THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US - 1956
Universal Pictures
Rated: Australia: PG / Finland: K-12 / USA: Unrated |
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Godzilla died at the end of the first GODZILLA movie. Did he let that stop him
from making dozens of sequels? Of course not. And our favorite gill-man,
who died at the end of THE CREATURE FROM THE
BLACK LAGOON and again at the end of REVENGE
OF THE CREATURE (actually
they just showed the same footage as at the end of the first movie),
isn’t going to let death hold back his career either!
THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US
was written by Arthur A. Ross (THE CREATURE FROM THE
BLACK LAGOON, SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS) and directed by John F. Sherwood (THE MONOLITH MONSTERS).
It begins, of course, with yet another expedition to capture the gill-man.
After his death /escape /whatever in the last movie from the Ocean Harbor
Institute in Florida he ends up living in the Everglades.
This expedition is lead by the very intense Dr. William Barton (Jeff Morrow: THIS ISLAND EARTH, THE GIANT CLAW).
He's convinced (without a shred of evidence)
that he can cause the creature to evolve to live on the land, and that
from this he'll learn how to make humans change and adapt to other
planets. I'm sure NASA is just sitting by the phone waiting for this
guy to call.
Burly good guy Dr. Thomas Morgan (Rex Reason: THIS ISLAND EARTH)
goes along. The more environmentally friendly Dr. Morgan merely wants
to study the creature and tries to steer Barton away from his wild-eyed
theories. Also aboard is the very attention-starved, horny Mrs. Barton
(Leigh Snowden: KISS ME DEADLY), who passes the time by shooting sharks. Ship hand Jed Grant (Gregg Palmer: ZOMBIES OF THE MORA TAU, FROM HELL IT CAME) picks up on Mrs. Barton's needs and begins sniffing around for an opportunity.
Two more scientists, Dr. Borg (Marice Manson: THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT)
and Dr. Johnson (James Rawley: THE CAR)
complete the team.
The creature has learned enough by now to know that any boat full of humans in his
neighborhood must be up to no good, so he attacks at once. He leads the
expedition into shallow water and traps their boat. Unfortunately (because
by this point you're rooting for the creature) his attack goes wrong when he's doused with gasoline and set ablaze.
He's captured and brought to the infirmary, where they discover that
his scales have burned off and his lungs have opened. The transformation
Dr. Barton was planning through experimental surgery is accomplished by
a couple gallons of premium. Who knew?
The creature is brought to Barton's mansion/farm/compound. A hastily thrown together
enclosure is made for the creature. His bandages are removed and he no
longer looks like a man-fish, although he certainly doesn't look
human. He's now just a big, silent freak and the movie starts to
look a lot like Frankenstein. The misunderstood creature of course falls
in love with the nearest human female (the lusty Mrs. Barton)
but for a while the story almost forgets about him. Instead a lot of time
is spent in the mansion as Dr. Barton's suspicions about his wife lead
to violence and finally murder.
!!!SCIENCE MOMENT!!!:
Ah, the 50's. So innocent. We still thought Mars and Venus might be, maybe,
kind of Earth-like. We thought Mars had thin air, like the Himalayas (it's
actually more than 500 times thinner) and that all the clouds the telescopes
showed on Venus just meant it was warm and humid, like Houston (instead
it's 800 degrees in the shade and the clouds are made of sulfuric acid,
like Phoenix). My point is that it's mildly believable that people in
the 50's could think you'd be able to adapt to other worlds after some
minor surgery, which was Dr. Barton's plan.
Glaring inconsistencies, like the fact that the creature is bigger after being burned, clearly
played by one actor in the water, Ricou Browning for the underwater scenes
in all three movies (out of the water - Ben Chapman: CREATURE FROM THE
BLACK LAGOON, in REVENGE OF THE CREATURE out of the water - Tom Hennesy) and *Don Megowan (TALES OF FRANKENSTEIN, CREATION OF THE HUMANOIDS) on land, don't really hurt a movie with credibility this low. I give THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US two shriek girls.
This review
copyright 2000 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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