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Creature
From The Black Lagoon: The Legacy Collection
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Creature
from
the Black Lagoon
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9 |
Revenge
of
the Creature
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6 |
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The
Creature
Walks Among Us
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7 |
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Guest
Review by Rod
Barnett
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Creature
from the Black Lagoon
represents the last burst of cinematic monster making that Universal
studios would ever attempt. It's not that they stopped making
monster movies but Creature marked
the final attempt to create a monster in the fashion of the
Wolf Man or the Frankenstein Monster. This was no giant rampaging
bug or homicidal maniac but a beast with emotions who earns
the audience's sympathy. Coming almost a decade after the Golden
Age cycle of classics fizzled out in the war years, the Gill
Man roared onto screens to take his place among the greats.
While he will always be grouped with the other classic Universal
monsters his true antecedent is that misunderstood simian, King
Kong. Indeed, producer William Alland fashioned his film as
an aquatic remake of King Kong
and there are few better templates to use. Even if it's not
as critically well regarded as Kong,
Alland and his collaborators created one of the best monster
movies of all time, one that 50 years later is still alive and
swimming.
In the heart of the Amazon rain forest paleontologist
Dr. Maia (Antonio Moreno) discovers a very unusual fossil. It
appears to be a five fingered hand but with webbed fingers and
scales. Gathering a team of scientists comprised of Dr. David
Reed (Richard Carlson), Kay Lawrence (Julie Adams), Dr. Mark
Williams (Richard Denning), and Dr. Edwin Thompson (Whit Bissell),
Maia travels deeper up the Amazon until the fabled Black Lagoon
is reached. Here, instead of more fossils, the team amazingly
finds a living example of the claw-like hand in the person of
a 7-foot tall bipedal amphibian. Easily the find of the century
and seemingly the only creature of his type remaining on Earth,
the group disagrees about what to do. Williams hopes to capture
the beast and bring him to civilization for study and profit
while Reed wants to leave the beast alone. Unfortunately Reed
isn't in charge, so they begin trying to subdue the Gill Man
using poison, nets and cages — but the Creature has his eyes
on the very pretty Miss Lawrence.
A
great movie from beginning to end, there is so much to praise
you could start anywhere... First, the Creature's design is
brilliant, never looking like a monster suit and beautifully
detailed both in and out of the water. Only on many repeat viewings
of the film can you tell there are slight differences between
the monster's design on land and underwater. This reflects the
two different men playing the Gill Man — Ben Chapman dry and
Ricou Browning wet. Both men do a good job making us first fear
and then care for the beast and the wonderful Creature costumes
look perfect from every angle. Of course, the rest of he cast
is good as well, with Carlson and Denning making a strong team
as well as fierce rivals for Julie Adams' attentions. Ms. Adams
is certainly worth fighting over and she's a fine presence in
the film as well doing more than just serving as a damsel in
distress. Director Jack Arnold (Tarantula,
The Incredible Shrinking Man) shows
his skill with storytelling and suspense while being immeasurably
helped by the fantastic underwater photography work. Critics
often overlook Arnold but his credits clearly mark him as one
of the greats of the sci-fi/horror genre. He directed many good
films after this one but I still think his visit to the Black
Lagoon is his best work. If nothing else you can always count
on his genre films to be tense and logical which is saying something
for 1950s science fiction.
Picking up a year after the first film, Revenge
of the Creature sees a couple of stalwart scientist-types
return to the Black Lagoon to capture the monster. Using dynamite
charges (!) to subdue him, they transport the amphibian back
to Florida and set him up in Ocean Harbor for scientific study
and public viewing. Ichthyologist Helen Dobson (Lori Nelson)
and fellow scientist Clete Ferguson (John Agar) begin trying
to both communicate with the Gill Man and romance each other.
Their romance is a bit more successful... probably because Agar
doesn't poke Nelson with an electrified prod every ten minutes
as he does the Creature. Finally the poor aquatic beastie manages
to break free, kill a few folks and run off into the open water
with gunmen in hot pursuit. Once again he has his sights set
on a female — this time it's Ms. Nelson he goes in search of,
putting her new fiancé Agar on the offensive!
Definitely a couple of notches down from
CFTBL, Revenge
is still good and certainly not worthy of the turkey carving
given it by Mystery Science Theater 3000. The main reason
for the drop in quality is unavoidable, as the first film eliminated
the mystery of the Creature. But at least they acknowledge this
by getting him onscreen quickly and moving the story to the
next logical step. However, by taking the Gill Man out of the
lagoon a big part of the creepy thrill of the first film is
lost. The Creature just isn't as scary or impressive lurking
in a swimming pool as he was in a shadowy grotto. Another reason
for the lesser stature of Revenge
is that too much time is spent on the romance subplot. This
is a structure carry over from the previous film; then it seemed
unobtrusive while here it simply gets in the way. The story
element could have been great if it had been used to emphasis
the sadly solitary nature of the Gill Man but this idea is only
given lip service — instead we're treated to him once again
becoming infatuated with a human female. Plus the two lovers
are given the movie's most stilted dialog, making their romantic
scenes pretty silly at times. Still, this is a fun, well-paced
monster film and a pretty good sequel to a classic. If only
they had decided to include a Gill Woman...
