:31:02
mouldwise, in several pieces.
I can't tell you how many now,
:31:04
but I would guess between six and ten.
They were cast in foam rubber,
:31:07
which at the time was something new.
The costume fit him pretty skintight."
:31:11
It sure did. Ben Chapman, the 6'5" actor
who played the creature at Universal,
:31:15
describes the gill-man suit as fitting
as closely as an outer layer of skin.
:31:19
Luckily, neither Ricou
nor Ben was claustrophobic.
:31:22
Anybody who gets into a suit like that and
finds out they are is in a world of trouble.
:31:26
Once in that suit, your eyeballs and the
inside of your mouth was all that showed.
:31:31
Unfortunately nothing is left
of any of the gill-man costumes.
:31:34
They were made of foam rubber,
which doesn't last.
:31:36
Even the moulds for the suits
have been destroyed.
:31:39
Universal threw them away
years ago to make some room.
:31:45
I was always bothered by the fact
that they want us to believe
:31:48
the creature could crack the boom
just by his powerful swimming.
:31:51
The boat's not anchored - the creature
would just tow it around the lagoon.
:31:55
Frank Lovejoy was considered
for the starring role in Creature.
:31:58
Lovejoy was the hero of Warner Brothers'
House of Wax, a 3-D hit earlier that year,
:32:03
and maybe that was why Universal
thought of him for Creature.
:32:06
But they decided
to go with Richard Carlson.
:32:08
For the part of Dr Maia,
Universal first thought of Ramon Novarro.
:32:12
Novarro was a Mexican-born leading man
:32:14
who became a big, Rudolph-Valentino-like
star in the silent era.
:32:17
He had the title role in one of
the greatest silent epics, MGM's Ben Hur.
:32:21
But instead of Novarro,
Universal went with Antonio Moreno,
:32:24
who back in silent days was kinda like
the poor man's Ramon Novarro.
:32:28
Creature was one of Moreno's final
screen roles. He died rich in 1967.
:32:33
This was strange at a studio
famous for its monsters,
:32:36
but Universal tried to avoid
an exploitative title on the movie.
:32:39
They called it simply
Black Lagoon for a long time,
:32:42
but then they decided
that wasn't going to cut it
:32:44
and they sent out a memo
requesting alternate titles.
:32:48
The memo read "The request is
for a title that may better suggest
:32:50
the shock and mystery, and perhaps
the prehistoric implications of the story."
:32:55
"We have been asked to stay away
from words like 'monster' or 'beast'
:32:58
to avoid a title that might
downgrade the picture."