Creature From the Black Lagoon (series)
“The boys around here call it ‘The Black Lagoon.’ Only they say nobody has ever come back alive to prove it.”
Universal’s exclusive movie monster club got a new member in 1954.
Joining such familiar frighteners as Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster,
The Mummy and The Wolf Man was the group’s first amphibious
associate…Gill-Man, the Creature From the Black Lagoon. The rest of the
gang may have given Gill-Man a hard time about being the new guy, but
this little water-breather had an edge: 3-D. Shot in a red/blue 3-D
process on black and white film, Creature From the Black Lagoon gave a new dimension to horror, taking viewers into the depths of a creepy Amazon lagoon.
The descent into the Black Lagoon begins with the simple discovery
of a fossil—a webbed hand. Led by the noble-hearted David Reed, a group
of scientists takes a trek down the mist-shrouded Amazon to look for
more of its kind. Lecherous boss man Mark Williams and his employee Kay
Lawrence (David's girlfriend) come along for the ride as well, all
traveling on board captain Carl Maia’s ship.
Down in the jungle, the team discovers more than simply another
fossil; they find a living, breathing (water-breathing, natch),
horrifying Gill-Man. The creature takes a liking to the lovely Ms.
Lawrence, who has an unfortunate yen for taking a swim in
Gill-Man-infested waters.
The crew eventually captures Gill-Man, hoping to take him back home
for research, but the creature overpowers them, taking Kay back to its
lair to make her the Bride of Gill-Man. David isn't quite ready to give
his lady up to an amphibious suitor, so he and the gang make a
dramatic, suspenseful rescue mission right into the heart of the Black
Lagoon.
Creature From the Black Lagoon was an instant horror classic, and Gill-Man soon followed his Universal brethren into sequel territory. Revenge of the Creature,
another 3-D feature, followed quickly in 1955. This time, Gill-Man was
taken out of his Black Lagoon home and plunked down in a Florida
aquarium for study. Aside from its place in the Gill-Man trilogy, the
film was also notable for a brief role by Clint Eastwood, making his
feature film debut.
The final, 2-D installment in the Creature From the Black Lagoon series came in 1956. The Creature Walks Among Us
gave Gill-Man a chance to adapt to his new Floridian surroundings, as
an emergency operation replaced his trademarked gills with a set of
air-breathing lungs. Understandably upset at his new lifestyle,
Gill-Man did the only thing he knew how to do well: wreak havoc.
In the end, that was what Gill-Man was really all about. He didn’t
have the distinguished literary pedigree of a Frankenstein’s Monster or
a Dracula, but the Creature From the Black Lagoon knew how to menace,
maul and maim with the best of them. And he got to do it in 3-D (take
that, Wolf Man).
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