The most maligned of the Universal Classic Monsters is probably The Creature from the Black Lagoon. He was last to the scene, directed by the same director that made giant spider movies like Tarantula, and was an original property. He wasn’t involved in any of the monster mash-ups and never scared Lou Costello. On top of all that, the Gill Man had only three, that’s right, only three movies made.
I came at the Creature in a kind of roundabout way. In the 80’s, a local UHF station was promoting that they were going to show the sequel to The Creature from the Black Lagoon in FULL 3-D. The movie was called Revenge of the Creature with John Agar (also from Tarantula), Lori Nelson and Ricou Browning as the swimming Gill Man. I put on my red and green glasses and got prepared for full anaglyph 3-D mayhem.
Now, this may not have been the first time I saw the movie or the Gill Man, but to me, it seemed like it was. The 3-D was surprisingly good on our 19 inch Panasonic color TV as I recorded it with our Sharp (front loader…not a top loader!) VHS for me to watch, approximately 300 times. I just fell in love with the movie. I loved the cameo by Clint Eastwood. I loved the stilted line readings. (Agar sounds like he is reading ad copy for a radio spot with every line and Nelson is even more extreme.) Most of all, though, I loved those great underwater sequences with fish swimming every which way and cattle prods coming right out of the screen.
So later, I visited the original The Creature from the Black Lagoon (flat) and realized that it was a much better movie…even without the 3D. So then the hunt was on. I had to find it in 3D! Eventually, I did, and it was everything I hoped. Gorgeous Julie Adams was cute enough on the flat version, but she was MADE for 3D! The scene where she swims above the Gill Man immediately showed me where Steven Spielberg got the inspiration for the similar shots in Jaws. I loved the movie and realized something else…
This might be the only “classic” Universal Monster movie that actually still has some scares in it. Yes, it is completely dated. But due to its familiarity and lack of any real rules, it seemed more dangerous. More untamed and wild. More chilling.
Frankenstein was some green dude with radio control knobs on his neck. Dracula was an Eurotrash aristocrat that went around giving girls hickies. The Wolf Man was not in control of his situation at all and went through a male menstrual cycle from hell. The Mummy…that dude was a lame medical experiment with bandages.
Naw. The Gill Man. That was the guy. He was scary. He was unbelievably fast (underwater). He had strength on par with Superman. He had razor sharp, blade like claws.
And he liked the ladies. And Julie Adams…she was a lady and then some!
But all these years, I never saw the third, and final, canon Black Lagoon creature feature: The Creature Walks Among Us. The first act of the film is actually pretty darn good, and Leigh Snowden was a fetching addition to the Gill Man Girls (wasn’t that a CW television series?) but it goes horribly awry when then take the fish out of water. This change to what made our damp demon so creepy in the first place…it just kind of took all the joy out of watching this eco-warrior go to town on unscrupulous types wanting to cash in on the fishman.
The first two films are still classics and if you watch them back to back, you basically have King Kong as done by the Little Mermaid. And what can be wrong with that?
The Creature from the Black Lagoon
Grade: A
Revenge of the Creature
Grade: B+
The Creature Walks Among Us
Grade: C