Jamie Lee
The Creature from the Black Lagoon is unique amongst the Universal Monsters in many ways, each of which could be its own article. Even thematically, he stands out. He doesn’t have any supernatural elements in his origin or abilities, he’s not the result of any scientific experiment, and he is not, nor has ever been, a member of the human species. (The Metaluna Mutant also fits this category, but the Gill-man differs in that he’s Earth-based.)
The Gill-man made his cinematic debut over a decade after the other most famous monsters had already joined the lineup. He never got to join in on the many cinematic crossovers the other Universal Monsters had with each other. While the other Universal Monsters got to “meet” Abbott and Costello on the big screen, the Creature “met” the comedic duo in a sketch on The Colgate Comedy Hour to promote his first film.
It wasn’t until later that he got to dive into unofficial crossovers, such as Mad Monster Party? (1967), The Monster Squad (1987) (which I’ve written about on this site and my own site before), and the Hotel Transylvania films. The reason these are “unofficial” (as in, not officially authorized by Universal) is because, unlike the other Universal Monsters, the Creature from the Black Lagoon character is explicitly owned by Universal. The Bride of Frankenstein is in a similar situation, but we can talk about her another time.
While many Universal Monsters pose questions about scientific study, the Creature from the Black Lagoon explores nature and humans’ interactions with nature. Each film in the trilogy addresses different aspects of the study of animal and marine life. So let’s dive in! (Yes, pun intended.)
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
In Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), the Creature (Ben Chapman on land, Ricou Browning underwater) is in the Black Lagoon, its natural habitat. The humans who come to study the lagoon and the Creature are sailing into his territory on the Rita.
This film makes the case that the Creature from the Black Lagoon is most likely the last of his kind. The question of how he came to be so isn’t addressed: neither the scientists nor their captain or his crew on the Rita speculate about it. The film opens with the discovery of a fossil of a Creature’s forearm “from the Devonian age,” showing that this species isn’t a new development. Did the Gill-folk die over time due to natural environmental factors and the scientists just so happened to catch the species on the verge of extinction? Did the Gill-folk die all at once, perhaps due to disease, a new environmental factor, or even hunting? Did they die long ago and the Gill-man is significantly older than he looks? No one asks, so we never find out.
This film does address the Gill-man’s biology, with a team of scientists quickly figuring from the fossil that the Gill-man is likely amphibious (which turns out to be true), “very powerful” (also shown to be true), and one of the “many thousands of ways nature tried to get life out of the sea and onto the land.” In other words, the Creature from the Black Lagoon is somewhere on the evolutionary timeline between marine and mammals.
Another notable facet of this film that distinguishes it from the sequels is that the entire mission that leads to the Creature begins as an archeological investigation. Given the age of the fossil Dr. Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno) found and the fact that it doesn’t match or resemble any modern (for the 1950s) animal, it’s no wonder the expedition that follows up on the discovery expects, if anything, to find more fossils. Finding a living, breathing specimen is a shock, and they’re woefully unprepared to deal with such an animal, especially when the Creature starts to pose a threat.
Despite this, once the team realizes they’re dealing with a live specimen, their focus shifts from finding the rest of the fossil that brought them to the Black Lagoon to finding the living Creature. The film’s thematic focus also transitions. Until now, there’s a mostly-cooperative debate about a possible discovery’s impact on science versus its potential to draw money to the institute where these scientists work. Dr. Mark Williams (Richard Denning), being Dr. David Reed (Richard Carlson) and Kay Lawrence’s (Julia Adams) boss, needs to keep the latter in mind, but quickly decides a find of this magnitude would bring enough money to justify the expedition.
After the discovery of the living, breathing Creature, however, the film’s thematic focus shifts toward how to deal with the specimen. David specifically tells Mark that photographs would be sufficient to study, citing that the Creature “alive and in its natural habitat is valuable to us.” Mark doesn’t want to “settle” for mere photos and wants to take the Gill-man back to the institute for study: maybe alive, but he makes sure to bring a harpoon gun, just in case. After one encounter with the Gill-man, Mark even says, “Dead or alive, what’s the difference?”
