The look for the eponymous Gill Man, the Creature From The Black Lagoon, one of the icons from Universal Studios’ golden age of horror, was inspired by another Hollywood icon of the studio era, the Oscar statuette. He is one of the most recognizable monsters in all of cinema, a legendary screen creation whose influence is felt even to this day, but it may come as a bit of a surprise to learn that his creators struggled to the design for their creature.
Universal Studios had been the masters of horror in the studio era. Unable to compete with the glamour of “prestige” studios like MGM, Universal found their niche in horror films, releasing genre defining films such as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and their various sequels. But by 1954, things were changing. Television was drawing people away from theaters, and Universal’s reign as the king of horror would soon be usurped by a slew of low budget, Cold War-themed films from independent companies. One of the ways studios tried to draw audiences back to the theaters was to use new technology to enhance the experience. Creature From The Black Lagoon was one of the earliest films to be shot and released in the then new three-dimensional (3D) format.
Directed by Jack Arnold, and starring Richard Carlson and Julie Adams, the film tells the story of a doomed scientific expedition into the Amazon rainforest. After being presented with a fossilized human-like hand with webbed fingers, an intrepid team of biologists are following the river to an unexplored “black lagoon”, and are soon set upon by living fossil Gill Man, who soon takes a King Kong-like fascination with the group’s lone female, Kay Lawrence.
The Statue That Inspired The Creature
Pre-production was underway, but the filmmakers were having trouble with the design of the creature. Then, Jack Arnold unearthed the certificate that he had received when he had been nominated for an Oscar back in 1951 for the documentary With These Hands. The certificate had an image of the Oscar statuette on it, and a lightbulb went off. Using the Oscar as a base, the design team added fins and scales, claws, and a gruesomely redesigned head complete with gills. Working with molded rubber, the creature’s look took shape and became the final version for the costume worn by stuntmen Ricou Browning and Ben Chapman.
Creature From The Black Lagoon opened to critical and box office acclaim, spawned two sequels and went on to become one of the most enduring horror creations from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Several remakes were attempted over the years, including efforts by notable filmmakers John Carpenter and Ivan Reitman. To come full circle, Director Guillermo Del Toro nabbed Oscars for best director and best picture with 2017’s Creature-inspired The Shape of Water.
