Review of Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) by Stuart K — 30 Apr 2014

Directed by Jack Arnold, (It Came From Outer Space (1953), Tarantula (1955) and The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)), this came a full decade after the success of many of Universal's successful run of monster movies, and this was amongst the last of them.

It does have it's moments, but it does feel a river-set version of one of Universal's Mummy films, but it has an impacting legacy. Set on a geology expedition somewhere in the Amazon, this has leader Dr.

Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno), along with friend and former student from California, Dr. David Reed (Richard Carlson), looking for evidence of a link of evolution between land and sea animals. Also along on the expedition are Captain Lucas (Nestor Paiva), Reed's girlfriend Kay Lawrence (Julie Adams), and scientist Dr.

Edwin Thompson (Whit Bissell). Arriving at the Amazon camp, they find Maia's research team have been murdered by someone, or something. They think it might have been a jaguar, but after searching the river, they find it's something else more deadly.

.. It's a bit of a daft film, but director Arnold manages to get some good scares from this one, while it doesn't quite have the charm of the early Universal horrors, it was successful enough to get 2 sequels, Revenge of the Creature (1955) and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956), it has it's moments.