Guest Review #2: Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954)

Bookie's Guest Review #2:


Cast/Notable Credits:
Jack Arnold (Director) - It Came From Outer Space (1953), The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Jack Carlson (David Reed): It Came From Outer Space
Julia Adams (Kay Lawrence): Lost T.V. series
Richard Denning (Mark Williams)
Nester Paiva (Lucas)
Ricou Browning (The Creature in water)
Ben Chapman (The Creature on land)

Trailer:


Lucas: I can tell you something about this place. The boys around here call it "The Black Lagoon"; a paradise. Only they say nobody has ever come back to prove it.

Out in the Amazon, a scientist finds a fossilized hand that may be a link to an evolutionary fork in the road. As he brings this to the attention to Drs. Reed and Williams, his camp, and all his stereotypes…er…assistants…are massacred by something mysterious. The scientific team, including Reed’s main squeeze, Kay, arrive and find a living Fish-man-thing! A Fish-man-thing who is madly in love with Kay! A disagreement follows, as Reed initially wants to go back for reinforcements and Williams dreams of the headlines for him if he brings back the Gillman alive. Williams wins out, but at the cost of most of the boat crew, and a couple of fellow scientists. Lucas and Reed try to lead an escape, but The Gillman, a hopeless (murderous) romantic at heart, blocks the river, and kidnaps Kay. The scientists rescue Kay, shoot the creature, stab him in the heart (symbolism!), and then the creature sinks into the lagoon, fate unknown (sequel!).

Bookie’s Take: Full Disclosure-
Creature from the Black Lagoon was originally a 3-D movie; In fact, it’s held by most historians as one of the most famous 3-D movies of that era. BUT….I have never seen it in 3-D. I have seen it in glorious 2-D, and It has remained one of my favorite 50’s genre movies. Why? Not because of the cast. They’re all fine, but largely paint-by-numbers; Carlson made a career of playing good-hearted scientists, Denning does a adequate job of making you dislike him when he goes crazy with the thought of capturing the Gillman, and Julia Adams (pictured right) is pretty much what you would expect from the female lead in these movies. (Hottie + Good Scream = Monster Bait)

The one deviation is Paiva, who does elevate Lucas above the normal 50’s ethnic type, if only slightly. Arnold’s direction also falls into the “good, but not great” category, He does much better in “It Came from Outer Space” and “The Incredible Shrinking Man”; “Creature” has its moments, but the visual elements are not awe-inspiring, with one major exception.

That exception is one of the reasons that I love “Creature”. The underwater scenes pop, like no other movie up to that point. Unlike the rest of the movie, all underwater scenes were filmed on location in Florida, and it shows on the screen. The sub aquatic moment that everybody remembers, and rightly so, is the “dance” between an unsuspecting Kay, under the impression she’s swimming alone, and the Gillman, inches below her, mimicking her moves. This is arguably one of the top 5 scenes in 50’s sci-fi/horror, and it sets up the unrequited love story that dominates the rest of the movie. “Black Lagoon” did not invent the monster love story category (That would be King Kong), but it may have come closer to perfecting it than anybody.

The other reason I enjoy “Lagoon” so much is extremely simple, but unbelievable important; The Monster. The Gillman looks so much better than other monsters of the era that, honestly, it’s unfair. The majority of 50’s beasts are not well put together, usually more attention given to the face than the rest of the body (leading to many “find the zipper” games), and lacking the little details that make the difference. The “Creature”, however, is terrifically designed, with foam pieces glued to a wet suit, and given touches that bring him to life. The Creature’s breathing, made by air bladders on the gills, give him the appearance that on land, he’s gasping for every breath as he stalks his victim, which is a truly creepy effect. It is the attention to detail like this that makes “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” one of the best genre movies of its era, and a fitting addition to the Universal monster pantheon.

3 Lessons I learned from “Creature from the Black Lagoon”.
1. ♫Creature’s got People Fever♫, ♫Creature’s got People Fever♫

2. Julia Adams’s bathing suit is really pointy. Before you accuse me of being a pig (Correct!), watch the movie (or look at the picture to the right). Her suit is literally pointy. Was this the fashion back then? Why aren’t there more men with eye-patches?

3. Lucas is, by far, the most interesting person on the boat. It’s not even close. If there were a TV show back then where Lucas went around, helping gringos make interesting scientific discoveries and generally being a wise Latin bad-ass, yeah, I’d watch that. If they made that show now, I’d watch that. Somebody get Aaron Sorkin on the phone.


Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Film opened on March 5, 1954 and made $1.5 million at the Box Office
-Ricou Browning had to hold his breath for over four minutes underwater to hide possible air bubbles during filming
-Originally produced in 3-D
-The creature appeared on an episode of the Munsters T.V. show as Uncle Gilbert

Special thanks to Book and his reviews!

