Creature from the Black Lagoon
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:18:02
Who took the shot out,
and why, I have no idea.

:18:07
Universal briefly considered shooting
Black Lagoon in Eastman Color.

:18:10
Of all the Universal
sci-fi movies of the '50s,

:18:12
this is the one that really would
have benefited from colour.

:18:16
It would have been dynamite in colour.
If the colourisation fad hadn't died out,

:18:20
and if they'd got it right, I'd have had no
objection to seeing Creature colourised.

:18:25
When I told Alland Creature and Tarantula
would have been great in colour,

:18:29
he said the same thing,
that he'd love to see Creature colourised,

:18:32
that it'd look fabulous. But the expense
of shooting in colour worried Universal.

:18:38
In colour and 3-D, they projected that
Creature would cost them $750,000.

:18:42
So, pardon the pun, they scaled Creature
down, made it in black-and-white 3-D,

:18:47
which they figured
would cost them $650,000.

:18:54
This is embarrassing
to the memory of Jack Arnold,

:18:57
and I'm jumping ahead again,
but I'll point it out anyway.

:19:00
On the first day of shooting,
Tuesday October 6, 1953,

:19:03
the first shot was
the upcoming shot of the Rita

:19:06
squeezing its way through
the opening leading to the Black Lagoon,

:19:09
the paradise from which
no man has ever returned.

:19:12
So Jack Arnold lines up his first shot
on the first day of the movie, and...

:19:16
It's a blooper. What's that telephone pole
doing on the left-hand side of the screen?

:19:26
Much as I'd like to, there may not be time
to talk about all of the actors in Creature.

:19:30
I've got too much information here
about the production.

:19:33
But one I have to
talk about is Julie Adams.

:19:35
Other actresses made more
sci-fi movies in the '50s -

:19:38
Mara Corday, Beverly Garland,
Faith Domergue, dozens of others.

:19:41
Julie Adams just made the one.
But by appearing with the creature,

:19:44
the most recognisable
of '50s movie monsters,

:19:47
she jumped right to the front of the line.
She was born Betty May Adams in lowa,

:19:52
and she wanted to be an actress
from the days of grade-school plays.

:19:55
In California, to pursue her goal, she took
speech lessons to lose her lowa accent


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