Typical of the superlatives lavished on this 1954 entry in the Universal Monsters franchise (which concluded in 1956) are raves from the horror scribes David J. Schow, who waxed enthusiastic about the “shimmering perfection” of the title character’s design, apparently “the progenitor of every elaborate monster suit to follow in the days before CGI,” and Ramsey Campbell, who wrote at some length about model kits inspired by the creature, which Campbell views as “more of an accolade than any critic’s exegesis could be.” The “Gill-Man” is indeed an amazing creation, but there’s a reason Schow and Campbell aren’t nearly as effusive about the film overall.
Initially exhibited in 3-D, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON was patterned on KING KONG (1933), down to the attractive young woman protagonist with whom the monster falls in love. Fay Wray played that role in KONG, but here the part was taken by the much leggier western movie heroine Julie Adams (1926-2019), who in the film’s most famous scene has symbolic intercourse with the Gill-Man via a swim through a lake whose surface she skims while the creature (performed by the veteran stunt diver Ricou Browning) matches her pace underwater.
Adams plays Kay Lawrence, the girlfriend of the hunky ichthyologist David Reed (IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE’s Richard Carlson), who together with his boss Mark Williams (Richard Denning) leads a scientific expedition into the Amazon. The trigger is the discovery of an odd fossil belonging to a prehistoric creature, denoted by a close-up of a webbed hand making its way onto land. The expedition is uneventful until it heads downriver, to a “Black Lagoon” where other fossils are found. It’s there that the Gill Man (performed in the non-aquatic scenes by dancer Ben Chapman) resides, and takes a fancy to Kay.
Continuing with the KING KONG comparisons, the creature is captured and imprisoned in the expeditioners’ boat, but escapes and embarks on a killing rampage. It’s up to David to take the critter on in its own habitat: water.
In contrast to what many like to claim, this is not the best work of director Jack Arnold (1912-1992). CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON followed IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (1953) and preceded the BLACK LAGOON sequel REVENGE OF THE CREATURE (1955, followed by the John Sherwood helmed CREATURE WALKS AMONG US in 1956), TARANTULA (1955) and THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957) in the Arnold filmography. It’s marked by flat TV-worthy compositions, unevocative jungle scenery conveyed largely through rear projection and a hysterical music score that serves primarily to punctuate the shock effects. Setting much of the action underwater was a bad decision, as the aquatic scenes, in a break from the more intimate aesthetic governing the rest of the film, are visualized in hard-to-follow wide shots.
But getting back to that creature suit: designed by animator Milicent Patrick, it’s undeniably impressive, being seamless (no zippers are visible), authentically reptilian and flexible enough to accommodate the aquatic stunt work of Ricou Browning. Not too many movies can be said to have attained success based solely on the quality of a monster suit, but in CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON that is indeed the case.
Vital Statistics
CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON
Universal Pictures
Director: Jack Arnold
Producer: William Alland
Screenplay: Harry Essex, Arthur Ross
Cinematography: William E. Snyder
Editing: Ted J. Kent
Cast: Richard Carlson, “Julia Adams” (Julie Adams), Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, Nestor Paiva, Whit Bissell, Bernie Gozier, Henry Escalante, Ricou Browning, Ben Chapman, Art Gilmore