THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON
Errand boys for museum directors sent to collect a fossil go upriver in search of the discovery of the century, and they find it. Then it tries to molest the errand girl that's also come along, because—well, because it is, after all, Universal Horror, so he's got to, whether this makes sense or not. But you don't need me to tell you that everything else Creature offers ranges from the good to the legitimately great.
1954
Directed by Jack Arnold
Written by Arthur Ross, Harry Essex, Maurice Zimm, and William Alland
Black Lagoon West: Richard Carlson (Dr. David Reed), Julie Adams (Kay Lawrence), Richard Denning (Mark Williams), Nestor Paiva (Capt. Lucas), Whit Bissell (Dr. Edwin Thompson), and Ben Chapman (The Gill-Man)
Black Lagoon East: Stanley Crew (Dr. David Reed), Ginger Stanley (Kay Lawrence), Jack Bentz (Mark Williams), and Ricou Browning (The Gill-Man)
Spoiler alert: severe
(Both this review and the previous in this series are indebted to historian Tom Weaver, whose film commentaries are a treasure trove of meticulous and firsthand research.)
