Well folks, there you have it. The entire “Creature From The Black Lagoon” franchise review.
It’s been lots fun looking back over this franchise.
Ricou Browning, a professional diver and swimmer, was required to hold his breath for up to 4 minutes at a time for his underwater role as the “Gill Man.” The director’s logic was that the air would have to travel through the monster’s gills and thus not reveal air bubbles from his mouth or nose. Thus, the costume was designed without an air tank. In the subsequent films, this detail was ignored and air can be seen emanating from the top of the creature’s head.
I absolutely love this series and the ‘Creature’ is my second favourite Universal Monster behind ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’, unfortunately for those of us in the UK the sequels aren’t available on DVD or Blu-ray.
Forrest J. Ackerman, a horror and science fiction writer for Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine, bought the mask and claws of the Creature’s costume from a young man who had once used them as a Halloween costume. The costume pieces were discarded by Universal after production had finished on the three films (Creature from the Black Lagoon and its two sequels) and were later recovered from the studio’s dumpster by a janitor, who thought the ensemble would make a good Halloween costume for his son. Other costume pieces were recently sold at auction by Bud Westmore, who was an assistant to Millicent Patrick, the original designer of the costume.
Unfortunately like everything else there has been talks of a remake, the latest news being that Scarlett Johansson was taking the role of ‘Kay Lawrence’. I seriously hope that this doesn’t go ahead because you know it’ll just be a CGI crapfest.
“Creature From The Black Lagoon” is an iconic monster and a fun series to watch, b-movie sci-fi Horror at it’s best.
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