Cephalopodcast

Blogfish was kind enough to tag me with the Hallomeme. Before it’s too late, I wanted to plunge deeper into one of his suggestions for an aquatic-themed scary movie.

The Creature from the Black Lagoon

The quintessential aquatic monster movie for me is The Creature from the Black Lagoon. It was scary because I grew up on a lake. Scary because that lake was in Florida, where the movie was filmed. Scary because my older sisters liked to wrap themselves in bog moss and tickle my legs, like the Gill Man did to Kay Lawrence. And it was scary because of Dick Bennick.

Dick Bennick was better know locally as Dr. Paul Bearer. At the time of his death in 1995, he was America’s longest running horror movie host. With him it was easy enough to segue from a morning filled with cartoons to a afternoon of Creature Feature on Channel 44, WTOG. I rarely knew ahead of time what horrible old movie would be showing. But I always hoped it would either be Gamera or the Black Lagoon.

Synopsis: Cuter than Cthulhu

Creature from the Black Lagoon was a black-and-white film released on March 5, 1954. It was filmed and originally released in 3-D and is considered a classic of the 1950s.

A geology expedition in the Amazon uncovers fossilized evidence of a link between land and sea animals in the form of a skeletal hand with webbed fingers. Another expedition is sent back to the Amazon to look for the remainder of the skeleton. However, when they return they discover that the entire research team has been mysteriously killed, perhaps by a jaguar. Excavations turn up nothing. But it’s suggested that perhaps thousands of years ago part of the embankment with the skeleton washed downriver. The tributary empties into the eponymous “Black Lagoon,” where unbeknownst, the amphibious “gill man” is watching, taking a special interest in the beautiful Kay Lawrence. The brave male scientist dive to collect fossils. But when Kay goes swimming, she is stalked by the creature. It gets caught in the ship’s draglines, and while trying to escape, leaves behind a claw, revealing its existence.

Further encounters with the creature claim the lives of some of the crew members, before the gill man is captured and locked in a cage aboard the steamer. When it escapes, Kay hits the gill man with a lantern. As they ship leaves for civilization, the way is blocked by fallen logs, courtesy of the escaped gill man. More tragedy as the monster abducts Kay and takes her to his cavern lair. The survivors chase and rescue her. The creature is riddled with bullets and stabbed in the heart, before sinking myseriously into the depths of the Black Lagoon.

Modern Monsters

If you read the lost interview with Dr Paul Bearer, you get a sense of what a racket it was to schedule television programming back in those days. A similar sentiment comes through in this interview with Ben Chapman, the actor who portrayed the original gill man on land (Ricou Browning did the UW scenes).

We complain about the odious content restrictions of the RIAA and MPAA nowadays. But the crazy thing is, for the moment, I no longer have to wait through a month of Saturdays for it to show. I can watch it right now, for free, via Google video.

And maybe next year I will remember to order the feet, hands and head for a Gill Man costume.

• Lost interview with “Creature Feature” host Dr Paul Bearer, aka Dick Bennick
• Interview with The Gillman, Ben Chapman
• More Ben Chapman at the Reel Gill Man
• Google Video: The Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954)
• IMDb: The Creature From The Black Lagoon
• Wikipedia: The Creature From The Black Lagoon
• Bonus: Gill Man skull