The Creature from the Black Lagoon is often thought of as the last Universal classic monster. As far as this, the final of three films to star the titular 'gill man', the difference from the Lugosi/Karloff/Chaney monster mashes is marked. No familiar orchestral soundtracks cribbed from earlier horrors; a sun-kissed Honolulu main road (which opens this) is a million miles away from the faux 'European' locations on Universal's backlot that provided a staple part of earlier monster movies. Of course, in the late 1950's, times and styles have changed. Sleek haired, square jawed wholesome heroes are a kind of progression from familiar quick-talking reporters or clipped police officers. And what a dull bunch they initially appear to be. An early conversation where they speculate about man exploring outer space is an ideal time to go and put the kettle on. One cries out for a Lionel Atwill, or even a Skelton Knaggs to breathe some life into the proceedings.Typical audacity is displayed by the humans, who not only capture the creature from its natural habitat, but then subject it to an operation to give it a more human aspect. Perhaps it could become a jealous neurotic like Jeff Morrow (Dr William Barton), or his wife Leigh Snowden (Marcia Barton) who is trapped in an unhappy marriage? It is an interesting conundrum for the audience. These respectable progressive heroes are noticeably flawed for a change.The creature is used to excellent effect here. A Frankenstein-like pathos accompanies its attempts to come to terms with its enforced condition. The make-up, by Bud Westmore (who appears to be the only link between this and Universal's 'classic monster series), is also very impressive, ridding the creature of the wide-eyed cuteness he previously possessed, instead imbuing him with a naturalism that belies the man-in-costume realisation. It is played by a (bizarrely) uncredited Don Megowan, who – amongst many other things – went on to play Frankenstein's Monster in an abortive pilot for Hammer's TV show 'Tales of Frankenstein' two years later.

I went into this with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised The only thing that makes this movie is the gill man himself. The way he moves and conveys emotions make you very interested. A decent movie if you have the time. Is it the best of the Universal monster movies? No. Is it the best of the creature trilogy? No. But in my opinion much better than the second and does not deserve the flack it receives. I believe the director took it in a new direction rather than a repeat which was risky but needed and not at all stupid. Not the best acting but again the fun part is watching the creature adapt to his new world. I do appreciate them not making a fourth movie and just making it a good trilogy. I'm also glad it was made in black and white rather than color it gives you than good monster movie feel.

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.

The third and final creature feature with the gentleman from the Black Lagoon was strictly from hunger. Apparently in not one of the three films was it thought that, where there are gill men there must be gill women.Because being cut off from his gill women must be giving that creature one mean itch he has to scratch. In this case the itch giver is Leigh Snowden.Snowden herself has some scratching issues. She's married to scientist Jeff Morrow. But rugged sailor Gregg Palmer has got his eye on her and making moves as well.This film also features scientists Morrow and Rex Reason operating on the creature after he's burned. They take out his gills and work on developing some nascent lungs. Now his native habitat is the water and doing that will also increase the creature's anxiety level. What happens? You stay to watch the last and clearly the worst of the Black Lagoon films.