Revenge of the Creature

In the 1930s, '40s and '50s, Universal had a string of successful (and not so successful) films following the fortunes of their great monsters: Count Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. All of these had sequels, many of them crossing over and involving more than one character -- particularly Dracula, Frankenstein and The Wolf Man, some involving Abbott and Costello -- but, by the end of their run, the characters has grown pretty tired and audiences wanted something new which was delivered by the fledgling British studio, Hammer.

The Creature from the Black Lagoon had two sequels, Revenge of the Creature and The Creature Walks Amongst Us in 1955 and 1956 respectively. Although these were included on the Region 1 release of The Creature from the Black Lagoon Legacy Collection, they were sadly absent from the R2 version which only contained the main feature. This is therefore the first release of Revenge of the Creature in the UK.

The film picks up a while after the first one finished with an expedition to the Amazon in search of the mysterious 'Gill Man', led by the man who found him in the first film, but chartered by Joe Hayes, a marine expert at the Ocean Harbor sea life centre in Florida. When all efforts to capture The Gill Man fail, they turn to dynamite and basically bomb the s*** out of the entire lake, killing all of the fish in the process. Initially thinking the creature had thwarted them once again, they are pleased to see him floating to the surface, albeit in a comatose state.

Carefully brought back to the United States and to Ocean Harbor where he is brought back to consciousness by Joe Hayes and proceeds to jump out of the 'rehabilitation' pool and starts attacking people. Carefully taken into a larger, custom-built pool, he is chained to the bottom so he can't get out, Prof Clete Ferguson and Helen Dobson, an ichthyology student completing her Master's degree, begin studying the creature to see if it understands English and basic human commands in order to determine its level of intelligence compared to other sea life such as dolphins, whales and porpoises.

The basic crux of the film comes when The Gill Man sees Helen and basically falls in love with her, escaping to follow and capture her in order to take his 'bride' back home. Of course, her boyfriend, Prof Ferguson, isn't going to take this lying down and does everything in his power to track down the amphibious menace.


The Creature from the Black Lagoon isn't my favourite of the Universal monster movies but it is still an interesting and entertaining film with a brilliant central creature, superbly played by the uncredited diver and underwater swimmer Ricou Browning, who played the creature in all three films. The one great achievement of the screenwriters posted to this hideous creature with a short temper and homicidal tendencies into something quite sympathetic because of the way he is mistreated by man. In Revenge of the Creature, he is blown up, subjected to electric shocks and drugged as part of scientific experiments to try and figure out his IQ so can't help but feel for the creature rather than the scientists.

One of the most interesting and amusing parts of the film is where a young Clint Eastwood appears as a naïve and fairly incompetent lab technician who misplaces one of the lab rats in an experiment! Overall, this is marginally inferior to the first film, going over most of the same material but with far better underwater photography. Although it's no classic, I really enjoyed watching this again despite the fairly derivative nature of the story and stereotypical characters.


The Disc

The Picture
For a film that is now 55 years old, Revenge of the Creature looks remarkably good with far less evidence of grain, ghosting and aliasing than I expected, standing up very well against the Region 1 release with excellent contrast levels.

One of the main features of the movie is the creature itself; although clearly a man in a suit, it is cut so well and Ricou Browning does such a great job (with and without oxygen) that it appears that he spends far more time submerged and without surfacing that he really did when shooting.


The Sound
The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack is very clear with only minimal instances of hiss and crackle throughout the film. It helps that the actors enunciate very clearly so you can make out what is going on throughout, even when the characters are underwater and communicating via an intercom or microphone system.

The score is suitably loud and bombastic, swelling to highlight every emotional scene in a way that is fairly typical for Universal films of the late 1940s to mid-1950s.


Final Thoughts
Revenge of the Creature will never be confused with Bram Stoker's Dracula or James Whale's Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein in terms of its longevity or technical competence but it is still an extremely watchable film with a decent storyline, better than reasonable performances but superb underwater photography and athleticism by Ricou Browning.

Although this doesn't have any extra features, it will be of great interest to those of you love the Universal horrors and didn't get the R1 import with this and The Creature Walks Amongst Us which I would hope will follow at some point. This may not be a great movie, but exactly how many films featured Clint Eastwood looking embarrassed to find a rat in his pocket?