Creature from the Black Lagoon is a 1954 monster film directed by Jack Arnold, and starring Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, and Whit Bissell. The eponymous creature was played by Ben Chapman on land and Ricou Browning in underwater scenes. The film was released in the United States on 5 March 1954.
Creature from the Black Lagoon was filmed and originally released in 3-D requiring polarized 3-D glasses, and subsequently reissued in the 1970s in the inferior anaglyph format (this version was released on home video by MCA Videocassette, Inc. in 1981). It is considered a classic of the 1950s, and generated two sequels, Revenge of the Creature and The Creature Walks Among Us, each a year apart. Revenge of the Creature was also filmed and released in 3-D, in hopes of reviving the format.
The movie has an enduring legacy in both media and the general public. A musical based on the movie opened at Universal Studios Hollywood in late June of 2009. It has also been widely referenced, in part due to its groundbreaking character, in other media. In fact, many movies featuring monsters put a Gill-man likeness in the background as a homage. More directly, the Gill-man appeared in the Robot Chicken episode “Shoe,” voiced by Seth Green. He tells a guy that he prefers to be called the “African American Lagoon.” Its likeness also was used for the film The Monster Squad. However, due to licensing issues with Universal, the creature is referred to as “Gill-Man.” Ben Chapman introduced the creature in costume with Abbott and Costello on live television on an episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour. Even earlier, in The Seven Year Itch, the film is referenced when Tom Ewell and Marilyn Monroe come out of a theatre showing Creature from the Black Lagoon. Monroe expresses some sympathy for the creature, saying that it was not really bad and “just wanted to be loved”. The creature plays a brief cameo emerging from lake Springfield in the Simpsons in the 10th episode of Season 16.
Creature from the Black Lagoon was later made into a pinball game, designed by John Trudeau (AKA “Dr. Flash”), and released in 1992 by Midway (under the Bally brand name). This game has a retro 1950s drive-in theme. It also features such 50s classic songs like Rock Around the Clock, Get a Job, and Summertime Blues. Completing side missions in the pinball game causes the screen to display “Universal Presents… Creature from the Black Lagoon,” and then requires the player to chase after the monster just like in the film. The game sold 7,841 units.
The film has been immortalized in paleontology circles. When Jenny Clack of the University of Cambridge discovered a fossil amphibian in what was once a fetid swamp, she named it Eucritta melanolimnetes, which is Greek for “the creature from the black lagoon.”(via Wikipedia)
