The horror of the Amazon
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The horror of the Amazon The monster of the black lagoon (Austria) |
| Original title | Creature from the Black Lagoon |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1954 |
| length | 79 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 (formerly 16) |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jack Arnold |
| script |
Harry Essex Arthur A. Ross |
| production | William Alland |
| music |
Hans J. Salter Henry Mancini Herman Stein Milton Rosen Robert Emmett Dolan (all unnamed) |
| camera |
William E. Snyder Charles S. Welbourne |
| cut | Ted J. Kent |
| occupation | |
| |
| chronology | |
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Successor → |
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The Horror from the Amazon (Original Creature from the Black Lagoon ) is a classic horror film filmed in 3D by the American director Jack Arnold from 1954 .
A research expedition encounters a “gill man”, half marine, half land creature, in a branch of the Amazon , the “Black Lagoon”, who quickly becomes a deadly threat for the expedition members.
action
While digging in the Amazon, a group of geologists finds a petrified hand that could have come from a missing link between marine and land creatures. In order to research further finds, Dr. David Reed, an ichthyologist , sets off a new expedition that includes scientists Williams, Thompson, and Maia alongside him. Reed's friend Kay Lawrence also joins the expedition.
With the small steamer "Rita" you set off to the old camp, but you only find the expedition members left behind dead. Captain Lucas of the "Rita" suspects that they were killed by a jaguar, but the scientists cannot agree with the assumption. When a crew member disappears, uneasiness spreads among the researchers.
Because further excavations did not bring any results, it was decided to drive further upstream to the so-called Black Lagoon, from which the previous find could have been washed out. They were followed unnoticed by a “gill man”, who can breathe both on land and underwater, into the lagoon. Underwater, the gill man watches as Kay Lawrence takes a bath in the lagoon and gets caught in a fishing net, from which he is able to escape. After killing two other crew members, the researchers manage to catch him in a cage. During the night he escapes again and injures Dr. Thompson hard.
When the researchers decide to break off the expedition, they find the exit of the lagoon blocked by tree trunks. David Reed tries to remove the blockage but is attacked by the Gillman. Dr. Williams drowns while trying to catch the creature. Shortly afterwards, the gill man kidnaps Kay into his cave on land. During the liberation operation, he was injured by several rifle shots and sank into the depths of the Black Lagoon.
background
The horror of the Amazon was created on the studio premises of the Universal production studio and various filming locations in California and Florida . The underwater footage was shot by a second unit team under the direction of James C. Havens in Wakulla Springs , Florida.
The professional diver Ricou Browning , who later worked in the TV series Flipper and was responsible for the underwater shots in the James Bond films Fireball and Never Say Never , was in the gill man's costume . Actor Ben Chapman played the gill man on land.
Five musicians were involved in the composition of the film music: Hans J. Salter , Henry Mancini , Herman Stein , Milton Rosen and Robert Emmett Dolan . None of these were mentioned in the titles , instead Joseph Gershenson was mentioned for "Musical Direction". Mancini explained in an interview that it was common at Universal at the time for Gershenson, head of the music department, to entrust several musicians with the composition for a project at the same time in order to save time.
The film was originally recorded in 3D for the polarization process. When projecting, however, an expensive silver-coated screen is required that is able to reflect the polarized light back. Two mechanically coupled projectors have to show both films (one for the left and one for the right eye) with frame accuracy. It happened again and again that one of the films tore and then a precisely fitting performance was hardly possible and the film had to be continued in the normal "flat" version. For these reasons, the film was copied into the cheaper anaglyph red-green process, which manages with just one film and can be projected onto a normal cinema screen. This version was broadcast on August 28, 2010 by the TV station ARTE . The film was also shown in the anagyphic process on WDR television in the early 1980s. In many cases, however , the film (in the cinema, on television and on video / DVD ) was only shown in flat black and white.
Premiere
Theatrical release
The horror of the Amazon began on March 5, 1954 in American and on September 24, 1954 in German cinemas. In Austria , the film started in the same year under the title The monster of the black lagoon .
German version
The German synchronous processing was created in 1954 in the studios of Berliner Synchron GmbH in Berlin .
