Lecture Six
THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON
The Creature from the Black Lagoon falls into a category of monster film. These seem to come in two different varieties – those that are related to prehistoric forms or mutated current species (The Lost World, Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Unknown Island; Them!, It Came From Beneath the Sea, 20,000,000 Miles to Earth and many many more) and those where the creature is more anthropomorphized (King Kong, Mighty Joe Young, and Creature from the Black Lagoon). In these latter films, the monster has human qualities more akin to the supernatural transformers like the Wolf Man or Irena in Cat People. The monsters in the first category tend to share certain characteristics – mainly they are far removed from the primate order (prosimians, monkeys and apes) while the other category tends to bear a closer resemblance to humans. The result is that there is a sexuality and sexual danger present in the latter. King Kong especially and The Creature from the Black Lagoon certainly make no bones about this. Mighty Joe Young is less of a case, but his emotions are remarkably human. (The humanizing of animals is also very common in cartoons e.g. Walt Disney and Walter Lantz). Animals were in the past credited with sufficient human characteristics where one could actually put an animal on trial. In legal history, an animal trial was the criminal trial of a non-human. Such trials are recorded as having taken place in Europe from the thirteenth century until the eighteenth. In modern times, it is considered in most criminal justice systems that non-human creatures lack moral agency and so cannot be held culpable for an act. – however this is something we could easily return to today with the humanization of animals (see for example Grizzly Man (2005) which is described on IMDB.com as “A devastating and heartrending take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzlies in Alaska” – two idiots who decided if you love bears they will love you back – the bears loved them – for lunch.)
The sexuality of the transformers (Dracula in particular and to a lesser degree the Wolf Man) has been touched on. It has been argued by some (see Sklar) that the physical images of Orlock, the Frankenstein monster and even the 1925 Eric in Phantom of the Opera are phallic in nature.
The Creature from the Black Lagoon, like King Kong, raises problems of eroticism in an evolutionary context. Both animals (who appear to be male) seem to develop something of an attraction to a woman which leads ultimately to their downfall. The Gill Man (as the creature is known) is clearly – even by his name – humanized (and was as marked as male).
Evolution is popularly seen as a kind of journey (for humans) that parallels individual human development. The phrase "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" is a biological one indicating that the developing embryo retraces the evolution of the species.
Anthropologically, it was believed in the middle 1800s that people evolved in a typical Western “3 step” evolution going from savagery (hunting and gathering) through barbarism (horticulture) to civilization (agriculture and urbanization and industrialization). There were thought to be “survivals” that is people who still existed at the level of savages and at the level of barbarians. In a sense social evolution became a long trip from a primitive to a civilized state. Although this belief left anthropology before 1920, it persists in the popular mind (and occasionally in the NY Times).
In King Kong, the film opens in urbanized, sophisticated, industrial NY (in the middle of the depression) and moves backward in time to the natives on Skull Island and finally beyond the wall to pre-human times to a land filled with dinosaurs and an incredible ape who in a sense is the most primitive “human” possible. The wild “id driven” Kong is brought to a civilized NY which he can not adapt to and dies. (Interestingly enough Driscoll, the first mate, also rather barbaric becomes civilized in NY (complete with tuxedo and a marriage license) and can no longer save Ann Darrow – that must be left to an all male military. Other films like One Million B.C. (1940) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) also deal heavily in sub textual statements about evolution.
These films also deal heavily in gender (men lose power when becoming involved with women in One Million B.C., King Kong and Creature from the Black Lagoon; or women are virtually absent from the film 2001:A Space Odyssey). Similar situations happen with the monster in Nosferatu.
Gender is almost certainly to rear its ugly head in almost all films as are all other social distinctions found in the West (and elsewhere) age, social status, occupations and so on.
Thus one can see in diverse sources (The Bible, Trapeze, Camelot) the theme of two males creating some sort of paradise only to have it ruined by a woman (Adam and God – Garden of Eden – Eve; Mike (Burt Lancaster) and Tino (Tony Curtis) strive for perfection in the form of a triple somersault – Lola (Gina Lollobrigida) comes between them; Arthur and Lancelot will make Camelot – Guinevere comes between them). This is something which seems to be a cultural element and not necessarily something in the mind of the film maker.
This film would spawn 2 sequels The Revenge of the Creature (1955) and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956). The last of these pushed the evolutionary aspect of the first film to its final level crossing it with The Island of Dr. Mureau where animals are surgically turned into humans. A note on the cast and crew
Both Richard Denning and Richard Carlson were known to movie goers. Denning appeared in films in 1937 and had had something of a career by the time he did Creature from the Black Lagoon. He had done one monster film, Unknown Island (1948) (a kind of fun rip off of King Kong) but from 1952-1954 he appeared in all 56 episodes of a well known TV series called Mr. and Mrs. North, in which he played Mr. North.
Richard Carlson had been appearing in films since 1938. However in 1953 he appeared in science fiction and horror films and then he appeared in The Magnetic Monster, The Maze and It Came from Outer Space. In 1954 in addition to The Creature from the Black Lagoon he appeared in Riders to the Stars
Julie Adams is probably best known (after Creature) as Eve Simpson, the hypersexed real estate agent on Murder She Wrote. Born in 1926 she is the only one of the main characters to still be alive.
