1:14:01
so a nurse had to come and look at it.
1:14:03
There's a shot of Adams having
a bandage put on her head by the nurse,
1:14:07
and around her are Jack Arnold,
Richard Denning, Richard Carlson,
1:14:10
and, squatting down and looking
very concerned, the creature.
1:14:14
I like this bit here of Carlson
getting lifted in the air.
1:14:17
When the creature puts him down,
notice the claw marks on Carlson.
1:14:21
He's got puncture wounds from
the creature's thumbs on his sides,
1:14:25
and he's got gashes from
the creature's other eight fingers
1:14:28
on the sides of his back.
1:14:34
In the Maurice Zimm
treatment, Black Lagoon,
1:14:37
the gill-man is shot up
and then devoured by piranha.
1:14:39
A later draft ended with Reed killing the
gill-man on the boat deck with an axe:
1:14:44
"The axe protruding from
the neck of the gill-man,
1:14:46
apparently embedded there,
cutting the spinal cord."
1:14:49
"As the gill-man falls, the axe
is pulled from Reed's grasp."
1:14:52
"Camera slowly pulls back to
a full shot. No one moves or speaks."
1:14:57
A conclusive ending like that wouldn't do.
1:14:59
Jack Arnold told an interviewer that
the gill-man wasn't destroyed because
1:15:04
"the studio wanted to keep him in
there for a sequel, and I loved him."
1:15:07
"I called him 'the beastie', and
I wanted to leave it a little open,
1:15:11
not show him destroyed.
I thought he was very sympathetic,
1:15:14
due in no small way to
the work of Ricou Browning."
1:15:17
Arnold was right about Ricou Browning,
and about Universal thinking "sequel".
1:15:21
Even before Creature was released,
the outline for Revenge was written.
1:15:25
The studio had no intention
of letting what was
1:15:27
the best articulated full-body
monster costume ever made
1:15:30
go to waste after just one movie.
1:15:33
Weeks after Creature went into release,
an outline temporarily titled
1:15:36
Sequel to Creature from the Black
Lagoon was on William Alland's desk,
1:15:39
dated February 26, 1954,
1:15:42
and opening with the lines
1:15:43
"The Rita chugs slowly up the Amazon."
1:15:45
"They are on their way to the Black
Lagoon to see if the gill-man is still alive."
1:15:49
I'm Tom Weaver. Thank you for listening.