eventually emerging from the sea to walk upright on two legs. The camera underscores this, tracking across Gill-Man sized footprints trailing from the surf.

Flash forward untold millions of years, as Amazonian natives locate an ominous claw preserved in rock. Stalwart hero Richard Carlson deduces that the claw must have drifted from an upstream tributary, and decides to outfit an expedition. Luckily, the same deep-pocket research universities that funded Universal's Egyptian mummy expeditions in the 40s are still handing out grants, and before you can say, "Let's assemble a cast of victims," we're steaming toward the Black Lagoon.

The Creature's first appearance is a tease. As archaeologists remove the petrified claw from the cliff side (snapping it off like a sliver of peanut brittle), we quickly cut to the claw of the live Gill Man, sliding back into the murky waters. One of Creature's most memorable features surfaces here. Whenever the Creature appears in the film, a blaring brass cue (Bah-bah-bahhhh!) underscores his appearance. This use of the leitmotif (or recurrent musical theme linked to a character or event) is frankly overdone throughout Creature, and was probably heavy-handed even for 1954.

Still the leitmotif was traditional in horror films since Max Steiner experimented with its use in King Kong (1933), and Franz Waxman perfected its use in Bride of Frankenstein (1935). In the liner notes for the CD music collection Creature from the Black Lagoon (and other Jungle Pictures), David Schecter suggests that the heavy use of the "Creature theme" was probably at the insistence of William Alland, Creature's producer, who wanted to add another "monster star" to the studio's lineup.

By 1954, nearly all of Universal's roster of classic monsters had "met" the studio's house comics, Abbott and Costello, in a series of films, including Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948, with Dracula and the Wolf Man), ... the Invisible Man (1951), ... Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953), even ... the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949). (Bud and Lou would ... Meet the Mummy in 1955.) With many of the old-school monsters (nearly all derived from Victorian or gothic literature) suffering the parody treatment, the market for horror movies had changed by the early 50s.

Science fiction was hot. The thriller/adventure movie market of the decade was dominated by aliens (The Thing, 1951), monster mutations (Them!, 1954), or dinosaurs awakened by H-bomb experiments (Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, 1953). Monsters no longer crawled from Dracula's crypt, or ancient Egyptian tombs. Now they came from the stars (Invaders from Mars, 1953), or were created by our experiments with the atom (the Japanese, perhaps still resentful over Hiroshima, exported Godzilla the same year the Creature surfaced).

Creature was a throwback to the earlier monster tradition. Science fiction-themed thrillers like War of the Worlds and It Came From Outer Space (both 1953) concentrated more on special effects and less on a single, easily-identifiable monster. This was a general trend throughout the 50s, with some exceptions. But it's doubtful we'll ever see a Burger King action figure giveaway of The Blob, while Creature's Gill Man is still a perennial Halloween favorite.

1950s movies of all genres were also fighting for economic life against television, using any technological weapon in their arsenal: "Cinemascope, Cinerama, Panavision, "Vistavision, and Stereophonic Sound" (as the lyric goes) and Creature's 3D was no exception. Producer Alland wanted the most bang for his buck, so when the Creature repeatedly bah-bah-bahhhh!s his way onto the screen, it's because all the above factors are coming into play.

Creature marks a point where the classic monster movie and newer science-fiction themed thrillers come together, and there's something even more interesting lurking beneath the Black Lagoon's dark waters. Classic horror literature (Victorian-era in particular) has always functioned most effectively when sexuality is an important theme or subtext. Dr. Jekyll unleashes his dark libido, for example, and Dracula comes to his female victims in their beds.

In Creature's most effective and haunting scene, Julie Adams is drawn to the waters for a swim. The Gill Man swims underneath her in a sensual mating dance, matching her stroke for stroke. Back on the boat, Julie is no less erotically charged, but more challenged, at least in theory: she loves heroic ichthyologist Richard Carlson, but moneyman Richard Denning is so gosh-darn practical!

Freud would have had a ball with Creature. Bare-chested strongmen wielding symbolic spear-guns, a heroine sporting a virginal white swimsuit, and a Creature straight from the id. The Gill Man's underwater cave is even symbolic of Freud's "recesses of the subconscious," complete with swinging bachelor-pad bubbling primordial Jacuzzi. What repressed 50s heroine would settle for a boring WASP hero like Carlson when she could have a Creature?

I'll stop short of an analysis of the Creature's phallic-shaped head, but it is worth noting that the movie features a remarkably modern blend of makeup and special effects. Rubber suits were designed for performer Ben Chapman (for Creature's land scenes) and expert swimmer Ricou Browning (for underwater scenes).

Scientific accuracy has little place here (alleged "scientist" Richard Deming sounds frankly idiotic when he muses that the Gill Man might be a "missing link" between man and fish "from the Pleistocene Age." Yet it's the look of the GillMan, his "cool factor," that accounts for much of his famous monster status. Six foot five inch Chapman could tower menacingly on land, and Browning could move quickly, lithely, like a fish might. As 50s genre monsters go, the Creature is pretty convincing.

Director Jack Arnold, responsible for some of the best genre films of the 50s, keeps Creature moving at the perfect pace, introducing the Gill-Man by degrees. Even shots in which the Creature jumps at the camera, to maximize the 3D effect, seem less contrived than in other 3D films. Black and white cinematography by William E. Snyder is serviceable, and makes the most of outdoor scenes filmed on location at Wakulla Springs. On land, the Gill-Man is shown in sharp focus, as demanded by the 3D filming process. Underwater scenes are sharp contrasts in darks and lights.

Creature from the Black Lagoon is a highlight of American cinema's monster pantheon, and deservedly so. With a classic monster, Creature plays with science fictional themes and straddles genres effectively. Best of all, it's great fun - watch as the great white hunters muddle up the Amazon, and thrill as the Creature picks them off one by one!

The Tallahassee Film Society's screening of Creature takes place at Wakulla Springs, where many of the location scenes were originally filmed. As Creature unfolds, you'll have to ask yourself: are those cries of frogs and anhinga in the distance? Or something with scales? Something immeasurably older? Something with legs, fins, and claws ... that walks upright, like man?

c. 2002, Dixon H. Chandler II. All Rights Reserved.