:27:00
and is ogled from below by
yet another male admirer, the gill-man.
:27:04
Julie Adams is doubled here
by Ginger Stanley,
:27:07
a "mermaid" swimmer
at Weeki Wachee Spring.
:27:10
When the camera is underwater, it's
cinematographer Welbourne's camera,
:27:14
and you see Ginger Stanley.
:27:16
When the camera is above water,
it's cinematographer William Snyder
:27:19
photographing Julie Adams
in Park Lake at Universal.
:27:22
Browning's performance in this scene is
the poetic/dramatic highlight of the movie.
:27:27
The thing that makes the creature
as image and myth
:27:29
are the wonderful, dynamic, swimming-
Ricou shots you're about to see.
:27:33
There's no dialogue for a few minutes,
so now is a good time
:27:36
to talk about the music
of Creature from the Black Lagoon.
:27:39
Sci-fi movie music expert David Schecter,
who releases classic sf film scores on CD
:27:44
under the umbrella title Monstrous
Movie Music, calls the Creature score
:27:48
"one of the most varied and memorable
in all of '50s sci-fi horrordom".
:27:52
"Part of the experience of the film is the
considerable musical accompaniment."
:27:57
And he's right. A hefty 63 per cent
of Creature has background music.
:28:00
Of the 44 cues listed
on Creature's cue sheets,
:28:03
29 were composed
specifically for the movie,
:28:05
with the other 15 lifted from
prior Universal pictures.
:28:08
The 29 originals were,
according to Schecter,
:28:11
composed by Hans J Salter, twelve,
Henry Mancini, ten,
:28:14
and Herman Stein, seven. The music
we're hearing now is by Herman Stein,
:28:18
and the cue is called
"Kay and the Monster".
:28:20
"The older films that contributed music to
Creature's score were from many genres"
:28:25
writes Schecter. "Some, like Mr Peabody
and the Mermaid, were water-themed,
:28:29
which is why the music was
considered for use in Creature,
:28:32
and why it was so well-suited. Westerns
also played a role in Creature's score,
:28:36
as they did in other Universal
sci-fi scores of the '50s."
:28:39
"But what sets Creature's score apart
from that of other Universal sci-fi films
:28:43
is its reliance upon a single musical
motif, Stein's three-note creature theme."
:28:50
"In the film, practically every time you see
the creature, his hands, his back, his feet,
:28:54
or even his wet footprints,
you hear his three-note theme,
:28:57
often played on flutter-tongued trumpets."