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Universal made good on their promise to send me a replacement disc for Creature from the Black Lagoon, so I'm finally able to finish up my marathon with this final trilogy.
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
A refreshing fresh take on horror after the declining quality of the House team-ups and A&C comedies. This movie feels much more "modern", with a heavy emphasis on the scientific nature of the Gill Man, rather than the supernatural. The writers clearly wanted it to feel that way; they even compare his discovery to that of the atomic bomb. There have also been some pretty impressive costuming upgrades since the early days of this franchise with a big rubber suit that looks pretty good even in still images, and which remarkably doesn't disintegrate or get too waterlogged when filming underwater. It still must have been hard to swim in, though, because a stunt man (Ricou Browning) plays the Gill Man underwater, with actor Ben Chapman assuming the role on land/boat. The underwater filming is also pretty impressive for the time, and must have been showcasing a new camera technology. As Jrzag42 pointed out, this movie was originally released in 3D, and my Blu-ray even has the option to play it in 2D or 3D, but unfortunately I don't have a 3D TV so I wasn't able to take advantage of that. I don't actually have much to say about the plot; it's pretty simple: Some geologists are exploring the Amazon looking for fossils and instead find the Gill Man, who kills almost everybody, and abducts the only woman in the movie. She eventually gets rescued, and the Gill Man is shot and presumably dies. Even though there is only one female character, and she does kind of become a damsel in distress, this movie does at least make a point that she is also a scientist and the intellectual equal of her boyfriend and the other scientists. As good as the effects and filming is, this story remind me mostly of the Mummy movies, with a lumbering silent killer walking around and killing kind of at random, with the end goal of abducting a woman (though for different reasons). I like it better than the Kharis movies, but not nearly as much as the original Imhotep version.
Revenge of the Creature (1955)
This movie was also filmed and originally released in 3D, and my Blu-ray has both options, which again I am unable to make use of. Jrzag42 and I must have different versions of the discs, because mine was in widescreen like the first one. While this is a direct sequel to the first movie, the only characters to come back are the boat captain and the Gill Man himself. The captain is played by the same actor (Nestor Paiva) and the underwater Gill Man is still played by Browning, but for above-water scenes he is played this time by Tom Hennesy. We also get a very young Clint Eastwood in his first film role as a lab tech! Apparently the Gill Man survived getting shot at the end of the first movie, and another crew of scientists come to capture him. The new cast is fine, but they largely feel like one-for-one replacements of the original, and I wonder if that was the original plan but the actors didn't want to come back for a sequel. If it had shared the same cast, I think both this movie and the first could be improved by trimming some of the overly-long underwater scenes and combining the two into a more complete story. The two movies combined only have a running time of 2:41, so I bet we could have put together a pretty tight two-hourish movie. Again, this sequel feels very Mummy-ish, and the post-capture scenes at the Oceanarium remind me of the SeaWorld setting of Jaws 3D, although I guess that should be the other way around since this movie predates it by 28 years! While not particularly bad, this sequel with the swapped out cast feels totally unnecessary, and coming out 14 months after the original, it must have been rushed into production. One other little bit of trivia, Myster Science Theater 3000 used this as their first episode after moving to the Sci-Fi Channel, although I don't think I've ever seen it.
The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)
Another rushed sequel, this time only 11 months after the last one and with no shared cast except for Browning in the underwater scenes again. This movie really is pointless and a big drop in quality. There's no reason at all they should expect to be able to find the Creature just knowing that it's somewhere in the Everglades, even with their fancy fish radar. The ocean is big. I also don't like that after two movies with strong female characters, Marcia is just used as an object of jealousy here. And the whole idea of turning him into a man is just stupid. What a sad end to the franchise (but still better than the dreadful A&C "comedies").
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
A refreshing fresh take on horror after the declining quality of the House team-ups and A&C comedies. This movie feels much more "modern", with a heavy emphasis on the scientific nature of the Gill Man, rather than the supernatural. The writers clearly wanted it to feel that way; they even compare his discovery to that of the atomic bomb. There have also been some pretty impressive costuming upgrades since the early days of this franchise with a big rubber suit that looks pretty good even in still images, and which remarkably doesn't disintegrate or get too waterlogged when filming underwater. It still must have been hard to swim in, though, because a stunt man (Ricou Browning) plays the Gill Man underwater, with actor Ben Chapman assuming the role on land/boat. The underwater filming is also pretty impressive for the time, and must have been showcasing a new camera technology. As Jrzag42 pointed out, this movie was originally released in 3D, and my Blu-ray even has the option to play it in 2D or 3D, but unfortunately I don't have a 3D TV so I wasn't able to take advantage of that. I don't actually have much to say about the plot; it's pretty simple: Some geologists are exploring the Amazon looking for fossils and instead find the Gill Man, who kills almost everybody, and abducts the only woman in the movie. She eventually gets rescued, and the Gill Man is shot and presumably dies. Even though there is only one female character, and she does kind of become a damsel in distress, this movie does at least make a point that she is also a scientist and the intellectual equal of her boyfriend and the other scientists. As good as the effects and filming is, this story remind me mostly of the Mummy movies, with a lumbering silent killer walking around and killing kind of at random, with the end goal of abducting a woman (though for different reasons). I like it better than the Kharis movies, but not nearly as much as the original Imhotep version.
Revenge of the Creature (1955)
This movie was also filmed and originally released in 3D, and my Blu-ray has both options, which again I am unable to make use of. Jrzag42 and I must have different versions of the discs, because mine was in widescreen like the first one. While this is a direct sequel to the first movie, the only characters to come back are the boat captain and the Gill Man himself. The captain is played by the same actor (Nestor Paiva) and the underwater Gill Man is still played by Browning, but for above-water scenes he is played this time by Tom Hennesy. We also get a very young Clint Eastwood in his first film role as a lab tech! Apparently the Gill Man survived getting shot at the end of the first movie, and another crew of scientists come to capture him. The new cast is fine, but they largely feel like one-for-one replacements of the original, and I wonder if that was the original plan but the actors didn't want to come back for a sequel. If it had shared the same cast, I think both this movie and the first could be improved by trimming some of the overly-long underwater scenes and combining the two into a more complete story. The two movies combined only have a running time of 2:41, so I bet we could have put together a pretty tight two-hourish movie. Again, this sequel feels very Mummy-ish, and the post-capture scenes at the Oceanarium remind me of the SeaWorld setting of Jaws 3D, although I guess that should be the other way around since this movie predates it by 28 years! While not particularly bad, this sequel with the swapped out cast feels totally unnecessary, and coming out 14 months after the original, it must have been rushed into production. One other little bit of trivia, Myster Science Theater 3000 used this as their first episode after moving to the Sci-Fi Channel, although I don't think I've ever seen it.
The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)
Another rushed sequel, this time only 11 months after the last one and with no shared cast except for Browning in the underwater scenes again. This movie really is pointless and a big drop in quality. There's no reason at all they should expect to be able to find the Creature just knowing that it's somewhere in the Everglades, even with their fancy fish radar. The ocean is big. I also don't like that after two movies with strong female characters, Marcia is just used as an object of jealousy here. And the whole idea of turning him into a man is just stupid. What a sad end to the franchise (but still better than the dreadful A&C "comedies").
