Fantastic!

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Jack Arnold, the director of the two previous films, graduated to Universal's A-list and John Sherwood, a long-time assistant director, took over. It's the only film of the three not to be shot in 3-D.Despite how we saw the Gill-man get shot to death, he somehow survived and is somewhere in the Everglades. Dr. William Barton (Jeff Morrow, This Island Earth, Octaman) is pretty much insane, a man driven to capture the merman and abuse his wife Marcia (Leigh Snowden, who was in the same Universal acting classes as Clint Eastwood, James Garner and John Saxon). The dude loses his mind any time she is near their guide, Jed Grant (Gregg Palmer, who appeared in many of John Wayne's films).For some reason, Marcia joins Jed and Dr. Tom Morgan (Rex Reason, who has a name like a pro wrestler or a Stan Lee character, but he was an actor who appeared in films like This Island Earth and TV's The Roaring 20's) on a dive, but she somehow goes crazy and overcome with the "raptures of the deep." Also known as nitrogen narcosis, this creates a mental state similar to doing nitrous oxide. It causes Marcia to take off all her scuba gear and the guys have to rescue her.Of course, the Gill-man follows her and he gets shot with a spear gun, to which he looks right at the crew and seems to want to say, "Come on, dude." Then, they set him on fire!This all leads to our underwater pal being in need of surgery from Dr. Borg and Dr. Johnson. And why do they do all this? They want to see if the Creature can help people survive in space! Well, all their work costs the monster his gills and now, he has lungs that can breathe our air. He also has more human skin, so he has to wear clothes.The doctors try and get the Gill-Man to live among humans, but he gradually becomes depressed, staring at the ocean. He even tries to dive into it and swim back home, but he can no longer breathe as he once did. It's horrible. Seriously, this movie makes me so upset, as they take everything from him and he gets nothing back in return. Even when he saves some animals from a lion or tries to attack Barton when he kills Jed in a jealous rage, everyone thinks the worst of our undersea friend.At the end, he finally makes it back to the beach and just stares at the water, unsure what world he finally belongs in. It's the most unsettling and upsetting of endings, on par with Son of Kong. There are no easy answers - man has put the Creature in this place and nothing can return him back to the home he misses so much.

Yet another expedition is launched into the Everglades to locate and procure the elusive Gill- Man. Due to the meddling of man, he ends up in an altered form, and landlocked. It is not until his captors show their ugly sides in front of him that he reverts to what he does best.The least atmospheric and most plodding of the "Creature from the Black Lagoon" series, this final entry takes way too much time to get to where it's going. The entire first half is made up of the search for the beast, but is capped with a good set piece where the Creature is lit up like a torch. Unfortunately, it once again dips in excitement factor with a second half in which scientist William Barton (Jeff Morrow) insists on playing Dr. Frankenstein and trying to "change" the Creature. This leads to a lot of philosophical discussion on the nature of man and beast which, admittedly, some viewers might find fascinating. But it also wastes time focusing on the deteriorating relationship between the paranoid, pathologically jealous Barton and his young, hot-to-trot wife Marcia (Leigh Snowden). It isn't until the final minutes that we're rewarded with a mildly amusing finale where the Creature goes on the expected rampage, and doles out some comeuppance to those who deserve it. The altered look for the Creature is somewhat disconcerting, as the experimentation seems to increase its bulk, making it a little more Frankensteins' Monster-like. It also robs the Creature of its effectiveness by putting CLOTHES on the damn thing!The cast is good, in any event. Morrow is impressive, playing a much less honourable "hero" than usual. Rex Reason (as the practical Dr. Morgan), Gregg Palmer (as the randy Jed Grant), and Ms. Snowden add substantial sex appeal. Maurice Manson, James Rawley, David McMahon, and Paul Fierro all deliver solid supporting performances.Although rather disappointing for this particular viewer, some folks do consider this the best of the series. Judge for yourself.The last official "Creature" feature to date, although Hollywood has been trying for years to get a remake going. Unlike its predecessors, it was not filmed in 3-D.Five out of 10.

Despite some slow passages of philosophical humbug and pseudo scientific ear-wash, plus some none too absorbing passages of romantic dalliance with the lovely Leigh Snowden, this is an engrossing little thriller from director John Sherwood, an extremely busy (63 credits) assistant director from 1936 though 1959, who made only three movies (the others Raw Edge and Monolith Monsters). It's quite a worthy successor to The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Revenge of the Creature. Sherwood's direction is especially deft in the action sequences. The long sequences under water are kept interesting by using a large variety of camera set-ups with imaginative cross-cutting. The following sequence in which the Creature is stalked at night is also quite absorbing, with its long tracking shots following the launch through the turns of a shallow, branch-overhanging waterway. This sequence is capped by some solid thrills and there is yet more exciting footage to come, capped by a destructive climax that will have cinema audiences on the edges of their seats. Production values including atmospheric photography, lavish sets and some outstanding location footage, are first-class.

The Creature Walks Among Us (1956) ** (out of 4) The third and final film in the series has a group of scientists and others heading out to the Amazon in search of the Gill Man. They find and capture him but this time there's a difference. This time a mad scientist plans to give the Gill Man the ability to breathe out of water and they also try to make him more human.THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US isn't as bad as some of the Universal horror films out there but it's certainly misguided and doesn't seem to know what it exactly wants to do with itself. There's a small part of me that wants to give this film credit for trying to do something fresh and original with the movie but the screenplay simply offers up so many different ideas and yet none of them are fully explored or get played out in an interesting way.Again, there's no question that the screenplay is the biggest villain as it offers up a rather boring opening "hunt" and an even less interesting middle half. The middle of the film pretty much has the creature suffering from third degree burns so they remove some skin and notice that he might be more human than anyone realized. This is all well and good but the screenplay just doesn't go anywhere with it so we're left with a final act where the poor Gill Man is pretty much walking around, looking like the Frankenstein monster and not really doing anything. The attempts at making him human just never ring true.The performances are decent enough but there's no question that Rex Reason, Jeff Morrow, Leigh Snowden and Gregg Palmer just can't match anyone in the previous films.It's easy to see why this was the end to the series, although I will say that the ending itself is extremely good and leaves it up to the viewer to determine what happened. This is something very popular in horror films right now so on that level THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US is ahead of its time. Sadly, that's about the only thing.