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Gill-man

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"The Creature" redirects here. For the 1924 German silent film, seeThe Creature (film). For the 1977 Spanish film, seeLa criatura. For other uses, seeCreature (disambiguation).
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Fictional character
The Gill-man
The Gill-man as portrayed byRicou Browning inCreature from the Black Lagoon.
First appearanceCreature from the Black Lagoon
Last appearanceThe Monster Squad
Created byMilicent Patrick
Harry Essex
Arthur A. Ross
Maurice Zimm
Portrayed byCreature from the Black Lagoon
Ben Chapman
Revenge of the Creature
Tom Hennesy
The Creature Walks Among Us
Don Megowan
All underwater scenes:
Ricou Browning
In-universe information
TypeDevonian "Fish-Man"
StatusDeceased

The Gill-man—commonly calledthe Creature—is the mainantagonist of the1954 black-and-whitescience fiction filmCreature from the Black Lagoon and its two sequelsRevenge of the Creature (1955) andThe Creature Walks Among Us (1956).

In all three films,Ricou Browning portrays the Gill-man when he is swimming underwater. In the scenes when the Gill-man is walking on dry land,Ben Chapman performed the Gill-man in the first film, followed byTom Hennesy in the second, andDon Megowan in the third.

The Gill-man also appears in the 1967stop-motionanimated filmMad Monster Party?, but is referred to as simply "The Creature". It also appears in the 1972 traditional animated filmMad Mad Mad Monsters, again referred to as simply "The Creature".

The Gill-man's popularity as aniconic monster of cinema has led to numerouscameo appearances, including an episode ofThe Munsters (1965), Stephen King'sIT (1986), the motion pictureThe Monster Squad (1987), astage show (2009), and a reimagining in 2017'sThe Shape of Water.[1] Despite this popularity, the Gill-man appeared in the fewest movies of all theUniversal Monsters.

Concept and design

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Milicent Patrick, adding some final touches to Ricou Browning's underwater Gill-man mask.

Films

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Actors portraying Gill-man in film
FilmYearGill-man on landGill-man underwaterGill-man stunts
Creature from the Black Lagoon1954Ben ChapmanRicou BrowningTed White
Revenge of the Creature1955Tom Hennesy
The Creature Walks Among Us1956Don Megowan

Origin

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ProducerWilliam Alland was attending a dinner party during the filming ofOrson Welles'Citizen Kane (in which Alland played the reporter Thompson) in 1941 when Mexican cinematographerGabriel Figueroa told him about the myth of a race of half-fish, half-human creatures in the Amazon River. Figueroa spoke of a friend of his who disappeared in the Amazon while filming a documentary on a rumored population of fish-people. Alland then wrote story notes titled "The Sea Monster" 10 years later.[2] There were various designs for the Gill-man. William Alland envisioned the Gill-man as a "sad, beautiful monster" and thesculpture of it was much like that of an aquatic development of a human. Alland said: "It would still frighten you, but because how human it was, not the other way around". Originally, the Gill-man's design was meant to incorporate a sleek, feminineeel-like figure, which did not have as many bumps and gills as the final version. The designer of the approved Gill-man was formerDisney illustratorMilicent Patrick, though her role was deliberately downplayed by makeup artistBud Westmore, who for half a century would receive sole credit for the Gill-man's conception.[2] The Gill-man suit was made from airtight molded sponge rubber and cost $15,000.[3] The underwater sequences were filmed atWakulla Springs in northern Florida (today a state park), as were many of the rear projection images. Part of the film was shot inJacksonville, Florida on the south side of the river near the foot of the oldAcosta Bridge.[2] In the underwater scenes, air was fed into the Gill-man suit with a rubber hose.[3]

Biology

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The Gill-man is fullyamphibious, capable of breathing both in and out of the water. It possesses large, webbed hands with sharp claws on the tip of each finger. The Gill-man's scaly skin is extremely tough, which combined with a fast-acting healing factor, allows it to survive wounds which would be fatal to humans, such as gunshots and fullimmolation. It also possessessuperhuman strength, which is flamboyantly displayed in the second and third films.