* Guest Review #1 Link *

Guest Review #1: Forbidden Planet (1956)

Forbidden Planet is the first of many guest reviews to come. Bookie, my fellow horror fan...he he...loves old 50-60's sci-fi movies and has been begging to be published on my site. Begging. On hands and knees. Well maybe not. Actually, we both agreed a while back for him to write a review for his favorite genre, older sci-fi movies. They may not be considered horror..."at least from a certain point of view"...but oh well at least we're going to bring back memories of cheesy sci-fi movies. All of us remember...at least most of us...the dryer hose tubes spray painted black for robot arms, the generic model space ships dangling on a string to simulate space travel, the shiny metallic box-looking props with flashing lights to portray future technology and the horrible man-in-suit monsters that look like your grandmother's wardrobe mixed with feathers and tree leaves. Yeah we remember. Note: the scoring categories have been tweaked a little bit to adjust for the "lack of" slashings and TNA. So here we go and enjoy!

Bookie's Forbidden Planet Review:




Cast/Notable Credits:
Fred M. Wilcox (Director): Lassie Come Home (1943)

Walter Pidgeon (Dr. Morbius): Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961)

Anne Francis (Alta): The Rocketman (1954)

Leslie Nielson (Commander Adams): Airplane (1980), Prom Night, Creepshow (1982), The Naked Gun 1 (1988), 2 (1991), 3 (1994), Scary Movie 3 (2003) & 4 (2006)

Warren Stevens (Doc Ostrow): Cyborg 2087 (1966)

Robby the Robot (Himself)

Commander John J. Adams: "Nice climate you have here. High oxygen content."

Robby the Robot: "I seldom use it myself, sir. It promotes rust."

Plot: United Planets Cruiser C57-D (pictured right) is out to check on the colonists on the planet Altair-IV. Upon arrival, they find one colonist (Dr. Morbius) remaining, along with his young daughter (Alta), and the most kickass robot ever. Morbius informs Adams and his crew that everybody else was slaughtered by some invisible force. While Morbius shows Adams and company the ancient, and long dead, alien civilization he has been studying, the crew finds itself under attack from an unknown force. Are the aliens actually alive, or is there something far more dark and sinister at work? (Hint: the second one)

Direction (15/20 points):
Wilcox does a pretty good job with this one, considering his previous credits are basically 3 Lassie movies. Of course, this is one of the few 50’s sci-fi movies with a large budget thrown at it, and it shows in some of the effects, camera work, and such. It’s been argued that the pace of the film works against it, but really it serves to highlight the attention to detail that “Forbidden” takes, compared to most other genre films of the day.

Cast/Acting (18/20 points):
If you’re a Gen-Xer, like me, it might surprise you that Leslie Nielson was young once, and starred in serious roles. He does pretty well, as does Pidgeon, who fits the egotistic, intelligent scientist role perfectly. Anne Francis wears many short skirts (woo hoo!), and Robbie the Robot is the best mechanized creation to ever appear in movies (screw you, Johnny 5!)

Visual/Sound (20/20):
This is where the movie’s bread and butter lie. The visual effects are amazing for it’s time, especially considering the fact that many of the effects are drawn on the screen. We don’t spend much time in space, which still looks terrific compare to its peers, but once the ship lands on Altair, that’s when the visuals kick into Technicolor awesomeness. Everything from the green tint of the sky to the architecture of the alien Krell’s giant underground machine, gives an otherworldly feel to “Forbidden”, as does the electro-synthetic score, which was a first in movies, and fits well with the feel of “Forbidden”.

Story (18/20):
This is not your usual “blow up the monster” sci-fi. In fact, it’s loosely based on Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”. Most of the genre movies of this era pulled the “Is mankind moving to fast for it’s own good?” card, but this is really the first one to advance past the “gee whiz, nuclear power’s gonna destroy us all!” ethos and present the larger issue- When the human race takes a developmental step forward, we don’t leave our deepest problems behind.

Intangibles (Bookie Factor?) (19/20):
Whether “Forbidden Planet” is the best of 50’s sci-fi is up for argument; certainly it has to be in the discussion. While I wouldn’t put it at the top of the list, it’s top 5, and a glowing example of what could be done with science fiction with a budget and a good story. All science fiction fans should watch this movie.

3 Lessons I learned from “Forbidden Planet”:
1. Women love power, even if they’ve been completely sheltered their whole lives on some backwoods planet and never even seen another man except for daddy.

2. When the human mind expands beyond mere mortal thoughts, into the strata of transcendent reasoning, one cannot expect to hold back the sub-conscious monster that lurks within all men, and eventually the mind will lash out at all, leaving a wake of destruction in its trail. In other words, don’t f__k with Morbius.

3. Super Intelligent Robot + Alcoholic Space Cook = Comedy Gold!