The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)

 The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)

Having mostly seen photos of the humanized Gill-man I always figured this was a lesser effort where they had not even bothered to match creature design effects.

How good could it be?

As it turns out, it's actually not as bad as I imagined.

I still hate the monster design since it’s such a huge step down from what once was a perfect creature, and doesn’t even make much sense, (he burned, and turned into this?)

The existence of homo gillmanius seems like an accepted scientific fact, and a group of scientists organize an expedition to attempt to capture a specimen, (is it the same being? Does it matter?)

Intrusive to our monster business, one of the scientists brings along his wife who is flirty, but not worryingly so, but of whom he feels immensely jealous. This plays a lot, (too much,) in the story we came to watch.

After a first act of the scientists and the creature playing cat-and-mouse games and which captures the flavor of the original quite well, the creature is set on fire, captured, and treated for severe burns which destroy its outer skin and its ability to breathe normally.

None of this really makes sense. When the scientists speak Science it’s not bad, but it never truly matches what they actually do.

There are some intimations that the ‘treatment’ the creature is to receive, or actually receives (it’s not clear they are the same), will help man colonize space.

Some surprisingly early environmental concerns are also expressed.

Also notable is the effort to humanize animals/monsters which was present as early as in The Island of Lost Souls, and which has not yet stopped being emphasized in contemporary Science Fiction dealing with alien species.

But as a result, ol’ Creech is turned into a graceless, bulkier thing which must additionally be clothed, (why?). He is also unable to live in water anymore and is now doomed to live a life on land, humiliating enough, in a cage he shares with sheep, (he’s supposed to eat them?)

The Gill-man had been transported from Florida to a ranch in California, (customs must not have had any say in the transport of dangerous species at the time,) and when jealousy rears its ugly head to deadly results Creech is relegated to functioning as deus ex machina, a sad, unfitting end to what once was a wondrous creation.

Gill-man never gets the girl, never is given even a chance at it, but still manages to get a sad, sympathetic quality by the end.

I suppose this is much better than I expected after all those years of looking at the second version of the creature, but it’s still an ignominious end to one of the better if not best original Universal Studios monsters. “Give Me Back My Beast!” Greta Garbo reportedly called out those words at the ending of Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast (1946), when she first saw the film; and for all the criticism The Shape of Water received, Guillermo del Toro understood that first, and most important of all was that the Gill-man be beautiful.

With Jeff Morrow, Rex Reason, Leigh Snowden, Gregg Palmer, Maurice Manson, Ricou Browning and Don Megowan.