:08:00
On the expedition up the Amazon
are Dr Reed, Ted, Kay,
:08:04
Kay's doting companion Winnie,
:08:06
and an explorer named Carl Sloan,
who's got "bad guy" written all over him.
:08:09
The explorers set traps for the Pisces
Man, but it avoids them and weeks go by.
:08:13
Sloan finally gets fed up,
chloroforms Kay and places her on a raft,
:08:17
using her as bait for the Pisces Man.
The Pisces Man appears.
:08:20
It has a "huge, fascinating,
unbelievable head,
:08:23
with a throat sac like a frog's
and scalloped gills
:08:26
that, at a distance, resemble
the bobbed hair of a knight of old".
:08:30
The Pisces Man kills Sloan
and gets away with Kay,
:08:33
but Ted follows them to the monster's
grotto and subdues the Pisces Man
:08:36
by slapping a wrestling hold on it
until it passes out.
:08:39
Kay feels sorry for the Pisces Man,
which is locked in a tank
:08:43
and brought back to civilisation. The tank
is taken off the boat and put on a plane.
:08:47
Kay sneaks onto the plane and unlocks
the tank so the Pisces Man can escape.
:08:52
The Pisces Man "comes
slowly toward her, looms over her,
:08:55
and touches the whiteness
of her throat, ever so gently."
:08:58
"Then, with his eyes still on her,
he leaves the plane."
:09:01
The military throws out a dragnet, but the
Pisces Man is able to elude the searchers.
:09:05
It climbs through a window into a house
to hide, sees a small child sleeping,
:09:09
and adjusts the kid's blanket
before it leaves.
:09:12
But when the Pisces Man tries to get
back in the water by crossing a beach,
:09:15
Dr Reed shoots him
over and over and over.
:09:17
Reed yells "If I can't have him alive,
I'll have him dead."
:09:20
The Pisces Man crawls into the water,
which instantly starts churning
:09:23
because piranha are attacking it. Kay
dumps Dr Reed and flies back with Ted.
:09:29
The Zimm treatment is too much like
King Kong, apart from all its other flaws.
:09:34
But when it was discussed
in a December 1952 memo,
:09:37
the memo writer, who didn't sign a name,
wrote that it could be developed into
:09:41
"a very fine horror movie".
The memo writer, whoever he was,
:09:45
also mentions discussing the script with
Alland, who said he'd change the ending
:09:49
"to provide a means of possibly
continuing this into sequels
:09:52
by keeping the monster alive or leaving
his fate in doubt at the end of the picture".
:09:57
So as early as 1952, plans were being
made to turn Black Lagoon into a series.