:25:03
The deepest that Ricou and the divers
he worked with went with air hoses was,
:25:07
he says, 100, at the most 110, 120 feet.
:25:10
Of course, they didn't have the equipment
or the helium mixes divers have now,
:25:14
so naturally they couldn't
go as deeply as divers today.
:25:17
Much more recently, divers equipped with
this new gear and the new mixed gases
:25:21
have gone 200-300 feet
down into Wakulla Spring.
:25:23
But, as Ricou said, "They still
may not have found the bottom."
:25:27
Anyway, Scotty Welbourne had a movie
camera with him, and he said to Ricou
:25:31
"Would you swim in front of the camera
so we can get some perspective
:25:35
of the size of the logs or the fish
or whatever with a human body?"
:25:39
Ricou said "Sure",
and he did swim for Welbourne.
:25:41
Arnold and Welbourne liked the spring.
Ricou took 'em to the airport and they left.
:25:45
And a few weeks later, Ricou
got a call from Jack Arnold, who said
:25:49
"We saw the footage, we love the spring
and we love the way you swim."
:25:52
"I like your style. Would you be
the Creature of the Black Lagoon?"
:25:55
Ricou said "Fine. Let's have at it."
:25:58
Arnold said they'd send tickets
so he could come to Universal,
:26:00
and they'd build an outfit for him to wear.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
:26:04
Come on, David.
You can play house later.
:26:06
The script has Denning
be obnoxious in every scene,
:26:09
so that we never forget that
he's gonna be the heavy.
:26:12
Browning went to Universal, where outfits
for the gill-man were being devised.
:26:17
I should mention that
William Alland's concept of the gill-man
:26:20
was more human than
the gill-man in the movie.
:26:22
Alland had a sculptor sculpt the
head of a very sad, beautiful monster.
:26:26
He told me "It wasn't a monster.
It was far more attractive,
:26:29
more romantic than
the beast they ended up with."
:26:32
"It had fish lips and gills
and a vaguely fishlike face,
:26:35
sort of an aquatic development of a man."
:26:37
Alland told me "It would still frighten you,
:26:39
but because of how human it was,
not the other way around."
:26:42
"And the studio said 'Get outta here,
that's not scary enough."'
:26:46
That's when the Universal
make-up department took over.
:26:49
Kay doesn't know about the creature, but
she does know there are 9ft killer catfish.
:26:54
You couldn't get me
in that lagoon with dynamite.
:26:57
Here comes the best, most famous scene
in the movie, as Julie Adams takes a dip