Jump to content

Creature from the Black Lagoon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 87.102.1.203 (talk) at 22:03, 14 December 2007 (Added info). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is on the film. For the titular character, see Gill-man

Creature from the Black Lagoon
Film poster
Directed byJack Arnold
Written byHarry Essex
Arthur A. Ross
from a story by Maurice Zimm
Produced byWilliam Alland
StarringRichard Carlson
Julia Adams
Richard Denning
Antonio Moreno
CinematographyWilliam E. Snyder
Edited byTed J. Kent
Music byHenry Mancini, Hans J. Salter & Herman Stein
Distributed byUniversal Pictures International
Release dates
March 5, 1954 (U.S. release)
Running time
79 min.
Country United States
LanguageEnglish

Creature from the Black Lagoon is a 1954 black-and-white science fiction film directed by Jack Arnold, and starring Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, and Whit Bissell. The eponymous creature was played by Ben Chapman on land and Ricou Browning in underwater scenes. It was released in the United States on March 5, 1954.

It was filmed and originally released in 3-D using polarized 3D-glasses (and subsequently reissued in the 1970s in the inferior anaglyph format), and marketed as an A-Film. It is considered a classic of the 1950s, and generated two sequels, Revenge of the Creature (1955) and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956).

Synopsis

A geology expedition in the Amazon uncovers fossilized evidence of a link between land and sea animals in the form of a skeletal hand with webbed fingers. Expedition leader Dr. Carl Maia goes to see his friend Dr. David Reed, an ichthyologist who works at a marine biology institute. Reed persuades the institute's financial backer, Mark Williams, to fund an expedition back to the Amazon to look for the remainder of the skeleton. They go aboard a tramp steamer called the Rita, which is captained by a crusty old salt named Lucas. The expedition consists of David, Maia and Williams, as well as Reed's girlfriend Kay Lawrence and another scientist named Dr. Thompson. When they arrive at Dr. Maia's camp, however, they discover that his entire research team has been mysteriously killed while he was away. Lucas suggests it was done by a jaguar, but the others are unsure. The audience is privy to the attack upon the camp, which was committed by a living version of the fossil skeleton the scientists seek.

The excavation of the area where Maia found the hand turns up nothing. Mark is ready to give up the search, but David suggests that perhaps thousands of years ago the part of the embankment containing the rest of the skeleton fell into the water and was washed downriver. Lucas says that the tributary empties into a lagoon known as the "Black Lagoon," a paradise from which no one has ever returned. The scientists decide to risk it, unaware that the amphibious "Gill-man" that killed Dr. Maia's assistants earlier has been watching them. It, taking notice of the beautiful Kay, follows the Rita all the way downriver to the Black Lagoon. Once the expedition arrives, David and Mark go diving to collect fossils from the lagoon floor. After they return, Kay goes swimming and is stalked underwater by the gill man, who then gets briefly caught in one of the ship's draglines. Although he escapes, he leaves behind a claw in the net, revealing his existence to the scientists.

Subsequent encounters with the gill man claim the lives of two of Lucas' crew members, before the gill man is captured and locked in a cage on board the Rita. He escapes during the night and attacks Dr. Thompson, who was guarding him. Kay hits the gill man with a lantern; driving him off before he can kill Dr. Thompson. Following this incident, David decides they should return to civilization, but as the Rita tries to leave they find the entrance blocked by fallen logs, courtesy of the escaped gill man. Efforts to remove them result in Mark's death by drowning, whereupon the monster abducts Kay and takes her to his cavern lair. David, Lucas, and Dr. Maia give chase to try and rescue her; ultimately she is saved and the beast shot. Riddled with bullets and stabbed in the heart by David's dive knife, the gill man stumbles into the water and is last seen sinking into the depths of the Black Lagoon.

Cast

Production

According to producer William Alland, the idea behind the film was originally thought up by an unnamed Brazilian director whom he met at the house of Orson Welles. The unnamed man spoke of a friend of his who dissappeared in the Amazon in the attempt at filming a documentary on a rumoured population of fish people.[1]

The designer of the Gill-man was Disney animator Millicent Patrick, though her role was deliberately downplayed by make-up artist Bud Westmore, who for half a century would recieve sole credit for the creature's conception.[1]

The underwater sequences were filmed at Wakulla Springs in North Florida (today a state park), as were many of the rear projection images. Part of the film was shot in Jacksonville, Florida on the south side of the river near the foot of the old Acosta Bridge.

