Blaring horns and crashing cymbals announce the title sequence. Apparently, the producers wanted to put audience members in the proper mood from the start. Musical foreplay.
A surprising opening follows: a radio-announcer voice intones bible verse from Genesis, and a montage of planetary formation illustrates the beginnings of Earth. It is strangely seductive. A creature film posits the idea of a strange life form inhabiting a hidden pocket of the planet. Seeing the Earth in its raw incarnation, this idea seems more plausible. Who knows what arose from that primordial era?
In true monster-mania fashion, the eponymous Creature makes its first appearance by appendage only: a glistening, clawed hand slips out of the murk. The horns and symbols return, howling bloody murder. Get use to it, because this theme will be repeated with every appearance of the creature. If the barbed claws don't convey the message, this brass accompaniment should: the Creature is not friendly or reasonable or approachable. Then again, would we want it any other way from a monster picture?
Creature From the Black Lagoon has influenced genre cinema since its release over fifty years ago. Aficionados speak of it with tones of reverence, and nostalgia. The Creature itself is iconic. Years before watching it myself, I saw many photos of the Creature, all dark and lanky and fearsome, holding aloft an unconscious female. Universal Pictures practically invented the monster picture, and established some of its defining features.
No surprise, then, that the Creature is joined by a cast of scientist-explorers who champion reason, and pursue the mysteries of the globe with cinematic zeal. Nor is it startling to find a ravishing young lady amongst them, who adores her man, dresses in revealing outfits, and just looks like someone who can belt out a blood-curdling scream on cue. Here, then, is an early incarnation of the monster film formula: scientific heroes, a young damsel, and a rampaging monster.
What follows is a matter of course, and were the film any longer than 80 minutes, it might drag. To this day, however, the Creature looks fantastic on-screen, and fittingly receives generous amounts of camera-time. For those cinemaphiles who bemoan the prevalence of computer-generated special effects, and goofy-looking digital monsters, the Creature could be cited as an early example of how effective body molds and make-up can be. Even in production stills, the Creature looks fearsome and otherworldly. The scales, gills, eyes, and claws – all of it is treated with a mesmerizing amount of craft and detail. The producers wanted to introduce a scary monster – and they fully succeeded in this respect.
Appropriately enough, the Creature's ultimate fate causes a reversal of audience sympathies. Rather than the scientists, who bumble and argue throughout the adventure, it is the Creature who deserves backing. This is because he is a such an entertaining monster. Perhaps it would be going too far to admit this, but the Creature is far too interesting to sacrifice it in the name of heroics. Better to let it run amok and wreak the havoc that it is intended to.
A really daring director might have done just that. This was, however, the fifties, and while the Creature does have its triumphs, it must, alas, accept the fate that most monsters are handed in the genre. Perhaps this is due to the influence of a myriad of films that came before it. It is not unusual for the villain of a picture to foil the good guys, pursue the damsel, run off to its lair, and meet the good guys in battle. It could be that this same plot was applied to the monster story, simply because it was so familiar. Had the producers done otherwise, and let the Creature really run wild, the resulting film would have been less of a genre staple, and more something of a different nature.
I will contend that films such as Creature From the Black Lagoon are entertaining today solely because of the care that was put into realizing an entertaining monster. Everything else, from the surprisingly destructive antics of the scientists, to the fruitless chase for the pretty leading lady, is window dressing, and all to easy to ignore. The mind can wander during these scenes, and thankfully, they are short and brisk. The real hero of the film is the Creature, not because of any moral qualities or physical fortitude, but because of its very existence as a living mystery that does not fit into the norm. Good cinema can take the viewer outside of the every day, and illustrate things that no one has seen before. The Creature is this kind of discovery, and it is so well-wrought as to keep attentions riveted.
This is one reason why the penchant for re-makes is so depressing. The realization of the monster or lost city or space ship – what have you – may be better, but the act of discovery has been nipped in the bud. Films such as Creature From the Black Lagoon are entertaining because they successfully combine traditional story elements, and a creative adventure into the unknown. Unless it follows a radically different course, a re-make cannot explore the unknown, by simple virtue of following that which came before.
Admittedly, an amphibious hominid may not be radical idea in the present, but this film did it first, and it did it well. Those who can accept the genre conventions for what they are will be rewarded with a glimpse of something strange and frightening. I, for one, know that the image of the creature slogging through the forest, its wounds trailing a mixture of water scum and internal fluids, its face slack and unreadable – will stick with me.
6/18/06
