Loneliness of the Long Distance Swimmer: “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954)

     With the discovery of traces of a previously unknown species on the banks of an Amazonian lagoon, a team of scientists embarks upon the usual expedition armed with a beautiful and shapely woman who serves no apparent function except to act as a romantic irritant between the two typically dashing scientists, and an assortment of generic crewmen who will be easily disposable according to the needs of the script, but who also don’t seem to serve any genuine function as their absence does not hamper the progress of the expedition one whit. Welcome to Anthropology 101, Hollywood-style.  Jack Arnold’s film has all of the location exoticism on would expect of a backlot production which never moved closer to the Equator than the Sunshine State, though there is an inherently otherworldly quality suggested by the primitive vastness of the very idea of the Amazon (as opposed to darkest Africa which thanks to the abundance of Tarzan, Jungle Jim and Bomba pictures has seen its mythic luster faded with over-familiarity) which the picture is able to substantially capitalize on, especially with the emergence of the impressively imagined title creature.

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