In honor of Halloween, I've revisited a Universal Monsters classic and watched its sequels for the first time!
An Amazonian expedition yields a fossilized hand from millions of years ago, a hand with webbed fingers. Doctor Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno) rushes down river to get help extracting the rest of the skeleton, presumably buried in the limestone wall that the hand came from. He leaves two locals behind to keep an eye on the camp. Maia meets up with David Reed (Richard Carlson) and Kay Lawrence (Julia Adams), both scientists who are ichthyologists. After selling them on the value of his find, they consult head of the project Mark Williams (Richard Denning), who agrees to fund the expedition that could prove both scientifically and financially rewarding.
They rent a bigger boat to go back up stream, only to discover that Maia's camp has been ransacked and the two men are dead in their tent (a previous scene showed a shadowy attack by the Creature). Undaunted, they start excavating the limestone, but a week's worth of work yields no results. The scientists guess that some of the limestone may have fallen into the river and gone down the stream. The boat captain says there's a lagoon at the end. Locals call it the "Black Lagoon" and claim it is a paradise, though no one has come back to tell about it. They sail to the lagoon, barely making it through one narrow channel. In the lagoon, they scuba dive to get rocks to compare with the limestone--if they are the same age, chances are good more fossils will be found. But lurking in the watery depths is the Creature, a pre-historic gill man. They don't notice him at first until Kay goes swimming and realizes there's something else in the water. David wants to investigate it, keeping it alive. Mark wants to capture it dead or alive, cashing in on the potential. The Creature has other plans.
The movie turns into a classic "pick 'em off one at a time" horror as members of the expedition are killed. The scientists try a lot of smart schemes that don't work, partly due to the conflicting ambitions of David and Mark. Kay is a scientific equal with them but also winds up as the damsel-in-distress more than once. The tight pacing keeps things exciting as they switch from researching for science to fleeing for their lives. The Creature is smart enough to block off the narrow channel, forcing more confrontations and a higher body count.
The film has a lot going for it. A large portion of the film is underwater, with the Creature stalking the crew members, including an extended and amazing sequence where it mirrors Kay's swimming. Those scenes look like they are on location, with an actual lake bottom and not some tank at the studio. The creature design is the best ever by Universal. The suit looks credible and detailed, working both as the Creature walks on dry land and as it swims. It is quite graceful and agile in the water. The Creature's face is haunting and odd, just what you want for a monster from the dark. The rest of the body, which gets a lot of show time on the land and especially in the water, looks like an authentic aquatic creature. The movie looks great and the effects hold up (except for a bat in a cave that has some visible wires above it). The story works well, with interesting characters dealing intelligently with a situation they are not at all prepared for.
Highly recommended.
A new expedition shows up in the remote Amazon, this time planning on capturing the Creature and returning him to civilization. Well, not so much civilization as a marine park in Florida. The same boat captain leads Joe Hayes (John Bromfield) to the infamous lagoon where they manage to subdue the creature and pack him up for transport. The creature is in a coma and eventually revives at the marine park, where Bromfield works with animal psychologist Clete Ferguson (John Agar) to revive the creature and study it. The Creature's arrival is a sensation and draws lots of crowds and press, including ichthyology student Helen Dobson (Lori Nelson), who takes a liking to Feguson. They go into the tank and start up typical stimulus/response experiments using a cattle prod. The creature is chained to the bottom of the tank, so presumably he's securely trapped. He eventually breaks the chain and breaks out of the institute, leading to a chase along the waterways of Florida.
The movie takes an obvious premise (a second expedition properly equipped to "bring 'em back alive," the
King Kong plot) and goes through the motions. There's less underwater photography here and more explanations about what is going on. One awkward (to modern ears) conversation has Ferguson asking if Helen is planning to marry and have kids or keep working. She turns the question back on him and he responds that he doesn't have to decide. Their romantic pairing gets more screen time than is probably needed. The show does not stint on Gillman action, though, with plenty of menace and attacks throughout the movie. This film is not as sharp as the first but is still entertaining in a B-movie sort of way.
Recommended.
Doctor William Barton (Jeff Morrow) puts together a team of scientists to go to the Florida Everglades to recover the Creature, who apparently didn't die at the end of the last film (or the film before). Barton brings his wife Marcia (Leigh Snowden) though they are a bit estranged. She is beautiful and naturally catches the eyes of the other scientists, especially Jed Grant (Gregg Palmer). She has to rebuff him several times. That doesn't satisfy the jealous and somewhat deranged Barton, who has financed the mission so he can help mankind "get to the stars." He is not clear on how that will work and Doctor Morgan (Rex Reason) argues with Barton's outlook. Grant sees humanity as floating between the stars and darkness, maybe the Creature can provide insight into resolving that tension. When Grant and Morgan dive to find the Gillman, Marcia tags along. She succumbs to nitrogen narcosis, making her delirious enough to remove her scuba gear. They return to the surface, failing to catch the monster. They sail further into shallow waters and have to confront the Creature from a smaller boat. The fight winds up with a subdued Gillman who has been hit with narcotics but also has been accidentally set on fire. They take him back to the big boat and bandage him up.
When they go to remove the bandages, the gills are missing and the hard skin has been replaced with soft, human-like skin. Also, the Gillman has reverted to breathing with lungs rather than gills, giving credence to Barton's "helping evolution along" theory. Grant and Morgan are still reluctant to go along. They make some clothes for the Gillman since his skin is less tough. They return to San Francisco, where Barton has a larger facility to keep and study the Gillman. The other issues (like Grant hitting on Marcia and Barton's slightly insane attitude) are still rampant and lead to some tragic outcomes.
This movie leans more into philosophical speculation about the Gillman and his symbolism as a transition from one mode of living to another. The Creature changes from a sea to a land creature, paralleling the "from earth to the stars" transition that Barton wants for humanity. The other scientists are a lot more skeptical about the outcome even while hoping for it. Any concrete movement in that direction is lost in the lust and paranoia of the Barton-Marcia-Grant love triangle, which turns out to be highly dysfunctional. The movie has some underwater action along with some land action, which is interesting but not as exciting as the first film. Having the creature in clothing looks a bit weird, like they were trying to save on the budget more than trying to humanize the Creature. I enjoyed watching the film but probably won't go back to it.
Mildly recommended.
Happy Halloween to all!
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