THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON Legacy Set Review by Rod Barnett

The 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 was the final attempt to
make a monster in the fashion of the Wolf Man or the Frankenstein
Monster. This was no giant rampaging bug or homicidal manic 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 that 50 years later is still alive and
swimming.

In the heart of the Amazon rain forest archeologist 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
Bissel) he 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 quickly disagree about what to
do. Williams wants to capture their find to return 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.
Miss 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 in 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 1950's science fiction.

Picking up a year after the first film REVENGE OF THE CREATURE has a
couple of stalwart scientists 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 Professor 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 and this time it's Miss Nelson he goes in search
of, putting her new fiance 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 has 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. But 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 but 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 as instead we're
treated to him once again becoming infatuated with a human female. Plus
the two lovers are given the movies most stilted dialog during these
scenes making them 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 as 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 breath 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 and
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 also find THE 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 movies had
already posed the question of just how near to human this beast is on the
evolutionary ladder so this film 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 that gives 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 a harsh, unforgiving
world. Maybe its taking the analogy too far but perhaps these three films
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 hard world.

Universal has finally released all three Creature films in one nice
package as part of their Legacy Collection series. This two DVD set
contains all three films with some great extras included for fans. All
three films are presented Full Frame with crisp Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
soundtracks. They all look very sharp and clear with very few visual
problems except for a couple of minutes of irritating horizontal 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 have wisely
ported over the excellent documentary and commentary track from the out
of print single DVD CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON release. The 40-minute
doc is entitled BACK TO THE LAGOON and is a fantastic look at the
production of all three films with a focus on the original. Hosted by
David Skal this is an informative and entertaining way to learn about the
films. The commentary track by Tom Weaver is another of his exemplary
jobs of wedging in so much information that he hardly seems to have time
to take a breath. It's a great track and worth more than one listen. Disc
two contains both sequels making their DVD premieres which would be
reason enough to pick this set up but luckily Universal has listened to
the complaints of fans about the lack of new goodies on this Legacy sets.
They've brought back Tom Weaver to record commentary tracks for both
sequels. He is joined on REVENGE by star Lori Nelson and collector Bob
Burns and on the CREATURE WALKS AMONG US by Mr. Burns. Both of these
tracks are welcome additions to the set with Miss 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 as he relates lots 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. In addition there are the
theatrical trailers for all three movies and a set of fun production
photographs. I have only one complaint about the set, which relates 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.