The general critical consensus is that these films declined
in quality with each sequel, marking The
Creature Walks Among Us the worst of the lot. While neither
follow-up goes in the direction I'd have liked at least the
third film has a very strong premise at its core. Dr. William
Barton (Jeff Morrow) assembles a group of experts to find and
capture the Gill Man, still believed to be loose in the Florida
Everglades. This team includes levelheaded Dr. Thomas Morgan
(Rex Reason) and hotheaded muscle Jed Grant (Gregg Palmer).
All seems fine until the doctor's reason for wanting the creature
is revealed to be a half-baked idea about using his ability
to breathe underwater for space travel! Suddenly we're in mad
scientist territory and I'm thrilled! Of course, along for the
hunt and serving as bait is Barton's trouble-making trophy wife
Marcia (Leigh Snowden), adding just the right touch of beauty
to offset these beasts. They track our web-footed buddy using
some mildly ridiculous science fictional sonar equipment and
corner him in a small lagoon. They render the Gill Man unconscious
but not before the poor fellow gets 3rd degree burns over most
of his body. In short order the creature's outer layer of skin
and gills are peeled away to reveal a more human-like epidermis;
a pair of vestigial lungs have started to operate. Dr. Barton
takes this as proof of his crackpot ideas even as Dr. Morgan
explains that this is not evolution in action. Unfortunately
this debate never goes much further as Barton's baseless, paranoid
jealousy of his wife rears up to bring a violent end to the
tale.
A
more focused — if stranger — sequel than Revenge,
I find Creature Walks Among Us
to be a bit better and a lot more interesting. The story goes
in a new direction that may seem just as crazed as Barton's
theories but it adds some fascinating ideas to the mix. The
first two films had already posed the question of just how near
to human this beast is on the evolutionary ladder; the third
offers some answers. The heart of each of these movies is the
tragedy of the poor Creature's situation and this film brings
down the curtain in a very sad final moment, giving us one of
the most haunting images from any monster movie. This poignant
moment is an almost perfect heartrending ending to this beauty
and the beast tale. Drawn to a vision of loveliness he is destroyed
by those who don't understand him and in the end he can't even
hope to return home. Technically the film is on par with the
first two getting away with using a few alternate shots of the
underwater creature from the first movie. Direction is good
and sometimes quite clever, the cast is once again strong and
the monster suits are just as well done as before. The new look
the Gill Man has in the latter half of the film is nicely done
giving the impression that his step up from water to land animal
is difficult and uncomfortable. His labored breathing reminded
me of the first breaths of a newborn shocked into awareness
of an unforgiving world. Maybe it's taking the analogy too far,
but perhaps the Gill Man trilogy can be seen as the story of
the Creature's birth from the womb of the Black Lagoon to his
first steps into Man's harsh domain.
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Universal
has finally released all three Creature flicks in one package
as part of their Legacy Collection series. This two-DVD
set contains all three films with some great extras included for
fans. All are presented fullframe with crisp Dolby 2.0 Mono soundtracks.
They all look very sharp and clear, with very few visual problems
except for a couple of minutes of irritating vertical lines in
Revenge. I was left wondering if
the third film wasn't meant to be slightly matted as most scenes
have excessive headroom. They've wisely ported over the excellent
documentary and commentary track from the single-disc Creature
from the Black Lagoon release. The 40-minute doc, entitled
Back to the Black Lagoon, is a fantastic look at the production
of all three films with a focus on the original. Hosted by David
Skal, this is a highly informative and entertaining way to learn
about the trilogy. The commentary track by Tom Weaver is another
of his exemplary efforts, wedging in so much information that
he hardly seems to have time to take a breath. It's a great track
and well worth more than one listen.
Disc 2 contains both sequels in their DVD debuts,
which would be reason enough to pick this set up — but luckily
Universal has listened to fans about the lack of new goodies on
the Legacy sets. They've brought back Tom Weaver to record
commentary tracks for both sequels. He's joined on Revenge
by star Lori Nelson and collector Bob Burns, and again on Creature
Walks Among Us by Mr. Burns. Both of these tracks are welcome
additions to the set, with Ms. Nelson's anecdotes about her co-stars
and the process of filming being particularly fun. 'Genre enthusiast
Burns proves himself a good choice for this exercise; on the third
track he relates loads of detail and history about the series
that can only come from knowing the craftsmen behind the scenes.
Burns is a gregarious talker with a deep love of these films that
only improves the experience. Kudos to the commentators and also
to Universal for the wisdom of including these new extras. Additionally,
there are the theatrical trailers for all three movies and a set
of fun production photographs. I have only one complaint about
the set, relating to the menu page layout. I've gotten over my
irritation with Universal's need to list all the film in these
sets on every DVD regardless of the disc's actual content, but
here they make another mistake by listing the films in the wrong
order! (The first movie is given the top spot on the page but
the third is listed in the bottom left while the second is in
the bottom right. Could it have been too hard to list them in
the correct order?) Even with this one stupid error this is one
of my favorite DVD releases of the year and a must-have for monster
film fanatics.
10/26/04 |
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