THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

US, 1954, 79 minutes, Black and white.
Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno.
Directed by Jack Arnold.

The Creature from the Black Lagoon was a small-budget film from Universal Studios in the 1950s. It was made originally in 3D. However, it has become something of a classic (with intentions for a 21st century remake).

The success of the film depends very much on the cinematography, the musical score, the editing and pace, more exciting than horrific. It also depended on the economic skills of Jack Arnold as a director. Arnold was to direct the sequel, The Revenge of the Creature (which featured an uncredited Clint Eastwood as a lab technician), 1955. He made a number of feature films in the 1950s including No Name on the Bullet, The Lady Takes a Flyer and, surprisingly, the Peter Sellers vehicle, The Mouse That Roared. In the next twenty years, he directed television series, a range of series including Rawhide and Gilligan’s Island.

The plot outline of this film sounds very much akin to that of King Kong. Richard Carlson and Richard Denning portray two scientists in the Amazon, along with Julie Adams who is meant to scream whenever the creature comes about, in the Fay Wray fashion. Richard Carlson is sympathy, Richard Denning is more like a hunter. They dispute what to do with the creature who appears and the rest of the plot is rather familiar as they deal with the creature. Swimmer-diver Ricou Browning, portrayed the gill-man in the underwater sequences.

This was the kind of film that Universal Studios did very well and efficiently in the 1950s.

1. A good horror science fiction film? The trend of the early fifties with such monsters, the use of three dimension processes? The reputation of these films later and their higher regard?

2. Audience interest and response to horror, fear, the confrontation with monsters, their appearance, threats? How well did this film present and utilize this response?

3. The themes of exploration. the contract of an ancient world with a modern world, the sense of wonder, confrontation, power, knowledge? Seekers of knowledge, exploiters?

4. The technical aspects of the film: the makeup for the Gill Man and his appearances, especially his webbed hands? The fights? The 3-D effects? The contriving of scenes for these effects such as sudden shocks, objects thrown at the audience? Was this too gimmicky or effective for this kind of film?

5. The film presupposing audience response to conventions about the Amazon, exploration, stock characters on such expeditions, the expected dangers and good results? Could the audience easily identify with the expedition crew, with David, against Mark? With Kay? The film not wasting time on a lot of delineation of character but moving straightforwardly into the plot?

6. The significance and tone of the introduction about evolution, the theme of the wonders of the universe and development? The Amazon as a scene of combining old and new? Beauty and terror? Primitive and modern? The search for the fossils and their indications of the evolution of creation?

7. The theme of the confrontation with the power of the old world, its energy, privacy, violence? Primitive? Moderns confronting the primitive?

8. The theme of the hunter with his modern power and weapons and exploitation attitudes versus the seeker of knowledge? David and Mark as representing these two types? Their verbal clashes, handling of the situation, Mark's continued firing at the monster, David photographing it and wanting it preserved?


9. The irony of the plot that the monster had to be killed so that the moderns could survive? Is this the image of evolution and the so-called survival of the fittest? Why has the Gill Man lasted so long? Why was he to be killed by the moderns?

10. The picture of the creature - at peace in his black lagoon, his confrontation with people and his primitive violent killing, his human qualities, beast qualities? The pathos of his almost humanity? The confrontation with Kay and the echoes of the theme of Beauty and the Beast, his not killing her, his merely touching her in the water, his final taking of her? His fights with the men, his being persecuted, his persecuting in return? His intelligence in order to preserve himself? his being drugged, shot at? His final gesture? The pathos of his death? The melodramatic music used for his appearances?

11. The contrast between David and Mark? David presented sympathetically as the researcher, the earnest hero, in love with Kay? His attitudes towards science, the monster, saving the ship rather than killing the monster? The irony that he was to kill him finally? Mark and his exploitation, the use of science for his own power and reputation? His disregard of feelings, impulsiveness? The inevitability of the monster killing him?

12. Kay as heroine, her capacity for research, being the occasion for dramatic sequences for example when she went swimming, the appearance of the monster at the porthole and her screaming, her being captured? The romantic aspects of the plot?

13. Carl and his research, the discovery of the tonsil at the beginning, his presence in the expedition? Dr. Thompson and his research, a peaceful man, his mauling by the monster, the threat at the porthole? Lucas and his South American wisdom and practicality? The crow and their being killed?

14. The contribution of scenery, the underwater photography, the atmosphere of the Amazon? How authentic did it seem? The beauty and interest of the 3-D effects and their contribution to the atmosphere?

15. The perennial interest of this kind of story and variations on its theme, the broadening of horizons, the contribution to science fiction?