Yes, that's right - we're skipping today's scheduled film for this infinitely better film. I ain't gonna double up or anything because frankly I am ahead of the game since I've been doubling up on Stephen King films off and on, so I think I'm good to go for being on track.
It took awhile for this damn movie to download, but it is worth every second because this is one of the great classics. I hope some of you at home can play along!
The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954): Directed by Jack Arnold. Starring Richard Carlson, Richard Denning and Julia Adams.
The Skinny: A group of geologists on expedition in the Amazon find proof of a missing link in the evolutional chain - a mix of half man, half amphibian. Things go bad for the group, however, when a living specimen of the long lost species turns out to be not so lost after all!
What's Good: This is one of the greats, folks. One of the Universal Classic Movie Monsters - along with Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and the Wolfman - and it endures to this very day. This was actually one of the first 3-D movies - the second, in fact - so there's a lot of direct at the screen action, like swimming and harpooning. But it doesn't detract from the movie in any way - in fact it enhances its inherent cheesiness. And for the time, the underwater photography (and there is a lot of it) is very well done, with long stretches of Gill Man swimming along the bottom of the river - with no air bubbles streaming out behind him. It was well performed and well executed and that's why people still love it over 50 years later.
What's Bad: The only thing that I don't like about it is the 3-D effects - like I said, it doesn't necessarily detract from the movie, but it's obvious that what you're seeing is an attempt to catch the eye.
Wy We Like It: Like I said, it's a classic. The creature is cool, the cast is great, the "special effects" are also keen for the era, so there is nothing to hate here. Just pure 50s camp film entertainment.
Memorable Stuff: Many things! From the underwater battles to the kidnapping scene to the final shots in the cave, this is a fun, good-time movie, even down to the very "Jaws"-like score (even though this predates the movie by 20 years).
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