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Creature From The Black Lagoon
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
"Creature From The Black Lagoon" is certainly not as smooth or slick as the flashy horror films today, but in terms of classic horror, "Creature" still is able to provide a few genuine scares. It was also one of the first films to really use underwater photography; also, although the costume isn't anything high-tech, for the time, it was nicely done.
The film revolves around a crew of scientists searching the Amazon river, and find that there's a creature who's not too happy to have visitors in his neighborhood. He does happy to fall in love with one of the crew named Kay, though - and when that relationship isn't too successful, he gets more than a little angry and starts his attack.
The script isn't exactly first-rate, but I doubt anyone was expecting much from a horror film from this era. There's a lot of other things to appreciate, though; the nicely done creature costume, respectable acting and good locations make this an entertaining entry in the horror genre.
The DVD
VIDEO: It's really quite amazing how nice a film that's around 46 years old can look if proper care is used and the care is taken. It showed in "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein", and Universal offers an even more remarkable presentation with "Creature From The Black Lagoon". Yes, there is wear and flaws now and then, but considering the age of the film, it looks great.
The film is, of course, in Black and White, but it looks very smooth and clean, with minor grain in some scenes being the only noticable problem taking away from the otherwise remarkable presentation. There are some minor marks and scratches on the print used, but less that I would expect from a film that's as old as this one is. I didn't notice any pixelation, shimmering or other similar problems. Sharpness varies, but actually looks rather strong now and then. Some of the underwater scenes do look a little bit hazy, but definitely don't completely lack clarity.
Overall though, Universal has obviously taken a good deal of care with their effort here and the results are great. The picture shows suprisingly few signs of wear for a film that's quite old at this point.
SOUND: As expected, the film is presented in 2.0 mono; there certainly isn't a whole lot going on in terms of sound in a film that's nearly 50 years old, but quality is fairly good; it seems somewhat thin at times, but it never got to the point where I found it to be tiring. Dialogue is generally clear and easily heard. Not too bad considering it's age, and worth a B-
MENUS:: The menus are fairly basic and don't have any animation, but they do have music in the background for the main menu.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from film historian Tom Weaver. He talks about not having enough time in 79 minutes to talk about all there is to talk about with "Creature From The Black Lagoon", and that illustrates just about what the rest of the commentary is like. Similar to the commentary for this week's other Universal horror title, "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein", historian Weaver talks quickly to try and cover all of the bases of the film, and he also sometimes seems to be reading from a prepared text, offering quotes from people involved with the film and others who have commented on the picture's place in horror history.
It's fascinating the amount of information that Weaver is able to recall and fit into this commentary. He goes into detail about every aspect of the film's production, from the cost of the effects and sets, to the actors to the studio's role in the film. For the 80 minute film, Weaver literally almost never stops talking and fans of the film might want to go back another time around to catch smaller details they might have missed the first time.
Back To The Black Lagoon: As with Universal's horror classic discs, "Black Lagoon" is another extremely well-produced documentary that gives a visual look at the history behind the production and also, a look at the genre in that era. The early portion of the documentary compares the title to another Universal film - "Jaws", and also goes back in history to see where the concept for "Black Lagoon" actually came from.
It also deals with the process that lead to the "3D" presentation for "Black Lagoon" and how it was actually shown in the audience. The process and presentation seems like an old-school version of IMAX presentations where audiences where glasses to achieve a three-dimensional effect today. Other elements of the documentary include costume design and interviews with many of the actors involved. Produced again by David J. Skal, this is similar to the commentary in that it's able to take an impressive amount of facts and information and able to put it together into an organized, entertaining presentation. With credits and all, it comes close to 40 minutes in length.
Also A moderately large gallery of production photos, production notes, cast/crew bios and theatrical trailer.
Final Thoughts: Universal deserves praise for offering such strong image quality for an older title. The sound is so-so at times, but I didn't find it distracting. Supplemental features are great and fans of the film will be very pleased.
