The Creature from The Creature From the Black Lagoon (US-1954; dir. Jack Arnold) is one of US cinema’s most iconic monsters. I remember watching it in the early 1960s on our then-newish black-and-white TV set, when it was screened as part of Deadly Ernest’s late night Creature Feature show. I loved it, of course, but was outraged when I discovered how many of the close-ups where edited out so that my little mind wouldn’t be warped by the terrifying imagery. Right. Since then I’ve watched it many times, now complete in a lovely, pristine digital format, and still think it one of the best… though, of course, my mind is thoroughly warped.
Current news is that it’s being remade, directed by Breck Eisner (Sahara, the “Jacob and Jesse” episode of Taken) for a 2009 release.
Meanwhile, Life Magazine has unearthed an archive of shots taken during the filming by photographer Edward Clark. (You can view the unadjusted shots here. Even better, Kerry Gammil has put up colour-corrected versions here.)
They let us see how really incredible the rubber suit (designed by Bud Westmore) looks, even up close and (especially) in colour. Absolutely beautiful. No doubt they will CGI the creature in the new film, which I will inevitably find much less interesting.
Meanwhile these pictures, long buried in the vaults of Life Magazine, can remind us how good the older techniques can be.
- Source: Bob Johnson
- Note: Stan Hyde has pointed out that “Bud Westmore ran the make-up department, but the creature was really created by Milicent Patrick, Jack Kevan, Chris Mueller Jr. and Tom Case”.
Wow! Those are nothing less than GORGEOUS, Rob!
Thanks for sharing these with us.
Now, you must tell us all more about “Deadly Ernest’s late night Creature Feature
Show”! This is the first I’ve ever heard about him (or any other Horror Hosts from Oz:0). Are they a thing of the past there as they just about are here in the US?
T
Deadly was a classic-style, comedic horror host whose show ran for some time and — as far as I recall — featured all the usual cinematic suspects punctuated with gag moments during ad breaks. It was a franchise, with different people playing the Host. The one I’m familiar with was in Sydney, played by Ian Bannerman.
Here’s an info page: http://au.geocities.com/rocket42au/deadly/DE-SYD1.html
At the bottom there’s a link to other Deadlies.
And, yes, they’re a thing of the past….
I remember Deadly Ernest introducing “It Came From Beneath the Sea” as a documentary on the Bondi sewer. Yeah, horror movie hosts are sadly missed in general, but he was great. He looked like Harry Palmer as a zombie
Yes, they will all be missed.
Our horror hosts were mostly done away with due to a deadly plague of “infamous infomercials”, which ate up all of the late-night network TV time.
Are there any url links to any old footage of “Deadly Ernest”?
Not that I can find, Todd. I did find some fans of Deadly complaining about the lack of historic recognition given to him by the TV channel concerned. I suspect that the tapes were wiped long before the internet and the digital age made nostalgia a viable business.
Thanks very much, I’ve been looking all over the net trying to find these pictures. I appreciate you putting them up for us to enjoy!