As shown in the third film, the Gill-man has a dormant set oflungs, should itsgills be irreparably damaged. As shown in the first film, it is vulnerable torotenone. The Gill-man is slightlyphotophobic, due to its murky water habitat.[4] 35% of the Gill-man's blood is composed ofwhite corpuscles, lacking a nucleus.[4]

Fictional character biography

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Gill-man trilogy

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Creature from the Black Lagoon

The last known surviving member of a race of amphibious humanoids which flourished during theDevonian age, the Gill-man (as christened by Dr. Thompson) dwelled in alagoon located in a largely unexplored area of theAmazon rainforest. The creature was apparently known to the natives, as the captain of the boatRita mentioned local legends of a "man-fish".

The Gill-man in his natural habitat, as portrayed by Ricou Browning inCreature from the Black Lagoon.

After having found the fossilized remains of another Gill-man, amarine biology institute funds an expedition to the Amazon in order to find more remains. Though the Gill-man reacts violently to the intrusion, he develops a soft spot for the team's only female member, Kay, and repeatedly tries to abduct her, going as far as building a makeshift dam to prevent their boat from escaping. After having killed numerous members of the expedition, the Gill-man takes Kay to his underwater lair, where he is tracked down by the remaining survivors and riddled with bullets. The Gill-man tries to escape by swimming deep into the lagoon, but dies from his injuries.

Revenge of the Creature

A year after the events of the first film, the Gill-man is shown to have survived and is captured by different scientists. He is sent to the Ocean Harbor Oceanarium inFlorida, and quickly becomes a huge tourist attraction. He is studied by an animal psychologist and hisichthyology student. The psychologist's attempts at communicating with the Gill-man are hampered by his attraction to his student. The Gill-man breaks free from his tank and escapes into the ocean. It is not long before he begins stalking the ichthyology student and kidnaps her at a boat party. The Gill-man is soon tracked down by police and again is shot multiple times, forcing him to flee into the ocean. He again tries to swim away and supposedly dies from his wounds.

The Creature Walks Among Us
The mutated Gill-man, as he appears inThe Creature Walks Among Us, as portrayed by Don Megowan.

After living for a short while in aFlorida river, the Gill-man is found again, and after a vicious struggle is accidentallyimmolated. The Gill-man's injuries are so severe that his scales and gills have been burned away, forcing his captors to perform surgery on him to prevent suffocation.X-rays on the creature show that he has begun developing a land animal's lung structure, so atracheotomy is performed, opening an air passage to the lungs, transforming the Gill-man into an air-breathing, nearly human animal. Dressing him in a suit made of sail cloth, the Gill-man is taken to aCalifornia estate, where he is imprisoned within an electric fence. Though they initially try to integrate the Gill-man into human society, one of its captors frames it for a murder. The Gill-man escapes, kills the real murderer (although severely wounded by gun shots), and ultimately returns to an ocean he can no longer exist in.

Cancelled remake

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ProducerGary Ross said in March 2007 that the Gill-man's origin would be reinvented, with him being the result of apharmaceutical corporationpolluting the Amazon.[5] In 2009, however, the proposed director,Breck Eisner, dropped out of the project.[6] As of 2024[update], the proposed remake has not been made nor greenlit.

Reboot

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Main article:Universal monsters § Dark Universe

Creature from the Black Lagoon was one of many films featuring theUniversal monsters that would have received a reboot as a part of Universal Pictures'Dark Universe[broken anchor]. The series would have brought Universal's monsters into a modern-day setting, beginning withThe Mummy (2017).The Creature from the Black Lagoon had a story written byJeff Pinkner and a script written byWill Beall.The Mummy alludes to the existence of the Gill-man when Nick Morton meetsDr. Henry Jekyll at Prodigium's base inLondon and one of the objects has the Gill-man's hand in it. However, Universal scrapped the Dark Universe to focus on individual films instead withThe Invisible Man. It's unknown whether the reboot is going forward.

In literature

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Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954 novelization)

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Pulp fiction writerJohn Russell Fearn wrote a novelization of theCreature from the Black Lagoon screenplay under the pen name "Vargo Statten", which was originally published in the United Kingdom in 1954 by Dragon Publications Limited[7] and then re-printed in 2011 in the United States by Dreamhaven Books (ISBN 1-892-05812-X).

