A Behind the Scenes Look at Creature from the Black Lagoon

Creature from the Black Lagoon isn’t from the Laemmle Era of Universal, but it’s been requested over and over, and I felt like it was finally time to make this video to tie a bow on the Classic Monsters. That does not mean that I’m done making monster videos - so far from it - but it just means that after this I’ll have at least one video on every major Universal Monster.

I’ll always profess my undying love for Dracula and Frankenstein for obvious reasons, but there’s something about the vibe of Creature from the Black Lagoon that just makes me so happy. I love the aesthetics, I think it’s really great horror, and I love this movie. It doesn’t even bother me that it’s not from the Laemmle Era because it’s that good.

Creature from the Black Lagoon is a 1954 horror film directed by Jack Arnold. In the film, a group of scientists travel through the Amazon searching for an evolutionary “missing link” between sea and land creatures, and encounter a terrifying sea monster.

The film stars Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, and Nestor Paiva. The creature from Creature from the Black Lagoon can be called The Creature or the Gillman. Ben Chapman played the Gillman on land, and Ricou Browning played the Gillman underwater.

I love the origin story of the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Back in late 1941/early 1942, producer William Alland was at a dinner with Orson Welles, Delores del Rio, and Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa. Figueroa shared a legend of half-human, half-fish creatures living in the Amazon River that once a year would take a woman from a nearby village.

Alland held onto this inspiration and used it about 10 years later, combining it with Beauty and the Beast, when he wrote notes for the story called, “The Sea Monster.” In December of 1952, writer Maurice Zimm turned the idea into a treatment, and then Harry Essex and Arthur Ross wrote the actual script, originally just titled “The Black Lagoon.”

Three dimensional films were all the craze in the 1950s, starting with the movie Bwana Devil, and then really taking off with House of Wax. With more and more Americans getting TVs in their homes, movie attendance was decreasing dramatically, and studios were looking for another tactic to get audiences in seats. 3D technology was just the thing, and horror and sci-fi were two of the best genres to showcase it. It was decided that Creature from the Black Lagoon would be shot in 3D.

As I mentioned before, there were two actors hired to play the Gillman: Ben Chapman on land, and Ricou Browning in the sea. Ben Chapman was hired pretty much the traditional way - he was a contract player at Universal, and the filmmakers liked that he was 6’5. Ricou Browning on the other hand, was a part time lifeguard in Wakulla Springs, Florida, where some of the filmmakers were location scouting. Ricou agreed to swim for some underwater test shots, and a few weeks later got a call that they liked the way he swam, and wanted to hire him! Ricou would use this opportunity to start his career in Hollywood.

One of my favorite and least favorite stories about the Creature from the Black Lagoon is the story of Millicent Patrick. I really recommend reading the book Lady from the Black Lagoon by Mallory O’Meara. Millicent Patrick was an animator who worked at Disney in the 1930s and 40s. In the late 1940s, she met Bud Westmore, the head of the Universal Studios makeup department and became the first woman to work in the special effects department. She designed the Gillman costume for Creature from the Black Lagoon, and at the time got a lot of publicity for her work.

She went on a promotional tour called, “The Beauty Who Created the Beast” to talk about her work and design, but Bud Westmore got jealous of her newfound popularity. He changed the name of her tour to “The Beauty Who Lives With the Beast” so he could deny her credit of the Gillman, and then fired her when she returned from the tour. Millicent Patrick’s contributions were largely erased by Westmore for many years. I’m so grateful to Mallory O’Meara for putting Millicent Patrick back on the map.

Since two different actors of two very different sizes played the Gillman, two costumes had to be designed - including two different masks created from molds of the actors’ heads. The suits were made out of a foam rubber and cost upward of $15,000. For Ben Chapman’s costume, he’d put on a body stocking, and rubber scales would be glued onto him. Chapman couldn’t sit down in the costume, and could hardly see out of the super narrow eyes in the mask, so it was pretty miserable for him in costume. Ricou Browning had it a little easier in his suit, but he’d also have to swim underwater for minutes at a time, and also with minimal visibility, so not so easy after all. He couldn’t have found it too terrible, though…Ricou Browning played the Gillman in all three Creature from the Black Lagoon movies.

Our female lead in the film is Julie Adams, billed in the movie as Julia Adams. She was a contract player at Universal, and initially not too thrilled by the idea of being in the Creature. She sort of thought she was above it. But she didn’t want to get in trouble with the studio for turning down a role, and figured she’d make the most of it. That was a pretty good decision!  And I’m so happy to report, unlike most actresses I report on in classic films, Julie Adams had a pleasant experience on set with her director and co-stars. They got along well and loved to joke around with each other on set.

I love that Julie Adam’s character is a scientist and her intelligence or right to be there is never really questioned. That doesn’t mean her character is the feminist dream though…when the movie gets going, she ultimately just does a lot of screaming and falling, and one of her big storylines is falling in love. It’s fine though. Nobody’s perfect…And she has some great outfits in this movie.

I can’t not point out one of the most famous stories from Julie Adam’s time filming Creature, she did have one mishap. As I mentioned, Ben Chapman’s costume had very narrow slits that were difficult to see out of. In one scene when he carries Julie Adams through a cave, he accidentally hit her head against the wall. A photographer happened to be there taking PR shots that day, so they caught the aftermath and the story gained quite a bit of notoriety - though Julie Adams claims it wasn’t as bad as everyone made it sound.

The last thing I’ll point out from the film itself is the music. Three different composers worked on the film, focusing on three different types of scenes. Henry Mancini composed the music shown when things are nice and calm on the lagoon, Hans J. Salter composed darker, dramatic elements of the score, and Herman Stein - in addition to doing the opening and closing credits - wrote the music that plays every time you see the Gillman. It plays literally every time. And by the end of the movie … it’s a lot.

When the movie premiered on February 12, 1954, it became one of the most successful 3D films and one of the biggest horror films of the 1950s. It spawned two sequels, Revenge of the Creature and The Creature Walks Among Us.

From a legacy standpoint, it’s interesting because I don’t always hear this film cited as an influential film, but there’s no doubt it is. Every time I watch Jaws I’m blown away by how much  Spielberg was inspired by Creature. And let me give a shoutout to Creature for some brilliant underwater photography that really builds the tension and plays into the fears of what’s lurking below. Supposedly Predator and Alien both take inspiration from Creature too. And most recently, The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro, which is like if the Creature and Julie Adams’ character actually fell in love.

What other movies or monsters can you think of that Creature from the Black Lagoon influenced?