Abstract
The Creature (from the Black Lagoon) is the most unforgettable of many monsters that menaced humans in a cycle of “creature-features” — hybridized science fiction/horror films — of the 1950s. Produced by William Alland and released in 3-D (and flat formats) by Universal International, Creature from the Black Lagoon (Jack Arnold, 1954) is about a scientific expedition to the Amazon River that discovers a prehistoric “Gill Man” — an amphibious hominid — living in a lagoon beside the river. Like its cinematic predecessor King Kong, the Creature is tragically drawn to the expedition’s lone female (scientist) and as the story develops it becomes a strangely sympathetic figure. One of the most widely circulated pop-cultural icons of the 1950s, the Creature spawned two sequels — Revenge of the Creature (Jack Arnold, 1955) and The Creature Walks Among Us (John Sherwood, 1956) — and is remembered in a scene in The Seven Year Itch (Billy Wilder, 1955) in which the Girl (played by Marilyn Monroe) exits a New York movie theater after viewing Creature from the Black Lagoon and admits to having a soft spot for the Creature. The Girl tells her escort, Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell), that she was not frightened by the Creature, but rather felt sorry for him: “He was kind of scary looking but he wasn’t really all bad. I think he just craved a little affection.
The whole idea was to give the Creature a kind of humanity — all he wants is to love the girl, but everybody’s chasing him!
(screenwriter Harry J. Essex qtd in Weaver 148)
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© 2012 Constantine Verevis
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Verevis, C. (2012). Bizarre Love Triangle: The Creature Trilogy. In: Perkins, C., Verevis, C. (eds) Film Trilogies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230371972_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230371972_4
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