| Creature From The Black Lagoon |
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''Creature from the Black Lagoon'' is a 1954 black-and-white Science Fiction Film directed by Jack Arnold , and starring Richard Carlson , Julia Adams , Richard Denning , Antonio Moreno , and Whit Bissell . First release was March 5 , 1954 , in the United States. It was filmed and originally released in 3-D using polarized 3D-glasses (and subsequently reissued in the 1970s in the inferior Anaglyph format), and marketed as an A-Film . It is considered a classic of the 1950s, and generated two sequels, '' Revenge Of The Creature '' (1955) and '' The Creature Walks Among Us '' (1956). The eponymous creature was played by Ben Chapman when on land and Ricou Browning in underwater scenes. SYNOPSIS A Geology expedition in the Amazon uncovers Fossil ized evidence of a link between land and sea animals in the form of a skeletal Hand with webbed fingers. Expedition leader Dr. Carl Maia goes to see his friend Dr. David Reed, an Ichthyologist who works at a Marine Biology institute. Reed persuades the institute's financial backer, Mark Williams, to fund an expedition back to the Amazon to look for the remainder of the skeleton. They go aboard a tramp steamer called the ''Rita'', which is captained by a crusty old salt named Lucas. The expedition consists of David, Maia and Williams, as well as Reed's girlfriend Kay Lawrence and another scientist named Dr. Thompson. When they arrive at Dr. Maia's camp, however, they discover that his entire research team has been mysteriously killed while he was away. Lucas suggests it was done by a Jaguar , but the others are unsure. The audience is privy to the attack upon the camp, which was committed by a living version of the Fossil Skeleton the scientists seek. The excavation of the area where Maia found the hand turns up nothing. Mark is ready to give up the search, but David suggests that perhaps Thousand s of Year s ago the part of the embankment containing the rest of the skeleton fell into the water and was washed downriver. Lucas says that the tributary empties into a Lagoon known as the "Black Lagoon," a paradise from which no one has ever returned. The scientists decide to risk it, unaware that the amphibious "gill man" that killed Dr. Maia's assistants earlier has been watching them. It, taking notice of the beautiful Kay, follows the ''Rita'' all the way downriver to the Black Lagoon. Once the expedition arrives, David and Mark go diving to collect fossils from the lagoon floor. After they return, Kay goes swimming and is stalked underwater by the gill man, who then gets briefly caught in one of the ship's draglines. Although he escapes, he leaves behind a Claw in the net, revealing his existence to the scientists. Subsequent encounters with the gill man claim the lives of two of Lucas' crew members, before the gill man is captured and locked in a cage on board the ''Rita''. He escapes during the night and attacks Dr. Thompson, who was guarding him. Kay hits the gill man with a lantern; driving him off before he can kill Dr. Thompson. Following this incident, David decides they should return to civilization, but as the ''Rita'' tries to leave they find the entrance blocked by fallen logs, courtesy of the escaped gill man. Efforts to remove them result in Mark's Death by drowning, whereupon the monster abducts Kay and takes her to his Cavern lair. David, Lucas, and Dr. Maia give chase to try and rescue her; ultimately she is saved and the beast shot. Riddled with bullets and stabbed in the heart by David's dive Knife , the gill man stumbles into the Water and is last seen sinking into the depths of the Black Lagoon. CAST
IN LITERATURE In Paul Di Filippo 's Fan Fiction novel ''Time's Black Lagoon'', the Gill man is depicted as descending from a race of Extraterrestrials who came on a giant spaceship called "The Mother," that landed on Earth in the Devonian Period . The gill-people have the ability to communicate telepathically among themselves and among the human characters. Highly telepathic individuals are alphas in their tribal communities, and include "Fleshmolders", "Mudshapers", "Fishcallers", etc. The Creature from the Black Lagoon itself is a degenerate member of this race, resulting from an individual who explored deep in the ocean and became exposed to Archaebacteria , becoming deformed and insane, driven to infect others with the disease. Eventually there were no healthy gill-people left, and the race's numbers dwindled over the epochs to one individual in the 1950s , which is the one that appears in the original film. The actual film was novelized in 1977 , in a Paperback novel written by an unknown author under the Pseudonym of " Carl Dreadstone ," as part of a short-lived series of books based on the classic Universal horror films. It offers a completely different origin for the Gill Man, who in this version of the story is gigantic, almost as big as the ''Rita'' herself, weighing in at thirty tons, and is both coldblooded and warmblooded, is a Hermaphrodite , and also possesses a long whiplike tail. The gigantic creature is dubbed "AA," for "Advanced Amphibian," by the expedition team members. After slaying most of the team members (see below), destroying a Sikorsky helicopter, and kidnapping Kay more than once, the creature is killed by the crew of a US Navy Torpedo Boat . The novel also differs greatly where the human characters of the story are concerned. Only David Reed and Kay Lawrence remain the same. Mark Williams is a German man named "Bruno Gebhardt," and dies not as a result from drowning but by the monster falling on him. Lucas is named "Jose Goncalves Fonseca de Souza" and is a mostly sympathetic character until his suggestion of throwing the wounded and unconscious Reed to the monster makes an enraged Gebhardt/Williams throw ''him'' to the beast instead. Dr. Thompson and Dr. Maia both die grisly deaths whereas in the movie they survive; Maia is eaten by the monster, and Thompson is impaled on a long tree branch flung at him by the creature like a spear (in an apparent nod to a deleted scene from ''Revenge of the Creature'' wherein the Gill Man killed a guard in this fashion). REMAKE In 1982 John Landis was keen on getting Arnold to direct a remake of the film, and Nigel Kneale was commissioned to write a screenplay.1 Kneale completed the script, which involved a pair of creatures, one destructive and the other calm and sensitive, being persecuted by the US Navy . A decision to make the film in 3-D led to the film being cancelled by producers Universal, both for budgetary concerns and to avoid a clash with another 3-D film they had in production, '' Jaws 3-D ''. According to a featurette on the '' King Kong '' 3-disc Deluxe Extended Edition DVD , Universal gave Peter Jackson the option to remake one of two old monster films whilst working on '' The Frighteners '' in 1995; '' King Kong '' or ''Creature From The Black Lagoon''. Jackson chose ''King Kong'', as seeing it on television when he was nine years old had originally inspired him to become a filmmaker. It is a possibility that Breck Eisner will direct a Remake. TRIVIA
:: IPDB listing for ''Creature from the Black Lagoon''
::see: Clack (1998) Nature 394: 66-69; and Clack (2001) Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 92, 75-95.
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