Growing up being introduced to movies, I was never a huge fan of horror or science fiction movies pretty much across the board. What drew me in though was a series of books released in the 1970s that I found stashed away at the local library. All the great horror and science fiction movies were turned into books for teens, usually about 40 or 50 pages long that were probably adjusted right from the script and featured heavy use of stills from the movie. I don't know how many times I took out these books, but 'Black Lagoon' had to be my favorite one. Then, when I actually watched the movie, I loved it even more.
On an expedition on the Amazon deep into South America, a scientist, Carl Maja (Antonio Moreno) finds an odd specimen, a fossilized hand that seems to have come from a half-man, half-amphibian creature. He seeks the help of two marine institute scientists, Dr. David Reed (Richard Carlson) and Dr. Mark Williams (Richard Denning) and David's assistant/girlfriend, Kay (Julie Adams) who intrigued by his find join him in returning into the dense, remote jungle. On board the 'Rita,' Capt. Lucas (Nestor Paiva) steers them toward the find, warning them of legends and rumors of the area, explorers disappearing never to be heard from again. But as they search for more evidence of this natural oddity, the group finds that the creature is still very much alive and not too pleased that his home is being invaded.
The coolest thing about this horror classic -- and its two inferior if entertaining sequels -- is of course, the actual creature. The visual is great, the half-amphibian, half-man creature who moves through the water like a fish but is able to walk up on dry land too (if briefly, he does have gills and all). The creature ends up falling madly in love with Adams' Kay (think King Kong on a smaller level) and basically gets pissed off to the point where he tries to kill all his invaders. It is helped that every time the creature is on screen, he's supported with this booming "Dun-dun-duh!" soundtrack queue. Subtle this is not, but always entertaining. It's a different sort of creature feature, and a new way to go as opposed to known baddies like Dracula, Frankenstein, or Wolfman. On land, Ben Chapman plays him while underwater director/actor/specialist Ricou Browning handles the underwater duties. The Creature is cool, enough said.
With these old school creature features, there is a cheese factor that adds to the overall appeal of the flick. These were movies made on a smaller level with a smallish budget. I'm guessing a lot of that budget probably went to making the creature's suits. The dialogue is stilted, the sets look to be back lot type sets, and it's never actually scary. A couple surprises? Sure, but no jump out of your seat scares. The dialogue ends up being funny, the backlot sets end up being pretty cool (claustrophobic and closed in), and the creature's slow entrances could be a drinking game of sorts if viewers so chose. It all adds up to this great finished product, a cheesy movie that's better because of all those contributing factors. Epic moviemaking this is not, but fun, mindless entertainment? Hard to beat.
Completely committing to this story is a cast that looks to be having a ball, long, awkward stares, delivering lines in all seriousness when they could have (and still are to a point) laughable. B-movie star Richard Carlson is the lead, sympathetic and wooden all rolled into one. He doesn't approve of what they're doing to the creature...until he messes with his girl, the beautiful Julie Adams. Her swim scene is a classic, a predecessor to Ursula Andress in Dr. No. It was so memorable, her legs were even insured by the movie studio. Watch the scene, and you'll understand. As for the rest of the cast, Denning is Carlson's counterpart, dollar signs in his eyes and fame on the horizon. Moreno's Carl recedes into the background as the movie goes along, Paiva steals his scenes as the boisterous Capt. Lucas, and Whit Bissell is a doctor doomed to be attacked because he serves no other purpose in the movie. Even look for Perry Lopez as one of Carl's local helpers, but look quick, he gets killed right away.
Not a ton else to say about Creature from the Black Lagoon. It's by no means a classic movie, and it fully deserves its B-movie status, albeit classic B-movie status. Of course because it is a popular movie from the past, discussions are in the works to make a remake of the horror classic. I'll be curious to see in what direction that remake goes, but I still can't help but wonder. Why mess with something that wasn't broken in the first place? The original is about as good as it gets so stick with this one.
Creature from the Black Lagoon <---trailer (1954): *** 1/2 /****
No comments:
Post a Comment