The Creature Walks Among Us (1956) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror/Sci-Fi	Audio Commentary-Excellent feature length w Bob Burns and Tom Weaver. Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1956
Running Time	78:22
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	John Sherwood
Studio Distributor	Universal-Internatnl Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Jeff Morrow Rex Reason Leigh Snowden Gregg Palmer Maurice Manson James Rawley David McMahon Paul Fierro Lillian Molieri Larry Hudson Frank Chase
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$19.95	Music	Irving Gertz Henry Mancini Herman Stein

    Umbrella Entertainment have recently released, under licence from Universal, the second and third films to feature the famous 50s monster, the Gill Man. Universal International had hit boxoffice gold with Creature from the Black Lagoon in 1954, whether in 3D or not, and followed it up instantly with Revenge of the Creature released the following year. In 1956 the studio released the third and final creature feature, The Creature Walks Among Us, this time not made in 3D, and box office returns were not so enthusiastic this third time around. Nevertheless this final outing for the most famous fifties monster is entertaining hocum for most of its eighty-two minutes, while drawing the saga of the Gill Man to a satisfactory, though undoubtedly tragic, close.

    After his escape from civilization at the end of Revenge of the Creature, the Gill Man returned to his Florida habitat to seek seclusion from the tormenting humans and their exploitative society. Not to be left in peace, he is sought once again  by a small band of obsessive humans, this time financed and led by millionaire William Barton (Jeff Morrow). Barton regards the world and its inhabitants as his personal property, and this includes his watery prey and his brassily trampish blonde wife, Marcia (Leigh Snowden). Barton enlists the services of scientist Dr Thomas Morgan (Rex Reason) and charters the boat of skipper Jed Grant (Gregg Palmer). Mrs Barton is emotionally isolated from her husband, and is attracted to the deep-voiced, hairy-chested, but resistant, Dr Morgan. Not so resistant is Skipper Jed, who enthusiastically lusts after the trampishyly icy Mrs Barton. This is a quartette of distinctly unattractive humans, and it takes the screenplay a little over half an hour to get into any serious action with the creature who is undoubtedly the "hero" amongst these characters. Ultimately they find and confront the monster of the deep, and in the process set fire to the poor thing. Badly burnt, the creature is taken back to civilization where the injuries are treated, and in the process Dr Tom discovers that beneath the burnt-off scales is a layer of human-like skin. In addition it is revealed that the Gill Man has a set of unused lungs, which the good doctor activates. Thus is set in motion the scientific endeavours to uncover and release the human potential of this man / fish creature. To this end the "patient" is transported to Barton's millionaire ranch where he is penned. From his cage the creature observes the ruthless and selfish behaviour of the humans. Is it a result of the human scientific interference that this creature is now able to observe and judge his captors? Ultimately the actions of the humans drive the creature to escape, dispense retribution and symbolically return to his watery home, or grave. Once underwater, and now with the ability to breathe as a human, he must surely drown. Man has once again selfishly interfered with nature, with the result being the destruction of both the observed and the observer.

    Obviously there is some thought behind the screenplay for this final effort. Unfortunately those thoughts are not well developed. Dialogue is artificial and stilted, with some very long scenes of scientific gobbledygook that are too mind numbing to attempt to follow. The thread, connecting the Gill Man research to enabling man to breathe in space, is provocative, but very poorly developed and conveyed. The sole sympathetic character in the procedings is the creature, surrounded as he is by these four quite repulsive individuals. Sadly the performances are pretty pedestrian, even for a "B" monster movie. Jeff Morrow (This Island Earth) is the best of the bunch, probably because his character is the most unlikeable, but Rex Reason (Band of Angels) takes stolid to hitherto unforseen extremes of rigidity. Reason does, however, look quite presentable in his swimming costume, which cannot be said for poor Gregg Palmer (Magnificent Obsession). Palmer was quite adept at playing spoiled rich sons and cowardly gunslingers, but he does not have the physical attributes to play the sex-obsessed, T-shirted skipper. The brittle Miss Leigh Snowden (Outside the Law) has neither the natural warmth nor acting ability to arrouse any concern with her predicament, whether with her brutish husband, the lecherous Jed or the Gill Man. The best performance undoubtedly comes from Don Megowan as the land-locked creature, lumbering around in his mask head, rubber gloves, and sackcloth suit. Resembling very much the Frankenstein Monster, whom Megowan also played with Abbott and Costello, he does present a memorable figure of a tragic monster.The underwater sequences once again featured the spectacular physicality of Olympic swimmer Ricoh Browning, with much outtake footage from the previous 3D efforts.