Upon a rewatch of the film, it’s a bit surprising just how little we learn about the Creature, even besides the question of how he came to be the last of his kind. What’s his diet? What’s his standard life expectancy? Is there a possibility that Gill-folk live elsewhere, or is the species exclusive to this single lagoon in the Amazon? There’s an implication that it’s the latter, as David discusses with Kay how many of the species in the Amazon still grow to quite a large size, as they did ages ago. We do get local lore and some solid strategy from the Rita’s captain, Captain Lucas (Nestor Paiva), giving us some insight into the history of Gill-folk in the area, but keeping the mystery alive.
Given that the thematic focus of the film is mostly on the debate over whether it’s better to study wildlife in their natural habitat or by taking them as “trophies,” dead or alive, it’s not a mystery why the humans don’t get too much studying accomplished. We as the audience learn just enough about the Gill-man to know what his abilities are, what his motivations are, and what kind of a threat he poses.
Speaking of cages, that brings us to the next film in the trilogy…
Revenge of the Creature (1955)
Given the events of the Gill-man’s first sequel, it’s no wonder he gets provoked into wreaking Revenge of the Creature (1955).
In the film’s first act, we do get to return to the Black Lagoon, and even see Captain Lucas again, the only returning character from the first film besides the Gill-man (now Tom Hennesy on land, but still Ricou Browning underwater). Even Lucas’ boat is Rita II. But, this visit is only to incapacitate and capture the Creature to ship him off to a Florida oceanarium, filmed partially in real-life Florida park, Marineland. Captain Lucas doesn’t appear again in this or the next film.
This new setting differentiates this sequel from its predecessor and also gives modern audiences a viewpoint into views at the time. Flippy the “Educated” Porpoise (who was actually a bottlenose dolphin) “plays himself” in performing a routine for eager fans of all ages at the zoo. The portrayal of Flippy and his show is a lighthearted showcase of dolphin intelligence to educate and entertain. Nowadays, the conversation around zoos and especially around performing wild animals is much more nuanced. Flippy would most likely not be portrayed in the same way today.
When watched back-to-back with Creature from the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature presents an interesting development. After spending the previous film portraying Mark as being in the wrong for wanting to capture the Gill-man and take him away from the lagoon…this film does exactly that.
Due to the Gill-man’s new environment, the ecological focus is on what scientists can learn about him in captivity and how he responds to that captivity. This is also where the film will look different through the modern audience’s eyes than how the film tries to portray it. When the Gill-man is being fed for the first time in captivity, an announcer admits that scientists are still studying what his diet is; essentially, the oceanarium took him into captivity without even knowing what he eats. Later, Professor Clete Ferguson (John Agar) and ichthyologist Helen Dobson (Lori Nelson) feed him fish, so scientists somehow learned that he’d at least eat some kind of fish as part of his diet.
In particular, Clete and Helen are portrayed in a positive light. Once the Gill-man’s in the zoo’s custody, Helen and Clete begin training him to obey commands…using an electric bull prod.
Regardless of how audiences, whether in the 1950s or modern times, view jolting an animal with an electric bull prod, the film still portrays this act, at best, neutrally. It’s certainly one of the occurrences that antagonize the Creature into his titular “revenge;” however, nothing indicates that this was in any way cruel or unnecessary in studying him.
We do find out that the Creature’s biology is closer to a human than a fish, with Clete noting that “every [blood] test, every reaction, just misses being human.” This comes into play in the third film: for now, the Creature has his moment of literally breaking his chains and making his way through screaming people.
Unlike Creature from the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature doesn’t broach any sort of ethical debate over how the scientists study the Creature. The film portrays the scientists’ methods very matter-of-factly, as methods that are just what’s used in the course of scientific study. It’s portrayed in the same matter-of-fact tone as Clete and Helen’s conversation about how women have to choose between having a career and having a family, while men don’t: as Clete says, “I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, it’s just a fact.” That’s definitely a scene that would not be portrayed with the same tone today. However, as far as the ecological themes go, even if the film itself doesn’t address it or make any implications, they certainly spark (pun intended) thought and conversation amongst audiences.