There were various designs for the creature. William Alland envisioned the creature as a "sad, beautiful monster" and the sculpture of it was much like that of an aquatic development of a human. Alland said, "It would still frighten you, but because how human it was, not the other way around." A design that was nearly used was a sleek, eel-like figure, which did not have as many bumps and gills of the final version. It was also rumored that the "eel-man" would have been female.

The underwater suit was painted yellow for greater visibility in the dark waters.[1]

Novelization

The actual film was novelized in 1977, in a paperback novel written by an unknown author under the pseudonym of "Carl Dreadstone," as part of a short-lived series of books based on the classic Universal horror films. It offers a completely different origin for the Gill Man, who in this version of the story is gigantic, almost as big as the Rita herself, weighing in at thirty tons, and is both coldblooded and warmblooded, is a hermaphrodite, and also possesses a long whiplike tail. The gigantic creature is dubbed "AA," for "Advanced Amphibian," by the expedition team members. After slaying most of the team members (see below), destroying a Sikorsky helicopter, and kidnapping Kay more than once, the creature is killed by the crew of a US Navy torpedo boat.

The novel also differs greatly where the human characters of the story are concerned. Only David Reed and Kay Lawrence remain the same. Mark Williams is a German man named "Bruno Gebhardt," and dies not as a result from drowning but by the monster falling on him. Lucas is named "Jose Goncalves Fonseca de Souza" and is a mostly sympathetic character until his suggestion of throwing the wounded and unconscious Reed to the monster makes an enraged Gebhardt/Williams throw him to the beast instead. Dr. Thompson and Dr. Maia both die grisly deaths whereas in the movie they survive; Maia is eaten by the monster, and Thompson is impaled on a long tree branch flung at him by the creature like a spear (in an apparent nod to a deleted scene from Revenge of the Creature wherein the Gill Man killed a guard in this fashion).

Remake

In 1982 John Landis was keen on getting Arnold to direct a remake of the film, and Nigel Kneale was commissioned to write a screenplay.[2] Kneale completed the script, which involved a pair of creatures, one destructive and the other calm and sensitive, being persecuted by the US Navy.[2] A decision to make the film in 3-D led to the film being cancelled by producers Universal, both for budgetary concerns and to avoid a clash with another 3-D film they had in production, Jaws 3-D. [2]

According to a featurette on the King Kong 3-disc Deluxe Extended Edition DVD, Universal gave Peter Jackson the option to remake one of two old monster films whilst working on The Frighteners in 1995; King Kong or Creature From The Black Lagoon. Jackson chose King Kong, as seeing it on television when he was nine years old had originally inspired him to become a filmmaker.

Legacy

  • Creature From The Black Lagoon was later made into a pinball game, designed by John Trudeau (AKA "Dr. Flash"), and released in 1992 by Midway (under the Bally brand name). This game has a 1950s drive-in / retro theme. It also features such 50s classic songs like Rock Around the Clock, Get a Job, and Summertime Blues. Completing side missions in the pinball game causes the screen to display "Universal Presents... Creature from the Black Lagoon", and then requires the player to chase after the monster just like in the film. The game sold 7,841 units.
IPDB listing for Creature from the Black Lagoon
see: Clack (1998) Nature 394: 66-69; and Clack (2001) Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 92, 75-95.
  • One of the underwater alien creatures in the X-COM: Terror from the Deep game shares great resemblance with the "Gill Man", apparently based on it as a tribute.
  • Multiple cartoons and movies needing classic horror extras have characters similar to the Gill-Man in the background.
  • The creature was often illustrated in movie posters etc. as having red lips and bright green skin, when in fact its skin was simply dark green.


See also

Template:Universal Horror


References

  1. ^ a b c Ferrari, Andrea (2003). Il Cinema Dei Mostri. p. 287. ISBN 88-435-9915-1.
  2. ^ a b c Murray, Andy (2006). Into the Unknown: The Fantastic Life of Nigel Kneale. London: Headpress. pp. pp. 154–156. ISBN 1-900486-50-4. {{cite book}}: |format= requires |url= (help); |pages= has extra text (help)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Creature_from_the_Black_Lagoon&oldid=177964289"