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| David Reed | Richard Carlson | Hermann Lenschau |
| Kay Lawrence | Julie Adams | Gertrud Meyen |
| Mark Williams | Richard Denning | Rolf Mamero |
| Carl Maia | Antonio Moreno | Rudolf Fenner |
Subject
The horror of the Amazon is a prime example of the monster film sub-genre . Critics and film historians drew parallels to King Kong and La Belle et la Bête ( Hahn / Jansen ) as well as Jaws ( Phil Hardy ):
“ The horror of the Amazon may [...] be seen as a summary of the genre's erotic mythology and at the same time its poetic reflection. […] In Arnold's film the genre-appropriate rationalization (the monster is the last of a lost race that emerged before humans in evolutionary history) is little more than an 'addition' to the Gothic horror and its morals. It is the cycle known from the horror genre: the evocation of a devil by entering into forbidden territory, by a wicked thirst for knowledge or by careless handling of old traditions, his appearance, his first insignificant and only serving to demonstrate his power, his encounter with the woman who suddenly seems to give his existence a different meaning, his vulnerability through her, his return to hell. "
“Despite the repulsive ugliness, which was original in its own way, because of its loneliness and passion for Kay […] [the creature] made a most impressive figure not dissimilar to King Kong : the undisputed god of an enclosed world suddenly his weakness makes him vulnerable to a beauty that he has never met before. "
Aftermath
Due to the commercial success of the film two sequels emerged: Revenge of the Creature ( Revenge of the Creature , 1955), which was also rotated by Jack Arnold in 3D, and The Creature Walks Among Us ( The Creature Walks Among Us the, 1956) of Director John Sherwood , which was released as a purely black and white film. In both sequels, Ricou Browning played the gill man again in the underwater recordings. For the recordings on land, Tom Hennesy slipped into The Revenge of the Monster , and Don Megowan in the costume in The Monster Is Among Us . Nestor Paiva , who played Captain Lucas in the first part, also appeared in Revenge of the Monster .
In Billy Wilder's comedy The 7th Year Itch, Marilyn Monroe and her film partner come out of a movie theater that shows The Terror of the Amazon .
In 1964, the gill man appeared in the television series The Munsters in the episode Love Comes to Mockingbird Heights . There he was given the name "Uncle Gilbert" (from "Gill Man", German "Gill Man").
In the rock'n'roll film Cry-Baby with Johnny Depp from 1990, some scenes from the horror film can be seen as part of a prison screening in a darkened prison room during a break-in.
The film inspired the American metal band Iced Earth to write the song Dragon's Child on their 2001 album Horror Show .
The film monster also found its way into paleontology . When Jenny Clack of Cambridge University discovered a new fossil , she named it Eucritta melanolimnetes (Greek for creature from the black lagoon ).
The film The whisper of the water ( The Shape of Water ) in 2017 was inspired also by the classics and puts him in the original temporal environment of the 1950s , but on the East Coast of the United States in scene, with the modern eyes very questionable social characteristics ( racial segregation , cold war , punishment of homosexuality ) of the time as well as the general right to life of different people are discussed.
Reviews
The first three reviews are dated close to the start of the film, the following were made at a longer distance:
"Director Jack Arnold does a first-class job in terms of shower effects and tension."
“The events above and below the water were filmed in 3D to create an illusion of depth when viewed through polarized lenses. The adventure story lacks depth. "
"Naive-creepy nonsense."
"Archetypal 50s monster film that has been copied so often that it has lost some of its power, but the story [...] is still entertaining."
“The mechanically running story [...] is greatly enhanced by Arnold's sense of atmospheric locations and the often sympathetic portrayal of the monster. Interestingly, the threat is also perceived as sexual (especially in the scene in which the being swims captivated under [Julie] Adams, who is dressed in a skin-tight bathing suit), which means that the film can be seen as the forerunner of the great white shark . "
"Arnold [...] staged the adventurous event as an 'ecothriller' with erotic accents around an endangered and unknown nature. Rating: 3 stars (very good). "
“At the time, it was an adventure film made using the 3-D process with sophisticated underwater shots, which, with its naive, creepy shower effects, offers good entertainment that has long been underestimated. A prime example of film aesthetic homogeneity that is seldom found in genre cinema. "
Publications on the film
Blu-ray / DVD / Super-8
- In the USA, Creature From the Black Lagoon was released in 2000 as a single DVD and in 2004 as part of a box with all three parts under the title Creature From the Black Lagoon: The Legacy Collection . In Germany, Der Schreck vom Amazonas was released as a single DVD in 2004 and 2010 with a changing cover and the addition of “Monster Collection” or “Universal Horror”. All of these publications present the film in non- stereoscopic black and white and, in addition to the main film, contain a documentary and an audio commentary by film historian Tom Weaver .