After the Gill-man returns to the watery depths of the ocean, he surfaces again for one more jaunt amongst humans…
The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)
In this final installment in the original Creature from the Black Lagoon trilogy, his biology is altered. This is also the Gill-man’s final official appearance to date in a Universal Monster film unless you count his forearm appearing in a laboratory in The Mummy (2017).
In The Creature Walks Among Us (1956), the Gill-man (now Don Megowan on land, with Ricou Browning completing the trilogy underwater) becomes a literal “fish (man) out of water.”
In contrast to the last film, we find out that the red corpuscle count in the Creature’s blood places him “halfway between the count in mammals and marine life vertebrae.”
In contrast to both of the previous films, while Kay Thomas and Helen Dobson were fellow scientists, Marcia Barton (Leigh Snowden) insists she’s only a scientist “through marriage.” Her husband, Dr. William Barton (Jeff Morrow) even tells her, “unfortunately, you’ll have to be more of a spectator than a participant.”
Before the Creature even shows up, the philosophical debate begins again: this time, it’s about whether or not one can or should “bypass nature” by altering organisms’ biology, such as to make a marine animal into a mammal. Dr. Thomas Morgan (Rex Reason) believes in learning from nature and that, when the time comes that it’s necessary, humans will be able to adapt to whatever’s next. William, on the other hand, wants to experiment on the Creature to turn him into a terrestrial animal, believing that helping the Creature complete nature’s “giant step” from marine life to land life will lead to insight into how to help humans in “taking the next giant step. Into outer space.”
Perhaps your reaction to this is similar to Dr. Johnson’s (James Rawley)…
This film switches up the environment again, but this time without a pitstop at the Black Lagoon. After sinking in the watery depths off the coast of Florida in the previous film, he resurfaces in the Florida Everglades.
After an encounter with the Creature burns him badly enough that his gills no longer function correctly, this film’s team of scientists, once again consisting of franchise newcomers and no returning characters, takes the helm in his care. Suddenly, what Thomas was so against becomes the only way to save the Gill-man’s life.
With this operation, opening up his lungs, the Gill-man becomes a mammal. With a deeper level of skin being revealed beneath his burned scales that’s more human-like, the Gill-man’s closer physically to being human than he’s ever been.
After this, the film focuses on how the humans around the Creature behave with each other and how the Creature’s behavior compares. As the Gill-man spends time recovering, there’s even more philosophical talk amongst the group. William waxes poetic about changing the nature of a species, essentially, sped-up human-made evolution. Thomas believes that one can change an individual animal through medical intervention or bring out their best or worst through their environment, but the actual evolution of a species takes millions of years.
Indeed, the first half of the film spends more time than the previous two films developing the relationships and tensions between the human characters. Unlike both preceding films, Marcia’s married (Kay and David were in a committed relationship, but not married), and her husband, William, is very obviously abusive.
This isn’t a “modern interpretation” of the material: the film itself shows William’s words, actions, jealousy, and controlling behavior toward Marcia to be wrong.
Along with the new focus on the Gill-man’s behavior compared to humans comes a new focus on his psychological state. When the humans are good to him, he’s calm toward them. When the tensions rise enough that the humans start turning on each other, as Thomas unknowingly predicted, the Gill-man follows.
And yet, interestingly enough, the Creature holds back. His focus isn’t just on killing people or grabbing the only female central character this time, it’s returning to his watery home. In fact, when he does kill someone, he starts with someone he’s just witnessed being violent and trying to frame the Gill-man for his actions.
The Creature from the Black Lagoon trilogy may not delve too deeply into its ecological themes, both intentional and unintentional. However, it gives enough of a spark to get audiences thinking about these themes, from the biological and historical mysteries of the first film to the explicit philosophical debates of the third film.
With The Invisible Man (2020) giving us an incredibly fresh new take on the concept of the original 1933 film without being a direct remake and the film’s success indicating that there may be more fresh revivals of the Universal Monsters to come, I’m fascinated to find out what a new take on the Creature from the Black Lagoon could bring. At the very least, it would be nice to see a version that has more than one non-male central cast member and has those characters get to do a little more once the danger picks up. In other words, “more of a participant than a spectator.”
Or maybe the Creature will be rewritten as an alien so humans can go into outer space.
