FANTASIA OBSCURA: The Creature from the Black Lagoon is really the Good Guy?
There are some fantasy, science fiction, and horror films that not every fan has caught. Not every film ever made has been seen by the audience that lives for such fare. Some of these deserve another look, because sometimes not every film should remain obscure.
Sometimes, when you give up trying, you can’t help but sink to the bottom…
The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)
Distributed by: Universal-International
Directed by: John Sherwood
Sometimes, you get a missing link that fills that role in multiple ways…
The Creature of the film, the oft-times referred to “Gill Man,” was according to his story a missing link between creatures that lived in the water and those that walked on land. In real life, he was introduced just at the end of the cycle of Universal Monsters, one clawed flipper foot in with the old series of films, released late enough along to see the Hammer Films that re-imagined them coming to screens soon after the last Creature film swam away.
And the first Creature film could proudly claim to be part of the grand tradition of Universal monster films, a solid piece for the canon that introduced us to an interesting monster. Solid enough, in fact, that when the inevitable sequel came out, Revenge of the Creature, the audience was able to stay with the film makers even as they took their creation to places it didn’t need to go.
But there’s only so much momentum and goodwill you can call on, as folks found when asked to dive a third time into the Gill Man’s saga…
We open in Florida, soon after the last film ended, with the Creature having escaped the aquarium he was brought back to from the Amazon. He’s been staying out of the hands of the authorities somewhere deep in the Everglades.
Coming for him now is one Doctor William Barton (Jeff Morrow), who has come all the way from Sausalito, CA, and put together an expedition to hunt him down. In his party is Dr. Thomas Morgan (Rex Reason), Dr. Borg (Maurice Manson), Dr. Johnson (James Rawley), and their guide Jed Grant (Gregg Palmer), who all bring certain skills and specialties needed to capture the creature.
Barton’s purpose for this hunt is to capture and experiment on the Gill Man, to alter his physiognomy. This doesn’t sit well with the rest of the party, until Barton points out that doing what he wants to do to the Creature can be applied to humans as a means to allow them to better survive long voyages in space. (Apparently, in 1956, you could use the Space Race to justify experiments in eugenics and carrying out other ethically questionable science; ah, what times…)
Also along for the trip is Barton’s wife Marcia (Leigh Snowden). She actually has very little to contribute to the expedition itself, but we notice fairly quickly on that Dr. Barton is an insecure little monster who can’t let her out of his sight, and otherwise abuses her emotionally and even at times physically. This character flaw in Barton, however, can only go so far in justifying Marcia’s presence on screen, which otherwise doesn’t add much to the direct plot, as we get sidetracked every now and then with the Bartons’ messy marriage occasionally flaring up here and there.
Ultimately, we do get to the Creature (Ricou Browning), who swims just out of their reach and tries to lure the adventurers into a trap. When they come into contact with each other, however, a fight aboard the party’s dingy sets the Gill Man afire, which allows the doctors to capture him and bring him aboard their vessel.
There, they discover that thanks to the third degree burns and the humans giving the Gill Man a tracheostomy, the Creature quickly turns into an air breather, which means he’s played after that by Don Megowan in a get-up that barely suggests the Creature we’ve known through two-plus films. It’s a radical change, not only in appearance, but demeanor, as the no-longer-submersible sophont seems docile to the scientists, who apparently can’t detect debilitating depression on sight.
It’s not a great direction for the franchise to take, removing your monster’s most unique trait, the ability to be a home in the water (which allowed for reveling in the series’ best-known feature, the exciting underwater photography scenes). Finding out as the action moves from Florida to California that the real monster of the film is the human who led the expedition, without giving us a complex enough character in Doctor Barton or anyone willing to associate with him, was also not a great idea.
This being Arthur Ross’ third time writing a Creature film, you end up assuming that he was just doing the bare minimum his bosses were asking for, having already given up on the franchise. It seems no one wanted to push this forward. The studio decided not to make this film in 3D, as they had for the two prior entries, and Jack Arnold took a hard pass on directing yet another catch-up with the Creature.
This gave Sherwood an opportunity to step up from assistant director to actually helm a film, one of only three he’d be able to do; it was no breakout effort, but given what he had to work with there wasn’t much else he could have done. (Sadly, Sherwood would not have too many other chances to helm a film himself, passing away three years later from catching pneumonia while serving as an assistant director on Pillow Talk.)
Even if you don’t agree with their moving in the direction they did, the film makers deserve some credit for trying to leave their comfort zones. But with a badly executed script and lackluster support, there was little chance that a film about an otherworldly creature being the victim of a crazed scientist was going to win many people over.
At least not this film, as 2017’s The Shape of Water proved that this was doable idea. Apparently, what kept them from making this film in 1956 was that they were missing a link to something vital…
NEXT TIME: Warning: This next film has more triggers than can be found on enough assault rifles to arm a division; you have been warned…
