Notes: Return of the Creature (1955)

This oddly to me gets a bad rep, or maybe it was a product of 50s sci-fi creature feature criticism where the genre of monsters loose on the rampage in civilization of the modern decade didn't get much slack. Personally I don't mind the change of location for the Gill Man, and director Jack Arnold does take us back to the Black Lagoon for a bit to see it in it's natural habitat before charting a course for Florida where it gets loose from an aquarium and looks to mate with Nelson's ichthyologist, mauling anyone in its path. Nelson does stay faint for quite a long time as the hunt for her and Gillman is on. The use of explosive to kill the fish and put Gillman in a coma to secure him for the aquarium is really sketchy and many might feel the creature is justified in being pissed of for being taken from its home and put in captivity for gawkers. Clint Eastwood had a brief part as a lab assistant to Agar. Agar was in a lot of monster movies. When next to Creature from the Black Lagoon, this sequel obviously doesn't hold up as strong. And this sequel sort of runs back some similar moments such as the creature smitten with a beautiful woman and aggressively hostile to men.

User comments from September 2007:

The Gill Man is captured from it's Black Lagoon home and is studied in the Ocean Harbor oceanarium by Professor Clete Ferguson(John Agar)and student Helen Dobson(Lori Nelson). Joe Hayes(John Bromfield)is in charge of keeping him chained in the aquarium and fed. Trying to teach him to understand commands such as stopping and eating properly, they shock the poor creature with a prod. Soon the Gill Man breaks free from his watery prison with panic reaching great heights. It wishes to mate with Helen who has fallen in love with Clete. As they travel on a cruise through the waters of Jacksonville, Florida down the river, the Gill Man follows biding it's time until Helen is vulnerable. Kidnapping her, Clete will join forces with a police and search party to find them.

Straight-forward and simple plot sets up the thrilling final twenty or so minutes with the Gill Man killing anyone who gets in it's way. There's one startling scene where two college kids run up on Helen's body washed ashore as the Gill Man was away momentarily. It takes one kids and tosses him into a palm tree while he strangles another. But, the middle part of the film shows Gill Man's desperate attempts to free itself from a watery cage it didn't ask for. The group who study him realize the Gill Man is sensitive to bright light and must return to the water ever so often to replenish itself so that it will not suffocate on dry land. These weaknesses expose the Gill Man who is able to remain uncaught for a while at the end as it runs the shore with a weakened Helen often unconscious. Good suspense built at the end using the idea that the Gill Man could attack from the bushes anytime. But, director Jack Arnold(who helmed the first masterpiece)shows that despite it's faults, the Gill Man is an intelligent and patient creature who can strategize and hide really well. Having such strength, fear strikes anyone who dares face it off alone. If you wanted to see the Gill Man more, this sequel gives you your money's worth. Some striking under water sequences.