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Amazon.co.uk Review
Jack Arnold's horror classic The Creature from the Black Lagoon spawned not one but two iconic images: the web-footed humanoid gill-man with a hankering for women and the leggy, luscious Julia Adams, the object of his desire, swimming the lagoon in a luminous white bathing suit. Not since King Kong has the "beauty and the beast" theme been portrayed in such sexually charged (though chaste) terms. Arnold turns an effectively B-movie plot--a small expedition up a remote Amazon river captures a prehistoric amphibian man, who escapes to wreak havoc on the team and kidnap his bathing beauty--into a moody, stylish, low-budget feature. The jungle exteriors turn from exotic to treacherous when the creature blocks their passage and strands them in the wilds. Much of the film is shot underwater, where the murky dark is animated by shimmering shards of sunlight, creating images both lovely and alien (the studio-built sets of the creature's underground lair are far less naturalistic, but serve their purpose). As with most of Arnold's '50s genre films, he's saddled with a less than magnetic leading man (in this case the colorless but stalwart Richard Carlson) and a conventional script, but he overcomes such limitations by creating a vivid and sympathetic monster (helped immeasurably by a marvelous suit of scales and fins) and establishing a mood thick with atmosphere. The film was originally shot in 3-D. --Sean Axmaker
Special Features
English
Region 2
Region 2
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic film in a great package,
By Paddy O'Shea (Norfolk, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Creature From The Black Lagoon [DVD] (DVD)
The Creature from the Black Lagoon is probably one of the most iconic monsters to have lurched from the Universal studios in the last 50 or so years. Recognisable by any film fan, this is a great disk. The film itself was originally a 1950's 3D shocker, concerning an ill fated trip to the titluar lagoon by a bunch of scientists chasing up a strange fossil of a fish/man hibrid. On arrival, finding that their camp is trashed they run into the creature who takes quite a fancy to Julia Adams.Tame by todays effects standards, the film still commands attention and the special effects and underwater photography were groundbreaking in it's day. The film itself is a good copy and the sound, including the famous theme tune played everytime (literally!) the creature appears, comes across well on the disk. The disk also features a specially made feature about the making of the film with contributions from surviving cast and crew. There is also a feature length commentary which, while informative and with several dry annecdotes about various people involved in making it, is at times rushed. As the film is only about 80 minutes long however, it is understandable. This is part of a series of disks released by Universal featuring all their classic beasties and is well worth the money.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
My Favourite Creature Feature,
By
This review is from: Creature From The Black Lagoon [DVD] (DVD)
I first saw The Creature From The Black Lagoon as a wee kid and certain scenes gave me major frights. Upon watching it as an adult, it still has much in its favour. Fair enough we all know its just a guy in a rubber suit but thanks to imaginative direction and a solid workmanlike cast its still well worth watching if your a fan of creaky monster movies.
The scene where the creature swims along underneath the lovely Julie Adams has an eerie beauty to it. Also a scene where the crew are huddled together in the the boats wheel house created the same sense of ordinary people up against it as did Howard Hawks The Thing From Another World. CGI fans will no doubt be scornful of this film but I really enjoyed seeing it again. Any film that can bestow emotion upon and elicit sympathy for a man in a rubber suit can't be all bad. As for the disc the picture on the case is marvellous and for a fifties monster movie there are a plethora of extras including original trailers, a making of featurette. All this for under a fiver, a small price to pay to revisit the past.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The evolution of movie monsters,
By
This review is from: Creature From The Black Lagoon [DVD] (DVD)
For a film that relies quite heavily on evolutionary science as a plot device, it is great to see how this film is a link to many other films that have evolved from it. But first, we have to look at where it came from. The undeniable king of monster movies to which Creature From The Black Lagoon owes much of its creation is King Kong, made some 21 years earlier.
The story focuses on a small group of scientists who are searching for a fossil of an unknown creature, where one part of it was found but the rest is missing. They travel downriver from where the partial fossil was found to a natural beauty spot called the Black Lagoon. However, unknown to them, the creature is not so much a fossil as something alive that is just behind you. Throughout the early part of the film, the creature is partially spotted lurking around, reaching out for people, but always pullin back. By keeping it largely out of sight and by making the audience more aware than the characters, Jack Arnold, the director, gives genesis to a technique that has been used in many creature features and slasher films later on. The particular examples that came to my mind were Jaws and Halloween, which I doubt would have been made had it not been for Creature From The Black Lagoon. The creature itself is very clearly a man in a suit, but the lack of special effects does not make this film ridiculous. The greatest scene is the whole film is a swimming scene where the creature, just below the surface, mirrors the movement of a character swimming above it. The underwater camerwork is amazing and still looks good today, over 50 year later. It is hard to underestimate just how important this film is the history of cinema and if you haven't seen it already, I would encourage you to do so.
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