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Creature from the Black Lagoon

1954 American monster film

Creature from the Black Lagoon is a 1954 film about the discovery of an amphibious humanoid by a group of scientists.

We've just begun to learn about the water and its secrets, just as we've only touched on outer space. We don't entirely rule out the possibility that there might be some form of life on another planet, and why not some entirely different form of life in a world we already know is inhabited by millions of living creatures?
Directed by Jack Arnold. Written by Harry Essex.
Centuries of passion pent up in his savage heart! (taglines)

Dr. David Reed

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  • We didn't come here to fight with monsters. We're not equipped for it. We came here to find fossils.

Others

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  • Narrator: In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the Earth was without form and void. This the planet Earth, newly born and and cooling rapidly from a temperature 6,000 degrees to a few hundred in less than 5 billion years. Heat rises, meets the atmosphere, the clouds form, and rain pours down upon the hardening surface for countless centuries. The restless seas rise, find boundaries, are contained. Now, in their warm depths, the miracle of life begins. In infinite variety, living things appear, and change, and reach the land, leaving a record of their coming, of their struggle to survive, and of their eventual end.
  • Lucas: I can tell you something about this place. The boys around here call it "The Black Lagoon" - a paradise. Only they say nobody has ever come back to prove it.

Dialogue

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Lucas: What kind of fishing is that? Who eats rocks?
Carl Maia: I eat rocks, in a manner of speaking. I crush and look inside them and they tell me things.
Lucas: What do they tell you?
Carl Maia: How old they are.
Dr. Thompson: Demon, eh? Well, it's no more far-fetched than your gillman.
Lucas: There are many strange legends in the Amazon. Even I, Lucas, have heard the legend of a man-fish.
Carl Maia: David, you still don't look like an ichthyologist.
Kay Lawrence: The geologist's point of view. He expected a lovable old professor with a beard.
Carl Maia: Well, now we have a lab, such as it is.
David Reed: Let's hope we have some use for it.
Mark Williams: I'll be disappointed if we don't. Assuming of course Dr. Maia's facts are well founded.
David Reed: Dr. Maia's a scientist, not a fortune-teller! How can he guarantee anything!?
Kay Lawrence: Well it seems to me a scientist has need for both vision and confidence.
Mark Williams: I didn't mean it as any personal criticism doctor, it's just that I also look forward to success.
Mark Williams: Come on, come on!
David Reed: You talking to me Mark or something out there?
Mark Williams: Both David, they won't believe it back home, none of them, I wouldn't have believed it myself sitting out here waiting for some monster to appear: that's why we've got to take him.
David Reed: Why won't they believe Mark?
Mark Williams: Because we deal with known quantities, with knowledge we've accumulated up to now.
David Reed: We've just begun to learn about the water and its secrets, just as we've only touched on outer space. We don't entirely rule out the possibility that there might be some form of life on another planet, and why not some entirely different form of life in a world we already know is inhabited by millions of living creatures?
Mark Williams: We must have the proof!
Carl Maia: And you two married yet?
Kay Lawrence: No, David says we're together all the time anyway, might as well save expenses.
Carl Maia: Did you ever hear of two living as cheaply as one?
Kay Lawrence: That's what I keep telling him, Carl.
David Reed: I'm waiting for Williams to give her that raise. Then she can afford me.
Mark Williams: We're staying until we get him.
David Reed: Or until somebody else gets killed. No, we're not. Lucas, we're getting out of here as fast as we can.
Lucas: Okay.
Mark Williams: I'll make the decisions around here.
Lucas: But you are wrong, Mr. Williams. On the water, the captain makes the decisions. [to David] We will do as you say.
Mark Williams: You'll listen to me.
Lucas: [sticks his knife up Mark's chin] You wish to say something, mister? Huh?
David Reed: It's the only way. We've to clear this inlet.
Lucas: Hey, that fellow down there, you think he's a mosquito you can shoo away?
David Reed: We got to take that chance.
Kay Lawrence: Oh, sure. What's an expedition without two martyrs at least!
David Reed: Hey, Kay, I'm doing the only thing we can do. If we all just sit here, we'll - we'll all end up as Mark did.

Taglines

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  • Creature from a million years ago!... every man his mortal enemy... and a woman's beauty his prey!
  • Centuries of passion pent up in his savage heart!
  • Clawing monster from A Lost Age strikes from the Amazon's forbidden depths!

About

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  • Well, you know, people always ask me what makes Creature from the Black Lagoon hold up after all these years. I always say that if you look at the movie, the storyline starts with the Big Bang. Then it goes to the creation of man, and you see evolution with man coming out of the sea. The theory today is that man DID come out of the sea. These are issues that men today are STILL dwelling on. Was man created? Or, was man evolved? So, that's why if you watch Creature, you're not bored because it still makes sense.
  • I think the best thing about the picture is that we do feel for the Creature. We feel for him and his predicament and where he is and so on. I think that's a very positive thing really. I like that we feel sympathy for the Creature.
  • I love Creature From the Black Lagoon, because in many ways it was the first action/adventure/horror movie, and it really broke new ground in that way. There was some interesting ecological lessons that the movie was trying to teach you, and it was a very unique thing. Again, that's a creature that is fascinated with this woman, and it's really all about wanting to connect to a human. I think that's very relatable in a lot of ways. That is the beauty of the Monster universe. Each character has a very compelling, moving interest; you just have to figure out how to tell that story.

Cast

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