Creature from the Black Lagoon

**Creature from The Black Lagoon** is a 1954 American 3D monster horror film directed by Jack Arnold which was first released on February 12, 1954 and regionally on March 5, 1954 by Universal Pictures.

## Plot

When a mysterious animal lurks in the depths of a remote jungle, a group of scientists try to capture it and bring it back to civilization for study.

## Cast

* Richard Carlson as Dr. David Reed
* Julie Adams as Kay Lawrence
* Richard Denning as Dr. Mark Williams
* Antonio Moreno as Dr. Carl Maia
* Nestor Paiva as Captain Lucas
* Whit Bissell as Dr. Edwin Thompson
* Bernie Gozier as Zee
* Henry Escalante as Chico

## Production

Producer William Alland was attending a 1941 dinner party during the filming of "Citizen Kane" (in which he played the reporter Thompson) when Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa told him about the myth of a race of half-fish, half-human creatures in the Amazon River. Alland wrote story notes titled "The Sea Monster" 10 years later, using "Beauty and the Beast" as inspiration.

In December of 1952, Maurice Zimm expanded this into a treatment, which Harry Essex and Arthur Ross rewrote as The Black Lagoon. Following the success of the 3D film House of Wax in 1953, Jack Arnold was hired to direct the film in the same format.

The designer of the approved Gill-man was Disney animator Milicent Patrick, though her role was deliberately downplayed by make-up artist Bud Westmore, who for half a century received sole credit for the creature's conception.

Jack Kevan (who worked on "The Wizard of Oz" and made prosthetics for amputees during World War II) created the bodysuit while Chris Mueller Jr. sculpted the head.

Ben Chapman portrayed the Gill-man for the majority of the scenes shot at Universal City, California.

Julie Adams performed all of her own stunts for this film.She noted that making the film was an extremely pleasant process, and that the cast and crew got along quite well. She also explained that she felt sympathetic toward the monster. Adams said, *"There always is that feeling of compassion for the monster. I think maybe it touches something in ourselves, maybe the darker parts of ourselves, that long to be loved and think they really can't ever be loved. It strikes a chord within us."*

Director Jack Arnold claimed that his main goal in the making of "Creature from the Black Lagoon" was to create a sense of dread. According to Arnold: *"It plays upon a basic fear that people have about what might be lurking below the surface of any body of water. You know the feeling when you are swimming and something brushes your legs down there - it scares the hell out of you if you don't know what it is. It's the fear of the unknown. I decided to exploit this fear as much as possible."*

### Filming

Filming for "Creature from the Black Lagoon" took place from October 13, 1953 to November 15, 1953 at Universal City, California.

Many of the on-water scenes were filmed at Rice Creek near Palatka, Florida. The costume made sitting impossible for Ben Chapman for the 14 hours of each day that he wore it, and it overheated easily. Due to these difficulties, Chapman often stayed in the studio's back-lot lake, frequently requesting to be hosed down. He also could not see very well while wearing the headpiece, which caused him to scrape Julie Adams' head against the wall when carrying her in the grotto scenes.

Ricou Browning played the Gill-man in the underwater shots, which were filmed by the second unit in Wakulla Springs, Florida. Browning (who was a professional diver and swimmer) was required to hold his breath for up to 4 minutes at a time for his underwater role as the "Gill-man." The director's logic was that the air would have to travel through the monster's gills and air bubbles from his mouth or nose must not be seen; thus, the costume was designed without an air tank. In subsequent films, this detail was ignored and air can be seen emanating from the top of the creature's head.

Julie Adams has stated that she was not knocked out when she was being carried into the cave by the creature. Rather, she claims that she scraped her head against the plaster wall of the cave while the stuntman was carrying her. Neither Adams nor the stuntman had very good visibility while filming the scene. The scene called for Adams to pretend to be unconscious in the creature's arms, which meant that her eyes were closed and the stuntman could barely see out of the creature's mask.

When the Creature attacks Zee, the script called for him to pick him up and throw him into the camera for the 3-D effect. Unfortunately, the wires that were used to lift Zee up to make it appear as though he was actually being picked up by the Creature kept breaking, so after two tries, Jack Arnold decided to just have Zee get strangled instead.

A severe accident was narrowly avoided while filming the fight scene between the creature and Zee.

Ben Chapman (the stuntman who acted as the creature on land) and Bernie Gozier (who played Zee) rehearsed the fight scene for several days. There was a particular need for the extended rehearsal since the creature costume allowed for very little mobility or visibility.

The scene called for Zee to swing at the creature with a machete and for the creature to grab his hand before he could complete the motion. When the scene was filmed with the actors in costume, Chapman missed Gozier's hand when he swung the machete at him and the blade connected squarely with the creature's head.

Luckily, the machete was not extraordinarily sharp and the thick rubber foam that formed the creature's head prevented Chapman from receiving any serious injury.

## Critical Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, "Creature from the Black Lagoon" has an approval rating of 79% based on 42 reviews with an average rating of 7.11\10.

Leonard Maltin awarded the film three out of a possible four stars, writing: *"Archetypal '50s monster movie has been copied so often that some of the edge is gone, but ... is still entertaining, with juicy atmosphere and luminous underwater photography sequences."*

Steve Macfarlane from Slant Magazine wrote: *"Creature from the Black Lagoon perfectly typifies the transition from older, more European horror styles into bloodthirsty schlock and ever-cheaper thrills."*

In a review of the film in 1998, Michael Wilmington from the Chicago Tribune wrote: *"This Universal sci-fi saga has little of the style or atmosphere of the studio's '30s horror classics; its stars are amiable Richard Carlson and Julia Adams. But it does have a unique monster: the Amazonian gill man, a lovelorn amphibian who spots Adams underwater and doesn't stop swimming after her until the very last minute."*

The Hollywood Reporter called it a *"good piece of science-fiction of the beauty and the beast school, the beast in this case being a monstrous combination of man and fish. It makes for solid horror-thrill entertainment."*