: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
:20:00
and played roles in cheap westerns
for a little company called Lippert,
:20:03
each of them made in less than a week.
At that point she was using her real name,
:20:08
but at Universal she became
Julia Adams, and then Julie Adams,
:20:11
and she co-starred in almost
two dozen movies there in the '50s.
:20:14
A famous sculptor said she possessed
the most perfect legs in the world,
:20:18
so Universal claimed they
insured her legs for $500,000.
:20:21
That's an old publicity trick
that went back to the '40s -
:20:24
Betty Grable's legs were insured
for a million. It's used today -
:20:27
just the other day, Jennifer Lopez
insured her legs for 400 million.
:20:31
Anyway, she had these great legs, never
seen in the western movies she made.
:20:36
Universal gave her
the bathing-suit lead in Creature.
:20:38
It instantly became her claim to fame, the
movie she's now best remembered for,
:20:42
which is a "distinction"
that she takes with humour.
:20:45
More humour at some times than others,
perhaps, but she's always a good sport.
:20:49
She worked a lot in TV, including The
Jimmy Stewart Show, as Jimmy's wife,
:20:53
Yancy Derringer, and a recurring part
on Murder, She Wrote.
:20:56
She's still in front of the cameras today,
:20:58
most recently in the documentary about
Creature which is at the end of this movie.