Posted By Dan Greenfield on Oct 26, 2024 | 1 comment

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 Gill Man is smitten by the luminous Kay (Adams, and who can blame him) and keeps tabs on everyone, almost touching Kay beneath the surface of the water when she goes for a swim. After a piece of the creature is broken off in a net, the Gill Man is eventually captured and placed in an underwater cage on the scientist’s boat, the Rita. He (it?) escapes, leaving one member of the expedition severely injured. The Gill Man then creates a makeshift dam, blocking the boat from leaving and forcing one final confrontation after he kidnaps Kay and drags her to his lagoon.

After only ever seeing Creature on TV and home video, I had the good fortune to catch it on the big screen at the Polk Theatre in Lakeland, Florida, a classic movie palace in every sense of the word. I was delighted to see how many people were there, of all ages, paying to see a movie that is so accessible at home. Everyone seemed to be having a marvelous time, getting into the Halloween spirit. Over the years, I tended to recall Creature From the Black Lagoon as a fair-to-decent “B” movie leveled up several notches by its iconic monster, but seeing it on the silver screen made me rethink that.

With only 80 minutes to tell its story, Creature moves at a brisk pace, delivering some gangbuster action beats (the Gill Man’s attack on one of the doctors is particularly savage) and moments of delicate beauty (the aforementioned scene with Kay and the Creature under water). The film is aided immeasurably by the iconic music of Henry Mancini, Hans J. Salter, and Herman Stein, and the unbelievably acrobatic yet graceful stunt work of Ricou Browning and Ben Chapman (who filled the Creature suit on water and land, respectively). In short, I realized the movie itself is excellent on its own terms, and it features an iconic monster!

(Fun Fact: In the mid-2000s, I met both Ricou Browning and Ben Chapman at a Monster Mania convention. They could not have been nicer gentlemen and they both signed a custom Creature movie poster I designed. It is one of my most prized possessions.)

Universal knew they had a hit on its hands, with a central monster character they could exploit. The Gill man returned in 1955’s Revenge of the Creature, and then again in 1956’s The Creature Walks Among Us, which features a uniquely tragic ending for the character. Even before the first film’s release, the Gill Man got what could be considered the most definitive admission he was already part of the Universal Monster canon — he got to meet Abbott & Costello!

We’ve discussed Creature From the Black Lagoon here on REEL RETRO CINEMA before, comparing the film to the 1963 Dell comic-book adaptation. Other than the boffo cover by artist Vic Prezio, it’s a fairly bloodless (and I mean that in every sense of the word) version of the story.

Luckily, the Gill Man has loomed large in the imagination of many great artists (Guillermo Del Toro’s Oscar-winning movie The Shape of Water started out as a Creature remake, which the studio ultimately rejected), and in 1993 comic-book fans were treated to one of the greatest movie adaptations ever published, when Dark Horse released Creature From the Black Lagoon by Steve Moncuse, Art Adams, and Terry Austin.

In just 52 pages, Creature From the Black Lagoon tells the entire story of the film, with all the important scenes intact. Re-reading it for the purposes of this review reminded me of what I like the most about it: There’s no attempt to “update” Creature, make it more marketable for a modern audience. Sure, all the characters—most noticably with Kay, of course—are more physically… dynamic than their real world counterparts (this is drawn by Art Adams, after all), and the Creature is a little more bloody at the end than anything Universal could have ever gotten away with, but this one-shot is essentially the movie in comic-book form.

The only other change is, of course, this version is in color, and color artist Matt Hollingsworth makes the most of the opportunity, using eye-popping bright tones and moody undersea hues in equal measure. The affection that the creators have for Creature From the Black Lagoon drips (sorry) off of every page. For this Creature fan, it was a delightful read in 1993, and it was again in 2024.

Speaking of 2024, the Creature is back in comics, just in time for his 70th birthday — the movie premiered Feb. 12, 1954 — with the Image series Creature From the Black Lagoon Lives!, by Dan Watters, Ram V, and Matthew Roberts. This series is a sequel to the original film, taking the modern approach of skipping over lackluster sequels and following up on the classic original film. As I mentioned, the Creature meets a particularly cruel, tragic fate at the end of The Creature Walks Among Us, so I’m happy other creators have decided to rewrite his story. The Creature deserves it.

Happy 70th Birthday, Gill Man!

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MORE

— REEL RETRO CINEMA: The Creature From the Black Lagoon — Dell Comics Edition. Click here.

— REEL RETRO CINEMA: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. Click here.

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ROB KELLY is a podcaster, writer, and film commentator. His work can be found at robkellycreative.com.