Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Like many, I fell in love with 'The Shape of Water' movie in 2017. After watching it at home yet again, I then bought a DVD copy of 'Creature from the Black Lagoon'... I love the older Sci-Fi & monster type movies, and had not seen 'Creature' in a very long time. Wow! I was amazed at how much this old B&W film from 1954 still entertains. A well told horror tale, full of beautiful underwater scenes - and beautiful Julie Adams! And there is some honest to goodness science speculation, throughout this fun Saturday afternoon 'creature feature' popcorn classic, that appealed to the science-loving geek in me... The DVD I found also has an excellent commentary track with a ton of interesting tidbits on the film, and other nice DVD extras. I found a copy a month ago at Big Lots! for just 5 bucks & tax. Was the best 5 bucks I've spent in many a moon.... Cheers!

Proto-underwater horror film is enjoyable if not really all that great of a movie. A group of great white hunters/scientists and a lone bathing beauty are exploring the Amazon when they discover the titular creature, a half-man, half-fish of sorts who is bent upon stealing the woman and killing the men after they try to capture him. The creature is great and it's fun to see early underwater suspense scenes (characters swimming and not knowing what lurks in the shadows behind them or characters desperately swimming to a boat and trying to get their legs out of the water just in the nick of time) which would later be perfected by much better of films such as Steven Spielberg's "Jaws." Originally shown in 3-D, I do remember watching a special 3-D showing of the film on TV as a kid, but the version I just re-watched was a standard 2-D version. Overall, the Creature from the Black Lagoon is a iconic monster, even if it's not classic monster movie on parr with James Whale's "Frankenstein" or Tod Browning's "Dracula." FUN FACTS! Look fast for an uncredited Perry Lopez getting killed off in an early scene. Also, Ingmar Bergman watched this film every year on his birthday and Jean Renoir was an uncredited script doctor on the film.

Director Jack Arnold saved an otherwise monotonous B-horror with a few imaginative touches. An amphibious man-monster is discovered in an Amazonian lagoon by explorer Richard Carlson and covets Julia Adams.The characterisation is two-dimensional, the story plodding. But you forgive all of that for that single scene where the Creature swims underneath Adams, unaware of what's stalking her, in a surreal aquatic sexual ballet. It's quite uniquely Freudian. Elsewhere, the story only gets slightly more exciting when the hero confronts it in a hauntingly dank grotto.The film spawned two rudimentary sequels. By now Universal was branching more into science fiction - alien invaders and atomic mutations - and Arnold became the film-maker most sympathetic to this sub-genre.

Following a curious scientific discovery, an expedition into the Amazon jungle to learn more about the find instead uncovers the existence of a vicious, amphibian monster living there and tries to find a way of leaving alive when it takes an interest in one of the crew-members.This one was a highly-regarded entry in Universal's stable of monsters. One of the better features here is the fact that the setting is quite inventive and unique with the action taking place in the Amazon which is a nice switch from the usual time-period films of the other monster movies. This allows a spectacular series of shots setting up the gorgeous locations here with all the scenes out in the water-filled passages in the middle of the jungle or what are easily the best shots of the creature of him underwater, as the creature is simply beautiful to watch underwater all being simply gorgeous to look at. The Creature is one extremely likable monster, with the strong storyline about how he isn't as threatening as others make him out to be, and instead is a simple being defending his turf. The men wandering into a forbidden area, is driven by curiosity-turned-greed to capture and extract a remarkable being from its environment, a romance between the species, and a final conflict ensues between meddling man and the instinctive, misplaced animal are also themes common between the two films, and these only make it more endearing to audiences. Rooting for the creature is much easier than rooting for the humans, and that is precisely what the film must place a priority on. It also looks great, as the reptilian features, large external gills on the side of the head, and extremely emotive face make him one of the most recognizable faces ever, and with the graceful ease of movement of the monster moving underwater creates what are the quintessential mannerisms that make the Creature so believable. That all goes along very nicely with the central action scenes that come through in here, and there's plenty of that here where it has some great scenes. The early scenes where the creature begins stalking the group in the water, and once they find him living there it comes out with plenty of fine fighting scenes trying to control it which constitutes a series of wild underwater brawls in the reeds beneath the boat, their successful caging of the creature in their wooden trap which features some absolutely great action in his escape back into the water which sets up their final battle down in the underground caverns that finally puts him on dry land which is a highly exciting and thrilling finale. These here make this one of the best films in Universal's stable while not really having any real begging complaints about this one. The biggest issue is the rather lame and completely unjustified attitude about trying to capture the thing dead or alive instead of doing the responsible thing and leaving it alone. Since the creature is such a tragic figure with the lonely, romantic figure story lines there's a great deal of sympathy for it, and this behavior towards it for that goal merely keeps them in harm's way against it. Some of the 3D effects are dodgy and dated enough, but otherwise, there's a lot to like here.Today's Rating/PG: Violence.