Creature from the Black Lagoon

This article is about the film. For the eponymous character, see Gill-man.

Creature from the Black Lagoon
Theatrical release poster
by Reynold Brown
Directed byJack Arnold
Screenplay by
Story byMaurice Zimm
Produced byWilliam Alland
Starring
CinematographyWilliam E. Snyder
Edited byTed J. Kent
Music by
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal-International
Release dates
  • February 12, 1954 (1954-02-12)
(premiere)[1]
  • March 5, 1954 (1954-03-05)
(et al., regional openings)
Running time
79 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1,300,000[2]

Creature from the Black Lagoon is a 1954 American black-and-white 3D monster horror film produced by William Alland and directed by Jack Arnold, from a screenplay by Harry Essex and Arthur Ross and a story by Maurice Zimm. It stars Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, Nestor Paiva, and Whit Bissell. The film's plot follows a group of scientists who encounter a piscine amphibious humanoid in the waters of the Amazon; the Creature, also known as the Gill-man, was played by Ben Chapman on land and by Ricou Browning underwater. Produced and distributed by Universal-International, Creature from the Black Lagoon premiered in Detroit on February 12, 1954, and was released on a regional basis, opening on various dates.

Creature from the Black Lagoon was filmed in three dimensions (3D) and originally projected by the polarized light method. The audience wore viewers with gray polarizing filters, similar to the viewers most commonly used today. Because the brief 1950s 3D film fad had peaked in mid-1953 and was fading fast in early 1954, many audiences actually saw the film "flat", in two dimensions (2D). Typically, the film was shown in 3D in large downtown theaters and flat in smaller neighborhood theaters. In 1975, Creature from the Black Lagoon was released to theaters in the red-and-blue-glasses anaglyph 3D format, which was also used for a 1980 home video release on Beta and VHS videocassettes.[1]

  1. ^ a b Furmanek, Bob and Greg Kintz. "An in-depth look at 'Creature from the Black Lagoon'". Archived April 2, 2019, at the Wayback Machine 3dfilmarchive.com, 2012. Retrieved: November 19, 2013.
  2. ^ "1954 Box Office Champs". Variety Weekly. January 5, 1955. p. 59. - figures are rentals in the US and Canada