1 October: The Creature from the Black Lagoon

Today is the day, kiddies! It is 1 October, and that means it is officially the start of the spooky season! Last year, I took it upon myself to blog everyday during the month leading up to Halloween. By the end of it, I was a wreck, but proud of what I’d accomplished. As is the case with a lot of things (running a marathon, going out drinking for your 21st birthday, etc.), you tend to forget how sick and sore you felt afterwards and only remember that you had a good time. So...here we are again!

As I mentioned before, this year’s Halloween blog-athon will be a tad different from last year’s edition. This year, I am joining in on the “31 Days of Voidoween Movie Challenge” as laid down by L.A.’s home for exploitation cinema, Cinematic Void. I won’t be following their challenge religiously, because I like to do more than watch movies for the howl-idays. There are too many great short stories, radio programs, TV shows, podcasts, and soundtracks to read, watch, and listen to. So, I’ll be mixing it up as the month goes by.

Today, however, I’m sticking to the Void’s 1 October challenge: Universal Monsters. When you think of Universal Studios’ contributions to the horror genre, you have to stand in awe. Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf-Man -- classics with a capital C one and all. Think of it, any ONE of these films would have been enough to cement a studio’s name as a major player. Universal was knocking out at least one of these films every year beginning in 1931 when Dracula and Frankenstein were released.

My favorite of the Universal Monsters, however, didn’t stick his head above the waters of that most famous and infamous tributary to the Amazon, the Black Lagoon, until 1954. The Creature (or Gill-Man as the scientists call him) is at one and the same time terrifying and beautiful to behold. If you want to learn more about ol’ Gillie’s birth, you should pick up Mallory O’Meara’s wonderful book The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick.

The movie, like its titular Creature, is also terrifying and beautiful. Filled with amazing stock footage, rear projection, underwater photography, and 3-D effects, The Creature from the Black Lagoon at times feels like a mixture of a travelogue and educational film. Just as you get comfortable listening to the scientists talk about uranium-lead tests, lungfish, and the Devonian age, composer Hans J. Salter (with a little help from Herman Stein and Henry Mancini) hits you with that musical stinger - bwah-bwah-BWAH! - and you just know the Gill-Man is gonna make an appearance.

No discussion of The Creature from the Black Lagoon would feel complete without mentioning the Gill-Man’s would-be ladyfriend, Julie Adams. As Kay Lawrence, Adams is the film’s damsel-in-distress. She spends most of the movie acting as a buffer between her fiancé, Dr. David Reed (Richard Carlson), and their financier, Dr. Mark Williams (Richard Denning). Luckily, Adams also spends some time acting in a fabulous, white, one-piece bathing suit. As Joe Bob Briggs put it in his 2003 book Profoundly Disturbing: Shocking Movies That Changed History, “The monster may or may not be falling in love...but the fourteen-year-old boys in the audience definitely are.” In short: hubba-hubba!

As is the case with so many pictures, it’s the character actors and bit players who often eclipse the stars. As amazing as the courtship between the Gill-Man and Julie Adams is, it’s Nestor Paiva as Lucas, the captain of the Rita, who steals the show to become the focus of nearly every scene he’s in. I challenge any viewer to not cheer during the scene when Mark makes the mistake of bringing smarm to a knife fight with Lucas. As the ship’s captain tickles the chin of the movie’s true bad guy with the tip of his blade, you just wanna see Lucas start chumming the water with that arrogant jerk!

Before signing off for the day, I want to ask everyone to do me a favor. It’s come to light recently that Ricou Browning, the actor who portrays the Gill-Man in the underwater sequences, is suffering from ill health. His daughter has reached out to fans asking that they send her father get-well cards. Browning was a mainstay of my local monster convention, the Monster Bash in Mars, PA, and it was always amazing to see him in person. I'd like to see him make it back there. He is best known for his work in The Creature from the Black Lagoon, but he also directed underwater scenes in Bond films Thunderball (1965) and Never Say Never Again (1983), as well as Hello Down There (1969) and Caddyshack (1980). He also co-created Flipper with Jack Cowden. Cards can be sent to the following address:

Ricou Browning

5221 SW 196 Lane

Southwest Ranches FL 33332