"At the Paramount"
May 1st, 1954

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, screen play by Harry Essex and Arthur Ross; from a story by Maurice Zimm; directed by Jack Arnold; produced by William Alland for Universal-International. 

David Reed . . . . . Richard Carlson

Kay Lawrence . . . . . Julia Adams

Mark Williams . . . . . Richard Denning

Carl Mala . . . . . Antonio Moreno

Lucas . . . . . Nestor Paiva

Edwin Thompson . . . . . Whit Bissell

Gill-Man . . . . . Ben Chapman

Chico . . . . . Henry Escalante

Zee . . . . . Bernie Gozier

Dr. Matos . . . . . Sydney Mason

Tomas . . . . . Julio Lopez

Louis . . . . . Rodd Redwing

HOLLYWOOD'S science-fiction faction, a crew obviously second to none, has found another lost world and conquered it in "Creature From the Black Lagoon," which was exposed at the Paramount yesterday. Three writers and such stellar researchers as Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning and Antonio Moreno snag nothing less than a "merman" minding his own business in that peaceful black lagoon on the "upper reaches of the Amazon." It's a fishing expedition that is necessary only if a viewer has lost all of his comic books.

In all fairness, however, one can't blame our "gill-man" too much for resenting this intrusion on his privacy, a solitude he has enjoyed since the Devonian Age, it says here. Despite the fact that a noted geologist (Mr. Moreno) has started all this scientific probing by discovering a fossilized, web-fingered "hand," Dr. Richard Denning has an itchy trigger finger and would just as soon do this rare quarry to death with his spear-gun as not. Dr. Richard Carlson, on the other hand, is steadfastly true to pure science and a handy man with underwater beasts whom he loves as dearly as his aqualungs. Then there is Julia Adams, a nobly endowed technician who appears to be as out of place in a laboratory ship as a "gill-man" in an aquarium.

Our "gill-man" —made up terrifyingly enough to make a Grand Banks fisherman take up tatting—who can't be landed by hook, net or worms, is, as we were saying, lonely. And the sight of the beauteous Miss Adams clad in brief shorts or white bathing suits turns his fish-head. When he tries to kidnap that lady and take her to his grotto on the lagoon, his number, it becomes obvious, is up. Messrs. Carlson, Denning and Moreno behave as though these goings-on actually were frightening. Miss Adams is lovely to look at and the "gill-man" is not. The proceedings above and under water were filmed in 3-D to impart an illusion of depth when viewed through polarized glasses. This adventure has no depth.