    By 1956 the studio system had collapsed, and as part of this collapse the army of contract players employed by the major studios had been sacked. Apart from the four major roles, there is not one recognizable face on screen. Movies of this era gained much of their texture from these solid, reliable character actors whose names we possibly didn't know, but who presented a character as soon as they appeared on screen. None of those once welcome faces are seen here. Universal International was always an "economic" studio, but here other obvious cost-cuttings are the recycled underwater footage of the creature, mostly outtakes, from the first two films. The music, though credited to music department head Joseph Gershenson, utilises much from the Universal music library. Working from a particularly weak screenplay, there is a plus from director John Sherwood, who direct's his first feature with assured technical skill, plus a little unexpected inspiration. There is some fine camera work throughout the film, attractive locations and expert use of rear projection, and interesting backlot sequences.The climactic scenes in and around Morgan's ranch house - a set built for the 1948 Civil War "epic" Tap Roots, and ultimately demolished when the Universal Studio tour was introduced - are excellently staged, with a couple of unforgettable moments when the creature and the audience simultaneously spot his human prey.

    Although inferior to the first two in the trilogy, The Creature Walks Among us brings to a satisfactory close the sage of the Gill Man. The final moments, as the creature lumbers into the water, are memorable because of their imprtance to the story, but sadly these are the worst executed moments of the film This unbelievably prosaic filming is so jarring as to totally remove any possible impact from the end of the film. Only upon reflection can we ponder the creature's degree of awareness. Is he returning home, unaware that his newly acquired ability to use his lungs will mean his death, or is this his suicide, fleeing from the unbearable reality of a human existence?
    
    This is the disappointment of the series, but the creature himself endures as one of the greatest movie monsters of all time.

Video

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Audio

    There are two audio streams:   Dolby Digital 2.0 mono encoded at 192 Kbps;
                                                   Audio Commentary track which is Dolby Digital 2.0 mono encoded at 192 Kbps.
    
    Both tracks were auditioned in their entirety.
    
    The overall sound quality was that of excellent dated mono, clean, clear and sharp.
    Dialogue was perfectly  easy to understand without any sync problems.
    There were no instances of crackle, no pops and no dropouts.
    
    The music is all very nicely reproduced, from Herman Stein's famous creature blasts to the large contribution from Henry Mancini. Some of the original scoring is surprisingly attractive, even beautiful in some of the quieter passages. Once again there is extensive use of music recordings from Universal's library, but everything is seamlessly integrated and sounds excellent, given the limitations of the 1950s mono.
    

Audio Ratings Summary

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The disc is light on extras, with only the original trailer plus the feature length commentary. The commentary is, however, one of the very best.


Main Menu:
Presented in the ratio of 1.33:1, the menu is very basic using a black and white still from the film with audio of underwater noises, plus an occasional "growl" from the creature.

Options presented are :
        Scenes : A separate screen, without audio, offers eighteen chapters on three screens with thumbnails.       
        Bonus Materials : A separate screen using another still, with the creature threatening Leigh Snowden,  and the same audio as the main menu, offers the extras detailed below.
        Languages : A separate screen with black and white artwork, without audio, offers:
                                Spoken Language : English (Only one language is offered, and it made no difference whether or not this was "clicked".)
                                                                Audio Commentary with film historians Tom Weaver and Bob Burns.
                                Captioned for the Hearing Impaired (English)
                                Subtitles : English / French / None
                                Audio Commentary by film historians Tom Weaver and Bob Burns : On / Off  (More details are given below.)
        Play
        
Bonus Materials :

Audio Commentary : 
    Recorded in 2004, this is a  feature length commentary by film historians Tom Weaver and Bob Burns. Not only are these two gentlemen movie historians, but they are both truly fanatical in their admiration of, and affection for, these films. Their knowledge is encyclopaedic, and as well they have a wealth of trivia gems that would never find their way into any published book. Sadly there is no "star" to share this commentary, as we had with lovely Lori Nelson on Revenge of the Creature, but these two manage to fill the eighty odd minutes with nary a pause for breath.

    Just some of the topics covered are :

the problems of shooting underwater in 3D - though this film was not shot in the process;
funny anecdote from Bob Burns re first seeing Creature in 3D;
sculpting of the two heads;
Bud Westmore getting make-up credit though he did virtually none of the work;
Joseph Gershenson getting similar credit as head of the music department;
Henry Mancini's major contribution - down to the specific number of music cues;
physical problems of wearing the suit;
padding the plot;
story about first-time director John Sherwood;
Orson Welles anecdote;
Gregg Palmer's screen test with Marilyn Monroe for TV L'il Abner;
Leigh Snowden's marriage and ultimate death from cancer;
backlot scenes and use of Dabney House from Susan Hayward starrer Tap Roots;
possibility of re-makes which have never come to fruition;
bitterness of make-up artist Jack Ivan over lack of credit for his efforts;
origins of specific SFX used from Universal library; and
the "downbeat strange ending".

    Once again, this is one of the best audio commentaries I have heard.
    




Original Theatrical Trailer : 01:02)
  This is fair quality, with much more grain than the feature. Apparently this is the trailer for the general release of the film, where it was coupled with a second 1956 Universal International feature The Price of Fear, which starred Lex Barker and Merle Oberon - "two great thrill pictures on one programme".The final seventeen seconds are devoted to The Price of Fear

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