THE CREATURE AT 70: A Renewed Look at 1954’s Superb CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON
REEL RETRO CINEMA: New looks at old flicks — and their comics connections… By ROB KELLY The true beginnings of the Creature From the Black Lagoon start not in a remote spot in the Amazon, but at a party at the legendary Orson Welles’ house way back in 1941. One of the guests was eventual Creature producer William Alland, who had started his career as an actor (he played the reporter Mr. Thompson in a little movie called Citizen Kane). Another guest, cinematographer Miguel Figueroa, told Alland a tall tale about a supposed half-human, half-fish creature that lived in the Amazon. Alland never forgot it and 10 years later, now a producer for Universal-International, wrote down some story notes and titled it “The Sea Monster.” By the early 1950s, Universal had moved away from its now legendary “monster cycle” of films, starring gothic creations like Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, and the Invisible Man and into more sci-fi and fantasy like It Came From Outer Space (produced by Alland). And while many of the films from this era are classics in their own right (Them!, Invaders From Mars are two that come to mind), they tended to feature big groups of aliens, giant bugs, or robots, and didn’t focus on a single, memorable antagonist. But Alland and writer Maurice Zimm (who wrote the screen story), shrewdly combined both approaches and, thanks to the incomparable work of creature designer Millicent Patrick, gave birth to a creation that would go on to become the final addition to the Universal stable of classic monsters, albeit more than a full decade after the others. Creature From the Black Lagoon is directed by Jack Arnold (who also helmed It Came From Outer Space) and stars Richard Carlson, Richard Denning, Nestor Paiva, and the stunning Julie Adams. A group featuring a geologist and an ichthyologist take a trip up the Amazon after finding a fossil that is a skeletal, human-sized hand with webbed fingers. Along on the expedition is the guy financing the trip, Dr. Mark Williams (Denning), who sees nothing but dollar signs. When two members of a previous expedition are found dead, our heroes follow the trail to a remote lagoon. Little do they know, but they are being watched by the very being they hope to find, the mysterious “Gill Man.” The...
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