Review #170: 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' (1954)

When a geology expedition headed by Dr. Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno) uncovers the fossilised hand of a giant sea/man creature, Maia recruits marine biologist Dr. David Reed (Richard Carlson) on another expedition back to the Amazon to find the remaining skeleton of the strange beast. They get the funding they need, and take a journey aboard a steamer along with a ragtag gang including Dr. Williams (Richard Denning), who may be in love with Reed's lady Kay (Julia Adams). When arriving at the site, they find the former camp decimated, and a dead body. An ancestor of the fossilised 'gill-man' may be lingering in the water with murder and terror in mind.

Of all the monster 'creature-features' that flowed out of the 1950's, that mainly consisted of a man dressed up in a badly made suit or a leftover from a previous films' wardrobe department, the most iconic has to be the image of the gill-man carrying Kay, or coming out of the water. These films were quick and cheap to make, always had an eager marketplace, and were ripe for over-elaborate posters that were usually always far better than the film was ever going to be. The gill-man image is well remembered not only because it's a pretty cool costume, but also because Creature From The Black Lagoon is actually a good film.

The creature-feature genre is always restricted to its formulaic plot devices and tick-boxes of screaming girlfriend, square-jawed hero, and a generally non-threatening monster than you could easily run away from if in real-life or had at least half a brain. But what places Black Lagoon above the vast majority is the fact that it makes the most of these restrictions. The monster itself, although clearly a man in a suit, is genuinely quite creepy. The scene where he watches motionless from his underwater cage, his mouth slowly opening and closing like that of a fish, is unnerving.

The Amazonian backdrop is captured with a flair that goes beyond the film's budget limitations by cinematographer William E. Synder, something of a B-movie regular, and the underwater shots are mysterious and sometimes beautiful, as the two lead macho men battle with the gill-man and each other's testosterone. But most importantly, its riotously entertaining stuff, which differs from most pictures in the genre that usually have one entertaining scene surrounded by bad acting and boring plotting. It was never going to be anything more than very good, given it's limitations, but it is, and makes me sad to think that modern films will never be able to capture this sort of innocent charm.


Directed by: Jack Arnold
Starring: Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie