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Friday, May 16, 2008

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954)

At exactly the same cultural moment that found Disney moving away from those dark & grim/Grimm influences as they started their their first post-WWII animated feature (CINDERELLA . . . in Levittown), Universal lightened up from their heavily Germanic mode (FRANKENSTEIN/DRACULA/WOLF MAN) to bring us the cleanest monster of ‘em all, this bathed & domesticated eponymous Creature. There's a bold & brassy music cue that wails whenever you-know-who is near (mercifully no composer is credited) & a big, scaly claw as fright fodder, but megger Jack Arnold can’t come up with much narrative to chew on. Just that one iconic shot of beauty & the beast doing parallel strokes. Richard Carlson is likable as a scientist who’s not the usual obsessed lunatic, but maybe that switch is part of what’s missing here . . . along with the 3-D fun that made the original release a bit more memorable. (Maybe Blu-Ray will work out the 3-D issue for home viewing.)

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