Next to THEM!, Universal’s CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON is the single best monster movie to emerge from the 1950s. The studio’s Golden Age of Monsters (Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolfman, Invisible Man, and Mummy) had long since dried up, and it was time for the studio to chart new ground. Though Universal produced many genre films in the 1950’s, THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON became the only franchise of Universal’s Silver Age. The studio had the foresight to assign genre specialist Jack Arnold (THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, MONSTER ON CAMPUS) to direct their contemporary monster thriller, and the rest was history. Despite only two sequels, the Gillman remains the most highly recognized monster icon after Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolfman. After releasing DVD special editions of those three classic monster characters, Universal Home Video felt the time was right to release THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. Like those other early Universal Classic Monster DVDs, author and film historian David Skal produced the DVD and the supplements that accompany the film.

Richard (IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE) Carlson headlines the cast as Dr. David Reed, a levelheaded ichthyologist (fish expert). The super hot Julie (PSYCHIC KILLER) Adams portrays David’s love interest and assistant, Kay. Richard (THE BLACK SCORPION) Denning plays the greedy entrepreneur, Mark Williams, who funds the trip to the Amazon. Antonio (NOTORIOUS) Moreno is the scientist Carl Maia, who discovers the fossilized remains. Character actor Whit (HE WALKED BY NIGHT) Bissell plays adventurer Edwin Thompson, who accompanies the others to the Amazon. Ricou Browning portrays the Gillman underwater, and Ben Chapman plays him on land.

Paleontologist Carl Maia discovers the fossilized claw of some unidentified prehistoric species. He leaves his work crew (consisting of local natives) behind, and takes his find to Dr. David Reed and his assistant, Kay. After examining the evidence, the scientists determine that Carl has discovered the remains of an undocumented lifeform. Mark Williams offers to fund an expedition back to the Amazon to search for more evidence. Mark convinces the scientific professionals to join the expedition by appealing to their scientific nature—they don’t realize he has his own agenda. Mark charters a jungle boat led by Lucas and his crew, who take them into the heart of the Amazon. Upon returning to Carl’s camp, they discover the remains of his slaughtered crew. Mark prods the stunned crew into continuing onward. David and Mark don their diving gear and head underwater, where they procure rock samples for Carl to study.

When they return with the minerals, Carl determines the rock samples come from the same time period as the fossilized remains he discovered. So they continue onward deeper into the mysterious Black Lagoon, which looks unchanged since the Jurassic age. Soon as they drop anchor, strange things start to happen (like large holes ripped through their nets), that clue them in that they are not alone in this remote location. Sure enough, when the crew is distracted, the prehistoric Gillman climbs aboard the ship and massacres Lucas’s native crewmen, then retreats into the brackish waters. David and Mark go underwater again, this time to kill the creature with a speargun. They locate the Gillman and shoot it, and thinking it dead, they return to the boat. But the creature is smarter (and hornier) then everyone thinks. The creature does away with the crew members one-by-one, biding it’s time until it can capture the target of its affection, Kay. When David, Kay, Mark, and Lucas realize their desperate situation and attempt to escape—it’s too late. The mighty creature from the Black Lagoon has set up an underwater blockade, halting their attempts to leave the lagoon. In order to escape with their lives, they must find a way to overpower or outsmart the Gillman.

Right from the opening moments, where the Gillman’s claw slowly emerges from the brine (accompanied by his throbbing trademark music), to the lamentable conclusion, THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON just fires on all cylinders. This is due, in no small part, to the masterful direction of Jack Arnold. Arnold uses lots of underwater photography to differentiate the world of mortal men, and the underwater realm of the Black Lagoon. To further add to this effect, when the viewer goes underwater with the characters (or the Gillman), no sounds are heard. Instead, Arnold layers the score into the underwater visuals, which creates a picture in the viewers minds that they are witnessing something truly exotic. Then the director employs trick editing to great effect. What could have been formula genre product in less capable hands, is now the stuff of legends thanks to the talented cast and crew. Richard Carlson is one of the few people who could pull off the prettyboy scientist role, but he did it with authority. Richard Denning is perfect as David’s rival—so smug and arrogant in his portrayal of Mark Williams. Nestor Paivia steals the show as Brazilian boat captain Lucas (and is the only actor to reprise his role for the sequel). Oh, and let’s not forget the truly memorable performance of Julia Adams, who even looks great with that one-piece bathing suit hiding her goods (it is too bad the script did not utilize her character better). Whit Bissell is also worth mentioning as the pipe-smoking Edwin Thompson. The combined efforts of Ricou Browning and Ben Chapman (along with Bud Westmore’s monster suit) make the Gillman one of the most menacing and realistic monsters in the history of cinema.

The winning combination of Harry Essex and Arthur Ross produce a great script with only a few shortcomings. Their script is laced with scientific possibilities and probabilities, which must have been current in the Cold War days of the 1950s. Their character definition is well above average for a genre film of this era, including a subtle love triangle between David, Mark, and Kay. Interestedly, there is some depth and conflict to the characters. David is intelligent, straight-laced, and takes risks for the benefit of the scientific world. Mark is equally intelligent, but only takes risks for the betterment of himself. Mark plans to capture the Gillman and exploit it for his own profit. This leads to tension between David and Mark, which eventually brings them into conflict. The scriptwriters drop the ball a bit with the character of Kay. She is college educated with a scientific and business acumen, yet when the Gillman shows up, Kay becomes the token female in peril, with not much else to do besides scream and run. Luckily, the talents and physical presence of Julie Adams redeems the character. There is also some sexual subtext between Kay and the Gillman. We know the Gillman wants to possess her, but the scene in which the creature swims beneath her floating breasts must have been fairly risqué for the squeaky clean 1950s. Later he kidnaps her and takes her back to his bachelor pad, err, underwater cavern (no wonder the Gillman gets upset when David shows up to ruin his date). Essex and Ross wrap it all up with a stern environmental message, about interfering and disrespecting nature. Check out the scene where Kay throws her cigarette into the lagoon, and it pisses off the Gillman just below the surface of the waters.

-  Darren Collette