Creature From The Black Lagoon

United States

1954

79 Min

Black and White

English

Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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SCR Harry Essex, Arthur A. Ross, Maurice Zimm

CAST Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, Nestor Paiva, Whit Bissell, Bernie Gozier, Harry A. Escalante

MUSIC Henry Mancini, Hans J. Salter, Herman Stein

Synopsis

Richard Carlson, a staple of ‘50s monster flicks, plays scientist David Reed, who seeks to better understand the ways in which life moved from the sea to land in the world’s beginning. He and his lovely fiancé Kay (Julie Adams) are doing undersea research when they meet a friend and fellow scientist who has made a remarkable discovery. He has unearthed a fossilized hand of a humanoid amphibian in the Amazon, and the scientists, along with department head and financing specialist Mark Williams (Richard Denning) head up the Amazon to see what they can find. What they find is that the creature still exists, and has killed the native helpers left behind at the camp. Following the flow of the stream to where they think the rest of the fossilized remains will be, they enter the Black Lagoon, a paradise that no one has returned from. When Kay decides to take a solitary swim in the lagoon, the creature follows her, and apparently is quite smitten. In scenes that it seems Jaws paid homage to later, we see the creature approaching the beauty from below.

Finally the scientists find the creature, and the debate ensues. Mark would just as soon kill and stuff the creature while David wants to study him in his native habitat. It seems the creature will take that decision out of their hands as he seems only interested in capturing the beautiful Kay and killing anyone else who gets in his way. —DVDverdict.com

Director

Jack Arnold

Jack Arnold (October 14, 1912 – March 17, 1992) was an American television and film director, best known as one of the leading filmmakers of 1950s science fiction films.

Born Jack Arnold Waks in New Haven, Connecticut and as a child read a lot of science fiction books and magazines which would lead to his fandom of science fiction.

During World War II Arnold had intended to become a pilot but was placed in the Signal Corps. Whilst there he learned the tricks of filmmaking from Robert Flaherty.

Arnold directed a number of science fiction films starting in the 50s. The best known of these, the science fiction films It Came from Outer Space, Tarantula, Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Incredible Shrinking Man, are noted for their atmospheric black-and-white cinematography and unusually sophisticated scripts. Later in his career, he went to England to direct the early Peter Sellers film, The Mouse That Roared, in which Sellers played three roles, one of them in… read more

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mjgildea

21Mar13

More of a 2 1/2 out of 5 star movie for me. Creature of the Black Lagoon has a decent enough premise and the creature is pretty cool looking even 60 years later but the story just seemed kind of static about halfway in. I was entertained and the score was cool even it if was repetitive. Worth the watch but its not hard to tell why The Universal Monster Movie wasn't long for the world after this one.