Creature from the Black Lagoon | |
---|---|
Directed by | Jack Arnold |
Produced by | William Alland |
Screenplay by |
Harry Essex Arthur A. Ross |
Story by | Maurice Zimm |
Starring |
Richard Carlson Julia Adams Richard Denning Antonio Moreno |
Music by |
Henry Mancini Hans J. Salter Herman Stein |
Cinematography | William E. Snyder |
Edited by | Ted J. Kent |
Production
company |
Universal Pictures
|
Distributed by | Universal International |
Release date
|
|
Running time
|
79 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | unknown |
Box office | $1,300,000 |
Creature from the Black Lagoon is a 1954 American black-and-white 3D monster horror film from Universal International, produced by William Alland, directed by Jack Arnold, that stars Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, and Whit Bissell. The Creature was played by Ben Chapman on land and by Ricou Browning underwater. The film premiered in Detroit on February 12 and was released on a regional basis, opening on various dates.
Creature from the Black Lagoon was filmed in 3D and originally projected by the polarized light method. The audience wore viewers with gray polarizing filters, similar to the viewers most commonly used today. Because the brief 1950s 3D film fad had peaked in mid-1953 and was fading fast in early 1954, many audiences actually saw the film "flat", in 2D. Typically, the film was shown in 3D in large downtown theaters and flat in smaller neighborhood theaters. In 1975 Creature from the Black Lagoon was re-released to theaters in the inferior red-and-blue-glasses anaglyph 3D format, which was also used for a 1980 home video release on Beta and VHS videocassettes.
For marketing reasons, a comedic short TV special was aired prior to film's release titled Abbott and Costello Meet the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Ben Chapman reprised his role as the Gill-Man for the program.