Ricou Browning (born 1930 and still living) and Ben Chapman, a cousin of Jon Hall (1925-2008) play the creature - Browning in the water (in all three films) and Chapman on the land in the first. Browning was an experts swimmer with phenomenal lung capacity and got the job since he could hold his breath in the suit which had no SCUBA tank contained in it. Although 6’3”, the 6’5” Chapman was used on land. Tom Hennesy (also 6’5”) replaced Chapman in Revenge of the Creature and Don Megowan replaced him in The Creature Walks Among Us.
Bud Westmore is responsible for the make up and was the replacement for Jack Pierce. He also did the make-up for Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein
The diirector, Jack Arnold, had previously made the famous sci-fi film It Came from Outer Space and would go on to make The Revenge of the Creature in 1955 and a brilliant science iction film, The Incredible Shrinking Man.in 1957. He also made Tarantulain 1955. Producer Willliam Allen, was known for producing a slew of horror and science fiction silms including the 1953 classic It Came from Outer Space. Among his other films are (1955) Revenge of the Creature; (1955) This Island Earth; (1955) Tarantula; (1956) The Creature Walks Among Us; (1956) The Mole People; (1957) The Deadly Mantis ; (1957) The Land Unknown; (1958( The Space Children ; (1958) The Colossus of New York .
The Creature from the Black Lagoon The beginning, end and set pieces (climaxes) are always placed where films can get your attention. The film was originally a 3D film and so the opening sequence dealing with the beginning o the world serves several purposes: (a) the givea nice set of 3D of things flying at the camera (b) to establish an evolutionary mode to the picture and (c) to raise both a potentially scientific and/or religious theme(s). The latter tends to vanish out fo the film
As is common, the monstrous other is kept from being revealed immediately. A fossilized hand with claws is found and shortly thereafter the actual hand of the Gill Man appears (synecdoche compare metonymy). We have seen hands before the monster appers in Frankenstein, Wolf Man and House of Wax. The appearance of the full creature is delayed for some time. However a POV shot (interestingly enough with matching eye line, since we haven't seent eh creatures eyes) occurs and is indicated by the camera rising from a low position by the bank of the river and then moving forward toward the tent.
There are many shots of the Gill Man moving toward the camera, spears being shot at the camera. bubbles rising to the camera, bats flying at the camera to reveal the film's use of teh 3D technology.
The composition of the shots of the Gill Man swimming underneath Kay (Julia Adams) and his attempts tp stroke her foot are meant to indicate soem attraction of the Gill Man to her.
Science for Knowledge/Science for show parallels art for its own sake/art for profit. The film is also somewhat ecologicial/enviromental dealing with the penetration of the Amazon and especially the Black Lagoon, a previously uinknown area to science.
Vistor Turner in his book Forest of Symbols notes that in many African masks, the mask is divided into two "conflicting" parts. The mask may be half male, half female.; it may represent something animate and someting inanimate. In effect it questions the nature of the categories, and categories are created by people by sasserting certain similarities and indicating specific differences. Different cultures categorize quite differently, indicating that categories are cultural constructs not real ones. The construction of catergories produces structure and order. To question the boundry in to question the reality of the structure hence implying that the structure is not real (Nietzsche's defintion of the "Übermensch" or "Supeman" was one who did not need the structure, but could accept the chaos.
Hence violations of order in whatever for they may (sexual, temperoral etc,) take can represent a fear of the the breakdown of social structure. Hence the idea that symbols are "hyperloaded" with meaning implies that many different things can be linked together to indicate the breakdown so a single symbol may involve the id, primitiveness, the past all linking together and referencing the danger of the loss of structure.
The vampire of Nosferatu appears as the outsider comes with a plague – i.e. something disruptive to the established order
In Cat People and the Wolf Man, id drives are held in check, but when they erupt (the eruption of the repressed) the ego ceases to function and this is disruptive to the social order. The appearance of these three kinds of monsters in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein simply restates this in comic form in which even the (feigned) attraction of the women toward Wilbur seems to violate the social order from Chick’s point of view (and the audience’s as well). The violation of role is also apparent in that traditionally the “Doctor” in the films is male as are most insurance investigators in film. Turning these on their heads in terms of gender is also a disruption of the social order.
In Creature from the Black Lagoon, the sexual attraction between the creature and Julie Adams indicates a kind of cross species/cross time mating not unlike King Kong. Again a problematical kind of sexuality is disruptive and threatens the established order of things. In some sense one can argue that the ultimate horror is the dissolution of the society into a mob. Rules for society break down and, in a sense, the freeing of the “id” leads to the establishment of anarchy
The idea in general is that one can analyze a single film and arrive at a subtext by beaking the "code" (which is largely a set of symbols). The process of decoding a text is called hermeneutics. For any given film the symbol may have a singe referent which allows the viewer to arrive at a subtextual meaning. After analyzing a number of films a set of subtexts is revealed which can be themselves compared with one another to arrive at a kind of generalized subtext for the genre. Hence one possibility is to define the genre by its generalize subtext. In effect, horror films can be seen as films which intend to frighten the audience by having a subtext which involves some form of the breakdown of categories and social structure.