- In 2012 Creature From the Black Lagoon was released on Blu-ray as part of the "Universal Monsters Collection" box. This release contains the film in a 3D and a non-stereoscopic version. Compared to earlier versions, both versions are presented in a concealed 1.85: 1 widescreen format instead of the 1.33: 1 normal picture or open matte format .
- Piccolo Film published a 110-meter short version of the film in 3D on Super-8 (approx. 15 minutes long) in Germany.
Film music
Hans J. Salter's film music appeared repeatedly on compilation albums , although these mostly did not contain the original recordings but new recordings. In 1994, a 15-minute excerpt from the original recordings appeared on the album Creature From the Black Lagoon. A Symphony of Film Music by Hans J. Salter on the US label Intrada. The label Monstrous Movie Music released the compilation album Creature from the Black Lagoon (and other Jungle Pictures) in 2000 , which for the first time contained all the compositions of the five musicians involved, recorded by the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Slovakia .
Book about the film
In 1954 a novel was published , written by John Russell Fearn under the pseudonym Vargo Statten. Another adaptation of the novel , which was more different from the film, appeared in 1977, written by Walter Harris under the pseudonym Carl Dreadstone.
literature
- Ronald M. Hahn, Volker Jansen: The horror of the Amazon . In this: cult films. From “Metropolis” to “Rocky Horror Picture Show” . 2nd Edition. Heyne-Filmbibliothek Nr. 73. Heyne, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-453-86073-X , pp. 245-252.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b The horror of the Amazon in the Internet Movie Database .
- ^ John Stanley: The Composer from the Black Lagoon ( Memento of May 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), Dark Corridors Vol. 1, No. 8, 2000, accessed on thecolumnists.com on March 3, 2012.
- ↑ Technical data at IMDb
- ↑ 3D films in this process
- ↑ a b The horror of the Amazon. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 1, 2012 .
- ^ Illustrated Film-Kurier (Vienna), Vienna August 1954.
- ↑ The horror of the Amazon , Illustrierte Film-Bühne No. 2496, Munich undated
- ↑ Ronald M. Hahn, Volker Jansen: Lexikon des Science Fiction Films , 5th edition, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1992.
- ↑ Phil Hardy (ed.): The Aurum Film Encyclopedia - Science Fiction , Aurum Press, London 1991.
- ^ Georg Seeßlen: Cinema of the Utopian. History and mythology of science fiction films , Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg, 1980.
- ^ Douglas Brode: The Films of the Fifties , Citadel Press, Secaucus (New Jersey) 1976, quoted from Ronald M. Hahn, Volker Jansen: Der Schrecken vom Amazonas . In this: cult films. From “Metropolis” to “Rocky Horror Picture Show” . 2nd Edition. Heyne-Filmbibliothek Nr. 73. Heyne, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-453-86073-X , pp. 245-252.
- ^ Discography Horror Show. In: www.icedearth.com. Retrieved April 11, 2013 .
- ↑ Clack (1998) Nature 394: 66-69; and Clack (2001) Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 92, 75-95.
- ↑ "Jack Arnold's direction does a first rate job of developing chills and suspense [...]." Discussion in Variety, December 31, 1953 ( Memento of February 5, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ).
- ↑ “The proceedings above and under water were filmed in 3-D to impart an illusion of depth when viewed through polarized glasses. This adventure has no depth. " Review in The New York Times, May 1, 1954, accessed March 1, 2012.
- ↑ 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958. Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism, 3rd edition, Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 379.
- ↑ "Archetypal '50s monster movie has been copied so often that some of the edge is gone, but story [...] is still entertaining [...]." Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide . Signet / New American Library, New York 2007.
- ↑ “The routine story […] is mightily improved by Arnold's sure sense of atmospheric locations and by the often sympathetic portrait of the monster. Interestingly, the threat is perceived as partly sexual (notably in the scene where the creature swims mesmerized beneath the tightly swimsuited Adams), and thus the film can be seen as a precursor of Jaws. " Time Out Film Guide, Seventh Edition 1999. Penguin, London 1998.
- ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz: Lexicon "Films on TV" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 722.
- ↑ Overview of the publications of the film music on Soundtrackcollector.com
- ^ Entry for the 1954 edition on Isfdb.org
- ^ Entry to the 1977 edition on Isfdb.org
Web links
- Creature from the Black Lagoon in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Photos of the film in the MovieStillsDB
- Creature from the Black Lagoon at Rotten Tomatoes (English)