Review #1737: The Creature Walks Among Us.
Cast:
Jeff Morrow (Dr. William Barton), Rex Reason (Dr. Thomas Morgan), Leigh Snowden (Marcia Barton), Gregg Palmer (Jed Grant), Maurice Manson (Dr. Borg), Ricou Browning (Gill-man – In water), Don Megowan (Gill-man – On land), James Rawley (Dr. Johnson), Paul Fierro (Morteno), Lillian Molieri (Mrs. Morteno), and David McMahon (Captain Stanley) Directed by John Sherwood.
Review:
If you recall, Creature from the Black Lagoon (as thought of by producer William Alland and writers Harry Essex, Arthur Ross, and Maurice Zimm) was a worthy monster movie for its time of 1954 that still stands tall today, one that seemed to spook the last terror that Universal had yet to strike in its hodgepodge of literary manipulations and other creative ventures: the terror of the sea. Granted, it did something that felt different (aside from the 3D effect, which you wouldn't really notice unless you actually did see in a theater), in that it was a movie where the creature was (for the most part) provoked in its actions, as opposed to something that came onto us, and it made for a riveting movie for its era. In short: in a time where the monsters of yesteryear were tired, the Creature (as designed by Millicent Patrick) seemed like a fresh step worth taking from the Universal line, whether on water or on land. Of course, one really could learn something from the attempts to continue the Gill-man from where we left it in the first film (i.e. being shot a bunch of times after his attempts at wooing a woman fail): alone, or perhaps in the company of fresher perspective. Revenge of the Creature (1955) only managed to accomplish that one could make seeing a Gill-man in a tank for several minutes with boring characters seem like an experience in dullness, mostly because one seems to feel just as stuck in that tank like the Gill-man (and in Florida, no less). Jack Arnold, who directed the first two films, did not return for this one, and in his place came John Sherwood, a long-time second unit director for Universal, with this being the second of three films he directed (he would die at the age of 55 in 1959 after contracting pneumonia while working on a film).
You won't find much to particularly draw favor for with the third and final film of the Creature series (as written in story by Ross), mostly because it manages to squander whatever half-baked idea they thought was going to rock scares in new inventive ways by simply not doing anything useful with whatever it was trying to pull with trying to take the creature onto land. Sure, it is a better movie than the previous one, but only by a slim margin, and ultimately one would be better saved by just sticking with the first film. So yes, one wonders how we got to this point: Well, somebody wants to see the Gill-man and do stuff with it (i.e. mutate it in some sort of attempt to get man ready to go to space). Heaven forbid folks learn about what happened the last two times the Creature saw humans, and yet here we are. The problems start to crack into place from the very moments they start their little expedition: it is a tedious affair to find the Creature, and it is especially dull when there are points attempted to be brought up about ethics that wander to where you can't take it seriously (something something the stars or the jungle). Morrow plays a jealous kook who wants to see just where the human chain can go by studying the creature, while the others aren't exactly 100%. By all measures, he is the only interesting presence in the film, which goes against the usual hope for interesting rational acting in its 77 minute run-time (which Reason can't help, considering that the Gill-man, intentionally or not, seems more of the hero in this film anyway). Snowden gets to act against kooky jealousy in Morrow for scenes that range from awkward to "rolling the hands along". Maybe there was supposed to be a point made about how they take the creature down in the middle of the film, because it is such a weak sequence that dulls the reasoned senses, since the Gill-man just happens to bump and slip into being set on fire by these bumblers while they try to track him in the water. At any rate, the title seems more like a trick than anything, since the only time the creature actually walks among the humans on land is when they put him in a cell on a waterside ranch with a bunch of animals and near the ocean. Criminy, that sentence does sound depressing when you think about it, as if the real horror is humans being odd enough to think that one could live with accidentally torching a creature, "fix" it, and they would be just fine. But hey, it turns out that doing so means the Gill-man has become six inches taller and heavier! I suppose shedding gills makes one a bit bigger, and it actually is quite amusing to consider the difference between the sea and land creature, as if making him more imposing was really going to help problems. Perhaps cutting the cast down to just Morrow and the creature would have helped, but maybe I am just spit-balling.
By the time the inevitable happens with the Gill-ish man, it is already too late. Imagine making two quickly made minute movies with the same fundamental trouble of simply wasting a monster with material beneath what it means to make worthy scares or even tragedy. And yet, here we are with a movie that can't establish a useful debate nor a useful body count to go with stuff that seems like the dying throes of a company past its prime in creating spooks for the public. At any rate, there have been several attempts at remaking the series that have seen a revolving door of directors and ideas (including one take from Guillermo del Toro that you might recognize in The Shape of Water), and one can only wonder what will be floated around in the next decade or two. Regardless, the lasting legacy of the Creature series is one of middling curiosity, where a strong and memorable opening film is nearly sunken in what its follow-ups failed to accomplish, although at least this one has a suitable ending to close it all out.
Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.
Next Time: Return of the Fly.