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1961)

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A "kids-friendly" adaptation by Ian Thorne of the screenplay and of the screenplays of the two sequels was published in 1961 by MCA Publishing (ISBN 0-89686-190-2).[8]

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1977 novelization)

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The 1977novelization ofCreature from the Black Lagoon byWalter Harris (writing under the pen-names "Carl Dreadstone" [United States, Berkley Publishing Group,ISBN 0-425-03464-X] and "E.K. Leyton" [United Kingdom, Star Books,ISBN 0-352-30548-7]) as part of theUniversal Horror Library offers a completely different origin for the Gill-man, who in this version of the story is ahermaphroditic giant, almost as big as theRita itself, weighing in at 30 tons. This Gill-man is both cold-blooded and warm-blooded and also has a long whip-like tail. The gigantic creature is dubbed "AA", for "Advanced Amphibian", by the expedition team members. After slaying most of the team members, destroying a Sikorsky helicopter, and kidnapping Kay more than once, the Gill-man is killed by the crew of aUnited States Navy torpedo boat.

Creature from the Black Lagoon: Black Water Horror - A Tale of Terror for the 21st Century

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Larry Mike Garmon's novel was published in 2002 (ISBN 0-439-40228-X) as part ofScholastic'sUniversal Monsters series.[9] The novel takes place in Southern Florida, where reports of shark attacks are suspected to in fact be the work of the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Creature from the Black Lagoon: Time's Black Lagoon

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InPaul Di Filippo's 2006 novelTime's Black Lagoon (ISBN 1-59582-033-7),[10] which takes place 60 years after the events of the films, the Gill-man is depicted as descending from a race ofextraterrestrials who came toEarth during theDevonian period on a giant spaceship calledThe Mother, which crashed on Earth. The Gill-People have the ability to communicatetelepathically among themselves and among the human characters. Alphas such as "Fleshmolders", "Mudshapers", and "Fishcallers" are highly telepathic individuals in their tribal communities, who each choose a successor from among their respective tribes' children to take their place and title when they die.

The Gill-man itself is a degenerate member of this race, descended from an individual who explored deep in the ocean and became exposed toarchaeobacteria, becoming deformed and insane, driven to infect others with the disease. Eventually, there were no healthy Gill-People left, and the race's numbers dwindled over theepochs to one individual in the 1950s, which is the one that appears in the original films.

Theme park attraction

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The Gill-man was the star ofCreature from the Black Lagoon: The Musical, a live performance show that once was added to theUniversal Studios Hollywood theme park inLos Angeles,California. It debuted on July 1, 2009, and replacedFear Factor Live. It closed down for good on March 9, 2010 and was replaced bySpecial Effects Stage, which opened three months later on June 26.

See also

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References

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  1. ^"The Iconic Horror Movie Scene That Inspired 'The Shape of Water'".Bloody Disgusting. September 6, 2017.Archived from the original on October 14, 2017. RetrievedOctober 16, 2017.
  2. ^abcFerrari, Andrea (2003).Il Cinema Dei Mostri. Mondadori. p. 287.ISBN 88-435-9915-1.
  3. ^abRouin, Jeff (1977).The Fabulous Fantasy Films.
  4. ^ab"The Gill-man's movie trivia". Ben Chapman Family. July 2008. Retrieved6 April 2016.
  5. ^Cieply, Michael (2007-03-12)."On Screens Soon, Abused Earth Gets Its Revenge".The New York Times. Retrieved2008-01-10.
  6. ^Billington, Alex (2009-05-27)."On Screens Soon, Abused Earth Gets Its Revenge".firstshowing.net. Retrieved2016-01-02.
  7. ^Statten, Vargo (1954).Creature from the Black Lagoon. Dragon Publications Limited.
  8. ^Thorne, Ian (1981).Creature from the Black Lagoon. MCA Publishing.
  9. ^Garmon, Larry (2002).Creature from the Black Lagoon: Black Water Horror - A Tale for Terror for the 21st Century. Scholastic.
  10. ^Di Filippo, Paul (2006).Creature from the Black Lagoon: Time's Black Lagoon. Dark Horse Press.

External links

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