Review of The Creature Walks Among Us (1956) by Carl M — 03 Nov 2012

In this sequel we have Dr. Barton (Morrow) with his yacht, who wants to find if the creature is alive and genetically force it to the next stage of evolution. Talk about mad scientists. He brings his wife (Snowden) along.

He is abusive and she is suicidal. Dark themes in this "monster" flick where the creature is not really the monster. Jed Grant (Palmer) is the macho diver and Dr. Tom Morgan (Reason) is the college educated diver sent to flush out the Gill-Man.

As usual they fight over the girl. You never see the divers and the creature in the same shots early in the film and it appears that all the underwater shots of the creature are recycled from the earlier movies in this franchise.

Dr. Borg (Manson) and Dr. Johnson (Rawley) are specialists in tracking and treating the creature. The creature is burned again, but supposedly worse than last time. The makeup is drastically changed because the layer of skin with gills has burned off to reveal a dark layer of human skin underneath.

Also an emergency tracheotomy allows it to breath air with developed lungs it has never used. Pretty ridiculous contrivances. Don Megowan plays the hulking creature, who is caged like Dr. Barton's other exotic animals.

Dr. Morgan argues with both Jed Grant and Dr. Barton. Dr. Barton bullies nearly everyone. The creature is actually kind of heroic. The drama is too over the top, but I liked this one quote by Dr. Morgan, "we all stand between the jungle and the stars, at a crossroads.

I think we better decide what brings out the best in humankind, and what brings out the worst, because it's the stars or the jungle.".