Creature from the Black Lagoon
Growing up, my mode of exercise was swimming - which is ironic because I am afraid of water. I had no problem with pools but I had an overactive imagination and with the monotony of laps, eventually my brain would start conjuring up all kinds of nastiness. It did not help that I swam in a place where it got dark fairly early and the pool was not that well-lit.
At primary school, they had a sale of old library books. I saw a book there about this movie and a friend bought it for me for a penny. It summarised the plots of all three Creature movies, with stills from the movie, and a making-off section at the back.
In this refracted way, the Creature found its way into my brain, and occasionally into that dimly lit pool I used to swim at.
While I have made my way through various kinds of horror films, I have not seen that many set underwater - I only watched Jaws for the first time about a year ago.
I have been wanting to check out more classic horror on the big screen, and I had a feeling eventually I would finally get to see the Gillman in the flesh. My local arthouse recently put on a selection of Universal’s classic Monster movies, and I booked in for Creature.
The last of Universal's classic monsters, Creature from the Black Lagoon is also an icon of the fifties trend of monster movies. It occupies an interesting place in the canon, because when it was released the characters the Creature is now associated with - Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, the Invisible Man - were now fodder for parody in the Abbott and Costello films.
While it is set in the fifties, and draws on some contemporary technology, the bones of the story, with the creature’s tragic pursuit of a human woman, are closer to the pathos of Karloff’s Monster, Chaney’s Wolfman and King Kong of decades past.
As far as the technical aspects go, Creature is really eye-catching. The movie was made for 3D, but I only noticed one or two moments that overtly played to that gimmick.
The underwater photography is really stellar - I found some of the shots and editing confusing, but these sequences really elevate the picture. When the creature first pops into frame, I jumped. It is also one of the moments which probably plays great in three dimensions.
I was really impressed by how well the Gillman moved underwater. Ricou Browning played him in the underwater scenes and there is a real sense of grace to the way he moves through the water, especially in contrast to the body language of the human divers he is attacking.
For the sequences above the water, Ben Chapman played the Creature. I am guessing it is because Browning did not have the height to tower over the other cast members. On land, the Creature is still impressive (particularly the effect of making his throat pulsate in and out like it is trying to breath) but Chapman’s movements are more stiff and slow.
At first, I was underwhelmed. Without the added element of water, it felt like I was watching a man awkwardly trying to walk around an environment he can barely see. The limitation actually ended up benefiting the movie - it gives the Creature a sense of vulnerability. In the water he moves with grace and speed; on land, he is lumbering and clumsy.
While most of the human players are somewhat stock, Julie Adams has some spark as Kay. Up until she becomes the object of the creature's affections, when she is reduced to a damsel in distress.
During the climax, the shot of Kay in the Creature’s lair is straight out of a pulp magazine cover - a prize for the Creature and the camera.
Watching this movie after Shape of Water, I was struck by how much of that movie is just taking the subtext of Creature and putting it on-screen, from the romance with the fish man to the portrayal of gender roles and the repression of fifties Americana. I have not gone back to watch that Best Picture winner, but after watching its main inspiration, I am keen to check it out.
Overall, I really enjoyed Creature, although I did miss the eccentricity and stylization of the earlier Universal horrors. Partially it is the time period, and the relative proximity to the enforcement of the Production Code. Watching Creature, there is a blandness and lack of specificity to the characters that made the movie feel a little remote, at first.
It also feels like the ur-text for a couple of conventions that other monster and horror movies would pick up - the POV shot in the first scene; the withholding of the Creature’s face during its stalking sequences. In a way, with the cardboard characters, isolated setting and barely-glimpsed antagonist, Creature comes across as a proto-slasher. Even the story structure of having most of the action take place in a tropical isolated location, with a woman in a bikini as an object of lust/death, feels like a foreshadowing of how the genre would develop. There were plans for a remake back in the Eighties, with names like John Landis and John Carpenter onboard, which probably would have seen that influence come full circle.
Enough rambling. It is a really good movie, and no it will not be haunting me when I next visit a swimming pool (however, I am curious in knowing what it felt like to swim in the suit).
Director Jack Arnold is a luminary of fifties sci-fi. Aside from Creature from the Black Lagoon (and its sequel), he also made The Incredible Shrinking Man, which is meant to be great. I am sure that I will get around to those movies in the future.
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