The Creature Walks Among Us.

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.

Revenge of the Creature.

Review #1586: Revenge of the Creature.

Cast:
John Agar (Prof. Clete Ferguson), Lori Nelson (Helen Dobson), John Bromfield (Joe Hayes), Nestor Paiva (Lucas), Grandon Rhodes (Jackson Foster), Dave Willock (Lou Gibson), Robert Williams (George Johnson), Charles Cane (Police Captain), Robert F. Hoy (Charlie), Brett Halsey (Pete), with Ricou Browning (Gill-man - Underwater), and Tom Hennesy (Gill-man - Land) Directed by Jack Arnold (#420 - The Incredible Shrinking Man, #464 - It Came from Outer Space, and #1290 - Creature from the Black Lagoon)

Review:
Undeniably, it is hard to make a sequel work. But hey, having a director return is at least a promising start. Jack Arnold read science fiction as a child, and he wanted to be an actor growing up before serving in the Signal Corps (and later the Air Corps) in World War II, learning under Robert Flaherty on camera work in military films. From his first film in With These Hands (1950) until his last film (a TV production) in 1980, Arnold had a career of three decades as director, yet it was the films he made involving science fiction that have lasted in the public consciousness. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), his best regarded films, happened to be released by Universal Pictures. The first film had been written by Harry Essex, Arthur Ross, and Maurice Zimm, while Revenge of the Creature would be done by Martin Berkeley and William Alland (who like the first film also served as producer). The film was primarily filmed in Marineland, Florida (a town that has the oceanarium of the same name), as the Gill-man now has his biggest foe: being trapped in a marine park.

If you can believe it, this film is not exactly up to the standards of the prior Gill-man film a year earlier. One way to start is the fact that a good part of its 82 minute run-time is spent with the creature just being trapped away from its surroundings in a tank, while Agar and Nelson serve as our new human focuses, while the only ones to return are Lucas (for the first few minutes, anyway) and Browning. The first feeling one has for this film is "rushed", because this is seriously the best idea they could come up with? Actually, I should have seen this coming, because one would have to be convinced by its opening sequence to even sell the idea of capturing the not-quite dead Gill-man: they blow up the water with dynamite and knock out the creature (hey, it works to get fish, why not a fish/human looking hybrid?). Agar and Nelson lead the film in their study of the creature, and they sure are a boring duo to lead the way through. Bromfield isn't really much better, and Paiva is again only there for a momentary time and is then just out of the film (unsurprisingly, it seems like the creature has less bodies to sort through this time, although there is a slight novelty in seeing a scene with a young Clint Eastwood appear). Somehow, it just all seemed more interesting before with the pursuit of the leading lady by the Gill-man a year before, mostly because one was interested in this ancient amphibious creature of the sea in its sympathy and interest driven by the bare surroundings of life around him (some people even found inspiration in having sympathy for the creature for their own film, such as with The Shape of Water (2017)). Here, it is a bunch of wooden acting that interact with the creature too many times in the water that make it seem like one is at the zoo, which makes it a rather tiresome affair to wait for the inevitable escape. The costume for the Gill-man looks a bit different here, seeming a bit more easier to breathe for its costumer, which may or may not help in terms of seeing googly eyes when the monster does appear in his cell-tank from time to time. The creature even gets the same fate as before, being shot by an array of bullets after his captured lady escapes his clutches, as if this end is any more final than the one before (with a sequel following a year later, owing to the fair success of this film). There seems to be more inevitability this time around, which doesn't benefit a film that looks like it was made just to further the profits along, but it seems to honor one Universal horror tradition in mediocre sequel-making as opposed to abysmal quality-making. It isn't anybody's best feature, but those who would like to see more from director Arnold or for some occasional gill-man horror might be okay with the 82 minute run-time for a lark. It doesn't go enough to recommend it as a positive winner, but average isn't too far off.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Surprise! In a year that spread horror films lightly across the year, it never hurts to further the horror trend with Halloween: The Week After Part II, which will continue with surprises along the way until November 7.

Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Review #1290: Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Cast: 
Richard Carlson (Dr. David Reed), Julie Adams (Kay Lawrence), Richard Denning (Dr. Mark Williams), Antonio Moreno (Dr. Carl Maia), Nestor Paiva (Captain Lucas), Whit Bissell (Dr. Edwin Thompson), Bernie Gozier (Zee), Henry A. Escalante (Chico), Perry Lopez (Tomas), Rodd Redwing (Luis), Sydney Mason (Dr. Matos), Ben Chapman (Gill-man - land), and Ricou Browning (Gill-man - underwater) Directed by Jack Arnold (#420 - The Incredible Shrinking Man and #464 - It Came from Outer Space)

Review: 
It should come as no surprise to encounter yet another Universal monster film for the season. There are plenty of films classified under horror in their catalog, where one can't go wrong with many of their efforts, such as The Phantom of the Opera (1925), or The Invisible Man (1933), where even the lesser ones are worthy of curiosity. The 1950s was the decade of television along with the decade of expanded kinds of horror. Whether it was space aliens, giant monsters, radiated mutants, or some sort of offbeat horror, it certainly must've proved a fun time to make something to try and get some sort of entertainment (or perhaps a cheap buck). Universal persisted with their own horror films as well during the decade, with the obvious standout being the Gill-man. Although he did not appear in as many films as say Frankenstein or Dracula, the creature was the only one with its own trilogy of films in the decade for Universal (unless one counts the Abbott and Costello series, which had three horror comedy features in this decade), with its sequels released in the following two years (Revenge of the Creature and The Creature Walks Among Us). In any case, the Gill-man is the last great Universal monster, an ancient amphibious creature of the sea that certainly draw a small bit of sympathy and interest. The monster was designed by former Disney illustrator Milicent Patrick, whose work was overshadowed by makeup artist Bud Westmore for decades; the costume was made by airtight molded sponge rubber for $15,000. It was filmed in 3D, with polarized light projection, which meant gray polarizing filters (as opposed to red-blue), with producer William Alland having originally being inspired by a story told to him by Gabriel Figueroa about a half fish/human myth in the Amazon, writing notes about a "Sea Monster", which was expanded on by writers Harry Essex and Arthur A. Ross, with story by Maurice Zimm. It is safe to say that this is a well-done classic, worthy of being in anyone's horror curiosity. The monster effects look pretty good, with an eerie quality about the way it looks that makes for such an interesting creature to spend time with, particularly with all those bumps and gills along with that face. The acting is fine, with Carlson and Adams carrying the ship okay in the sense that while not completely full-fledged, they each manage to fulfill the necessary things to give the film something other than a big water monster attacking random folks entering its domain. No one goes too off the deep end in camp nor too much seriousness, with the film generally having a reasoned atmosphere, where the monster looms for two environments and seems pretty formidable for 79 minutes, with Chapman and Browning proving well with portraying the monster when needed. The climax is pretty swift, with a little time spent involving the creature and his thing for the leading lady that goes over just fine, and it proved an inspiration for Guillermo del Toro that eventually resulted in The Shape of Water (2017). All in all, this is a pretty entertaining movie, capable of giving off a few scares and thrills with a solid creature and premise (while not falling apart in clichés) that has a sturdy foundation in its other aspects to make something useful in horror from the deep.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.