After Dr. Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno) finds the fossilized hand of an amphibious humanoid, he invites a pair of Californian scientists, David Reed and Mark Williams (Richard Carlson and Richard Denning), to Brazil to help corroborate his finding. Another colleague, Kay Lawrence (Julie Adams), joins the expedition, but their arrival is disrupted by the discovery that some of Carl’s assistants have been brutally murdered by the Gill-Man (Ben Chapman and Ricou Browning), who’s become smitten with the hapless Kay.
At the risk of spoiling the rest of Monster March for you, the Universal Monsters movies tend to start strong, with diminishing returns for each sequel added to the canon. (That means that the first half of the month will be lots of good feelings, while the second half will leave many of us in cinematic despair.) For the first half of that statement, Creature from the Black Lagoon is no exception – it’s a fantastically strong debut for Universal’s latest and last original monster. Recalling the rhythm of a slasher film, Creature finds its titular antagonist swimming through the plot, surfacing only to commit homicide before retreating into the murky Black Lagoon. While the blaring trumpet score feels a little dated – we get it, the Gill-Man is scary! – there’s something timeless about the pacing and structure of the film, particularly the way that the film doles out brief sightings of the Gill-Man until his full appearance is revealed, almost as though he’s Godzilla being sighted piece by slimy piece.
To continue to reveal where Monster March is headed (for those playing the home game, I’ve watched the films in chronological order but reviewed them in thematic sequence), Creature truly reminds me of the later Mummy sequels starring Tom Tyler and later Lon Chaney Jr. Those films too anticipated the slasher horror sub-genre, but they did so in ways that was, shall we say, less than compelling. There is not much to fear from a mummy whose shambolic gait reminds one of a lurching, limping zombie. The Gill-Man, on the other hand, is quick and nimble, darting through the lagoon with balletic poise. So too does the Gill-Man’s very appearance put Kharis the Mummy to shame; while the mummy looked wrinkled, sad, and fragile, the Gill-Man is downright weird, covered in scales and fins with expressionless eyes and a piscine mouth that flaps open. It’s the kind of riveting screen presence that turned the Gill-Man into an unconventional matinee idol – any time he’s on the screen, I defy you to look away.
Here’s the catch with Creature from the Black Lagoon, though – and it’s the same catch we have with most of the Universal Classic Monsters movies – the human cast is tragically white-bread to the point where the Gill-Man can’t help but emerge the standout star. The supporting cast is often the weak link in a Universal Monsters picture, and I have to confess that I frequently lost track of how many humans were aboard the exploratory vessel. Julie Adams gets all the attention for being carted away a few times in the Gill-Man’s arms, though I was more drawn to the performance of Nestor Paiva as Captain Lucas, who seems to be the only character with a personality aboard the Rita. Lucas cackles and cracks wise, apparently the only person having fun in the movie. The rest of the characters putter about the plot, largely without emotion, firing off dialogue so dry that you expect someone to dub a wisecrack over the film.
In that sense, maybe one more comparison needs to be indulged. Like Bela Lugosi in Dracula, the Gill-Man elevates the entire picture. Any time he’s on, it’s riveting stuff, and you feel you’re in the presence of true greatness, a classic in the making. (If anyone had “treating Gill-Man like an Oscar winner” in Monster March bingo, stamp your cards now.) The rest of the film struggles in his shadow, even as you know that anyone not wearing gills may not be long for this world – and, honestly, the sooner the better. It’s not that these characters are actively offensive, but the best parts of the movie are the creeping tingles of expectancy as we wait for the Gill-Man to make his next move. Even though much of the film is clearly shot on a soundstage, occasionally with the use of hokey rear projection, Creature manages to drum up suspense with each movement of the Gill-Man’s murderous pursuit.
But like Dracula, the Gill-Man is surprisingly lusty, maybe even more lascivious than Dracula’s suave seduction. In sequences that must have inspired the opening to Spielberg’s Jaws, the Gill-Man creeps up on the swimming form of Kay Lawrence, grasping at her exposed ankles. We’ve all been there, felt the wayward tendrils of seaweed brush against our legs in the deep, and the Gill-Man’s slack-jawed and unblinking expression layers on a frightful new dimension to the quotidian. Dave Edmunds warned us that “all he wanted was a lady,” but the fact that he is only ever interested in the sole female scientist adds a creepy subtext. Both Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster wanted brides, but the Gill-Man wants a conquest. Even if none of the characters in the film knows it, the Gill-Man brings a weird erotic charge to a genre that often sublimates that element deep into the unconscious.
In terms of franchise development, Creature from the Black Lagoon is so reminiscent of The Wolf Man because it’s a creative shot in the arm. Finally, something new happens in the stagnating cinematic universe. Even though he would never meet the other Universal Classic Monsters – the closest he got was a television appearance with Abbott and Costello, before joining The Monster Squad – the Gill-Man is a fantastic and fun example of a franchise raging against the dying of its own light. If only I’d been able to see it in 3-D!
Next week, the Gill-Man hits dry land in Revenge of the Creature (1955), starring John Agar, Lori Nelson, Tom Hennesy, and Ricou Browning.
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