THE REVENGE OF THE CREATURE

US, 1955, 82 minutes, Black and white.
John Agar, Lori Nelson.
Directed by Jack Arnold.

The Revenge of the Creature is a sequel to The Creature From The Black Lagoon. It has the same director, Jack Arnold, who was to make such films as The Incredible Shrinking Man (as well as the excellent comedy The Mouse That Roared). The film is brief, seems to borrow most of its plot from King Kong, has quite a deal of encyclopaedia dialogue - as well as a discussion about women and their careers and the possibilities for men and women that anticipates discussion of later decades. Of interest, Clint Eastwood appears in a brief scene towards the beginning of the film.

1. Popular science fiction films of the 1950s? Monsters? The plot from King Kong?

2. B-budget production, the Amazon, Florida, aquariums?

3. The plausibility of the plot, the Encyclopaedia Britannica kind of dialogue and explanations about evolution, monsters? The gill man? Fear, journalists, scientists, gun-happy Americans?

4. The opening with the Amazon, the finding of the gill man, his capture, injury, coma?

5. The gill man - at home in the Amazon, suspicion of humans, in captivity, the attacks, the tests, escape, taking Helen, needing the water, the pathos of his being shot? The parallel with King Kong, even visually?

6. Clete and his scientific background, ability, hero? Helen and her scientific language? her being taken by the gill man? Working with Clete for tests? Joe and his help, death?

7. The world of the scientists and their investigations? Tourists and the aquariums? Journalists and their scoops? Ordinary people - and their being scared by monsters?

8. The attitudes towards science, evolution, monsters in the films of the 1950s? Pop science fiction?