Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954)

An ichthyologist (Richard Carlson) persuades his boss (Richard Denning) to fund an expedition to the Amazon to look for fossil remains that would link sea creatures to land animals. Directed by Jack Arnold (IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE), this sci-fi/horror classic introduced the last of the great Universal monsters. Dracula, Frankenstein and the Mummy were from the 1930s with the Wolf Man debuting in the 1940s. The Creature was popular enough to spawn two sequels (1955, 1956). The film owes much to KING KONG as it parallels that narrative of an excursion to an exotic location where a creature (the giant ape in KING KONG, the gill man here) is smitten with a beautiful girl (Fay Wray in KK, Julie Adams here) which brings his downfall. The underwater photography is excellent and cinematographer William E. Snyder's underwater "ballet" with the gill man lovingly stalking Julie Adams underwater while she swims on the surface remains one of the indelible images of horror cinema. The inspiration for Guillermo Del Toro's Oscar winning THE SHAPE OF WATER (2017). With Perry Lopez, Antonio Moreno, Whit Bissell and Nestor Paiva.