"Creature From The Black Lagoon" is certainly not as smooth or slick as the flashy horror films today, but in terms of classic horror, "Creature" still is able to provide a few genuine scares. It was also one of the first films to really use underwater photography; also, although the costume isn't anything high-tech, for the time, it was nicely done.
The film revolves around a crew of scientists searching the Amazon river, and find that there's a creature who's not too happy to have visitors in his neighborhood. He does happy to fall in love with one of the crew named Kay, though - and when that relationship isn't too successful, he gets more than a little angry and starts his attack.
The script isn't exactly first-rate, but I doubt anyone was expecting much from a horror film from this era. There's a lot of other things to appreciate, though; the nicely done creature costume, respectable acting and good locations make this an entertaining entry in the horror genre.
The DVD
VIDEO: It's really quite amazing how nice a film that's around 46 years old can look if proper care is used and the care is taken. It showed in "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein", and Universal offers an even more remarkable presentation with "Creature From The Black Lagoon". Yes, there is wear and flaws now and then, but considering the age of the film, it looks great.
The film is, of course, in Black and White, but it looks very smooth and clean, with minor grain in some scenes being the only noticable problem taking away from the otherwise remarkable presentation. There are some minor marks and scratches on the print used, but less that I would expect from a film that's as old as this one is. I didn't notice any pixelation, shimmering or other similar problems. Sharpness varies, but actually looks rather strong now and then. Some of the underwater scenes do look a little bit hazy, but definitely don't completely lack clarity.
Overall though, Universal has obviously taken a good deal of care with their effort here and the results are great. The picture shows suprisingly few signs of wear for a film that's quite old at this point.
SOUND: As expected, the film is presented in 2.0 mono; there certainly isn't a whole lot going on in terms of sound in a film that's nearly 50 years old, but quality is fairly good; it seems somewhat thin at times, but it never got to the point where I found it to be tiring. Dialogue is generally clear and easily heard. Not too bad considering it's age, and worth a B-
MENUS:: The menus are fairly basic and don't have any animation, but they do have music in the background for the main menu.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from film historian Tom Weaver. He talks about not having enough time in 79 minutes to talk about all there is to talk about with "Creature From The Black Lagoon", and that illustrates just about what the rest of the commentary is like. Similar to the commentary for this week's other Universal horror title, "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein", historian Weaver talks quickly to try and cover all of the bases of the film, and he also sometimes seems to be reading from a prepared text, offering quotes from people involved with the film and others who have commented on the picture's place in horror history.
It's fascinating the amount of information that Weaver is able to recall and fit into this commentary. He goes into detail about every aspect of the film's production, from the cost of the effects and sets, to the actors to the studio's role in the film. For the 80 minute film, Weaver literally almost never stops talking and fans of the film might want to go back another time around to catch smaller details they might have missed the first time.
Back To The Black Lagoon: As with Universal's horror classic discs, "Black Lagoon" is another extremely well-produced documentary that gives a visual look at the history behind the production and also, a look at the genre in that era. The early portion of the documentary compares the title to another Universal film - "Jaws", and also goes back in history to see where the concept for "Black Lagoon" actually came from.
It also deals with the process that lead to the "3D" presentation for "Black Lagoon" and how it was actually shown in the audience. The process and presentation seems like an old-school version of IMAX presentations where audiences where glasses to achieve a three-dimensional effect today. Other elements of the documentary include costume design and interviews with many of the actors involved. Produced again by David J. Skal, this is similar to the commentary in that it's able to take an impressive amount of facts and information and able to put it together into an organized, entertaining presentation. With credits and all, it comes close to 40 minutes in length.
Also A moderately large gallery of production photos, production notes, cast/crew bios and theatrical trailer.
Final Thoughts: Universal deserves praise for offering such strong image quality for an older title. The sound is so-so at times, but I didn't find it distracting. Supplemental features are great and fans of the film will be very pleased.
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