Monster of the Day #8

Updated on April 16, 2010 By Ken Begg 17 Comments

The last of the great Universal Monsters.

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  • I decided the monster(s) I was originally thinking of posting today was/were too similar to yesterday’s monster. So I’ll keep that entry in reserve.

  • Ericb

    The monster is cool and all but, damn, Julia Adams sure is hot.

  • Wait, there’s a monster in that picture?

  • The Rev. D.D.

    I first got to see this at about the right age: young enough to be scared of the monster, old enough to be very very excited about Julia Adams. The movie’s greatness was just icing, although I appreciate it much more nowadays.

    This is my favorite of the Universal classics, I think (either this or Frankenstein), and possibly my favorite non-giant monster ever.

  • Gamera

    I was thinking it’s interesting that Creature has a lot in common plot-wise with Avatar- aka humans getting in trouble from meddling in an alien environment. Except that creature is entertaining and intelligent while Avatar is well preachy and dull.

    And yeah if Julie Adams were any hotter she’d evaporate all the water from the lagoon…..

  • Rock Baker

    Can’t go wrong with the Gillman! My first viewing of this great flick was Pop’s 8mm digest (I was around 8 or 9 I think), then we bought the Goodtimes vhs release which I still own today. (We lost the box many years ago, I wish I could find another box for my naked tape) I also wound up with the first dvd release AND the ‘legacy collection’ dvd with the two sequels. Added bonus, I have the Universal 8 400′ digest in 3D! (Oh, I also have the book with a complete shooting script for an earlier draft) I REALLY love this movie! With all due respect to Julie Adams, however, I must cast my vote in favor of Lori Nelson in Revenge of the Creature.

  • This was also my favorite Universal monster, and might be one reason that the Deep Ones of HP Lovecraft resonated so strongly with me when I encountered them. I never even was able to SEE the original movie for many years – but I read the comic adaptation (which was quite a bit different, it turns out), and I built the Aurora model.

    Best rubber suit of all time, in my opinion.

  • Nelson or Adams? Surely a question that can only be solved via a skimpily-dressed catfight!

  • Really the plot of The Creature is pretty pedestrian, compared to the shenanigans going on in stuff like Hammer’s vampire flicks. It’s really the setting and the awesome monster that sold me.

    I wonder if the simple scripts actually show the monster off better, since there are fewer plotlines to get tangled up with. My other favorite Universal monster was Kharis the mummy, and he gets the same damn plot every time.

  • Rock Baker

    The suit is pretty fantastic, as are Julie’s gams, but I also love the soundtrack. Those Universal stock cues were a big part of my upbringing, and I think they always sound great (Mant! just wouldn’t be the same without them). I’m also a fan of the rest of the cast, Richard Carlson (no one could give a speech like him), Whit Bissell, Richard Denning, Nestor Paiva… -and then you get the sequels and can add John Agar, John Bromfield, Rex Reason, Jeff Morrow, Leigh Snowden, Gregg Palmer, what a line-up! I got to meet Ben Chapman a few years ago (Rex Reason too!) and he was a blast. He told me that the inside of the gillman’s mouth (which I always thought was a very elaborate sculpture) was nothing more than his own face.
    I guess its official that they’re going to remake this. I wonder if there’s a petition NOT to remake it that I could sign…

  • Reed

    Wait, Sandy has encountered Deep Ones? That explains so much.

  • I guess you don’t live along a coastline? They’re pretty easy to encounter if you know where to look.

  • Luke Blanchard

    I was impressed by The Creature Walks Among Us when I saw it way back when. It struck me as an intelligent film.

  • sandra

    I think the Gillman’s success owes a lot to the man who wore the costume, Ricou Browning : his grace underwater, and the fact that he could hold his breath for long periods, which meant they could do long scenes in a single shot. (There was no way to build an oxygen tank into the suit, without making the Creature a hunchback :-D, so he woud just take a breath from an off-camera tank.)
    That scene where he swims underneath Julia Adams is really quite sexy.

  • Rock Baker

    Neat bit of trivia about Browning -at the time he filmed ‘Creature’ has was a five-pack-a-day smoker (this according to the comentary track on the dvd)! I don’t know if he still smokes that heavily, but his abilities seem to contradict a lot of ‘medical’ studies.

  • sandra

    I doubt Ricou Browning is still a 5-pack-a-day smoker, because he probably died of lung cancer, like the Marlboro Man.

  • Rock Baker

    Browning is actually still alive and well. Tho Land Creature Chapman passed away not long ago.