The Creature from the Black Lagoon

Introduction

The Creature from the Black Lagoon is a pretty darn good monster flick! It introduces the iconic Gill Man monster, which looks and moves realistic, thanks to Milicent Patrick who designed and created the creature.

Unfortunately for Milicent, the head of Universal's makeup department was a jealous buffoon, he had her name removed from the film credits. Her role in the creature's creation remained unknown until after her death, when research for a book titled The Lady From the Black Lagoon (2019, ISBN 978-1-335-93780-3) uncovered Milicent as the genius behind The Gill Man.

Milicent Patrick (fair use, source: The Lady from the Black Lagoon by Mallory O'Meara, published by Hanover Square Press)

So what is this film about? An archaeological expedition in the Amazon uncovers a skeletal arm of what is supposedly the missing link between fish and man; The first creature to emerge from ancient waters to inhabit land. A team of scientists journey to the Amazon in search for the rest of the skeleton.

A week of fruitless excavations pass, when the team decide to take the boat down the river, and dive into the depths in search of fossils on the riverbed. Enter The Gill Man! The creature is fascinated by Kay, and swims along with her, without her knowing of course! The team eventually spot the creature, Kay and David want to leave it be, while Mark wants to hunt it down, and since his organisation is funding the expedition he has the final say.

Us viewers feel sorry for The Gill Man. It doesn't seem needlessly vicious, it's simply behaving territorial; defending itself against these strangers encroaching on its habitat. There is a power struggle among the group as they decide to leave or hunt the poor creature. An apt allegory, relevant even today. Wouldn't you agree?

Ultimately fear of the unknown, and those with money and power, overwhelms all good sense. The expedition team resort to what humans do best - destroy that which they don't understand.

Okay, that's enough nonsense. Time for the review!

A Great Discovery!

Dr. Carl Maia is in the Amazon, he discovers a skeletal arm. This is an important find! He has to rush off to consult with other scientists and assemble a larger team to help find the rest of this skeleton.

"Egad! What a discovery! I've never seen anything like this before ..."

"Sure, it looks planted inside this hole. Nothing like other excavations I've seen, but hey! It's still my discovery!"

"Should we tell him it's fake?"
"Not yet, it's too much fun to watch!"

The Team

Dr. Maia finds renowned archaeologist Dr. David Reed in Brazil. He convinces them this could be the biggest discovery, and the publicity would be attractive for the institute of marine biology.

"Look at this photograph of what I found in the Amazon."

"What am I looking at?"

"The missing link between ancient life and modern humans, my boy!"

Dr. David agrees to join the team, as well as Kay Lawrence and Dr. Mark Williams. They travel by boat down the Amazonian river, manned by Captain Lucas, Zee and Chico.

"Everything in the Amazon is a killer. Gaarg!"

"Knock knock. Anybody home?"

The team arrives at camp, only to find everybody dead! Captain Lucas draws on his knowledge of the region to identify the creature responsible for the attack.

"Oh no! A jaguar attacked our camp! "

"Jaguars always leave their victims grasping the air like this!"

The Creature

The team take the steamboat to the Black Lagoon. Kay decides to take a swim, and The Gill Man takes a liking to her, swimming alongside her - without her seeing it!

The synchronised swimming team practising for the Amazonian Olympics.

The Gill Man is caught in their net, and escapes by ripping it apart. It left a claw stuck in the net, convincing the team that a living specimen is still in the Black Lagoon!

"This is what happens when you don't cut your toenails."

The Hunt

David and Mark don Aqualungs and wield harpoon guns, they dive after the creature. They manage to hit The Gill Man with a bolt, but it swims away.

"Ouch! You people are mean!"

The team throw a paralysing poison into the river, called rotenone powder. This cause fish to float up to the surface, but it was only hours afterwards when The Gill Man surfaced, and became paralysed by the drug.

David and Mark swim out to find the creature, but it got away again.

"You can't catch me, yoomans!"

The Sad Ending

The next day The Gill Man climbs onto the boat and kidnaps Kay, taking her off to his cave lair. The men follow in pursuit with harpoons and guns. After a chase sequence, they open fire on the poor creature. It dives back into the dark waters, injured and dying.

The Conclusion

The Creature from the Black Lagoon is a good film. The monster is very lifelike, it's worth watching just for that reason alone! The dramatic creature theme music that accompanies each and every monster appearance is just too much, it plays a hundred times over the duration of the film. Often you will turn down the volume to save your hearing, only to turn it up again to hear the soft dialogue.

Instead of a horror monster flick, you feel sorry for The Gill Man, who is hunted to extinction, presumably - since it's the only Gill Man shown alive.

This film is pretty scary - when viewed from The Gill Man's perspective. A horror flick sympathetic to the monster, if there ever was one.

I heartily recommend watching this film, it's a classic - warts and all.

Posters

I put a lot of posters here, because I think these are so rad! The posters have a certain graphic-novel style to them. Click on a poster to enlarge it.