Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and Cat People (1942)

I am trying to expand my horror horizons this year, and pretty much the entire black and white era is a blind spot for me. Part of that blind spot: I have never seen a Universal monster movie! This one sounded like the most interesting choice, since it's the only "original" creation and not just another riff on Dracula, wolfmen, or Frankenstein that I have endless comparison points for.

I didn't love it, but I liked it! The plot and characters are too thin to latch onto, but the Gill Man is a fantastic creation. Truly an iconic design, and an impressively executed monster suit also. The underwater suit doesn't seem to have eyes, or the angles and lighting make it look like it just has black depths instead. Either way it adds to the creepiness. I was surprised and impressed that the out of water suit has a neck waddle that bubbles up and even moves some of the gills to simulate breathing. The lengthy underwater scenes had me wondering if they somehow hid a breathing apparatus in there, but nope apparently performer Ricou Browning just held his breath for up to four minutes at a time! AND the suit was so rigid that you couldn't sit down while wearing it. It's wild that Browning was able to give an effective and even graceful underwater performance in those conditions. Also adding to my enjoyment, Julia Adams looks great in old-time-y swimwear (and the hair, my god the gorgeous 1950s hair!).

Wild that this begins so bombastically with literal explosions representing the dawn of existence and then ends quietly with a gut-shot Gill Man sinking into the dark depths.

I totally get how Guillermo del Toro got from here to The Shape of Water. The Gill Man is more interesting than the human characters, and his endless pursuit of Kay makes you wonder what his end game was... And the scene of him swimming below Kay is creepy yet beautiful and sad (definitely the high point of the picture). I felt sorry for ol' Gilman, these fools just came into his home and started shooting harpoons into him!

Wow, I could not have picked a better counterpoint to follow-up Creature from the Black Lagoon. That one had thin characters and story, but a great special effects monster and performance that imbued the movie with some spark. Cat People focuses on character relationships and uses shadow, sound, and suggestion instead of special effects. That budget-induced limitation means this movie never has a distracting goofy costume or cheesy effect to ruin its timeless quality. That suggestiveness is also present in the script and themes. Once again, a limitation (in this case censorship of the Hayes Code) leads to creative solutions that open the movie up.

Simone Simon is fantastic. I was immediately reminded of characters I love like Angela Bettis in May. Simon's Irena is quirkily cute, seemingly shy or odd, just enticing enough that you can see why a man might pursue her but just off enough that you know he probably shouldn't. She is a Serbian fashion artist sketching the panther at the Central Park Zoo when Oliver (Kent Smith) walks into her life.

This movie should be required viewing for every dude who has minimized or ignored a woman's trauma or emotional problems. Oliver dismisses Irena's story about the cursed people of her village becoming panthers when aroused, despite the fact that she obviously takes it very seriously. He breezes past the red flags and gets her to marry him. He remains pretty understanding about the no intimacy thing for a while, but he pushes Irena to see a psychiatrist and spends far too much time discussing the intimate details of his marriage with co-worker Alice (the original "cool girl" character?).

There is a great and frustrating monologue where Oliver lays it all out: He's always had a happy life, and now his marital problems are making him unhappy, and he has no idea how to handle it! The movie never mentions the political context, but Irena comes from Serbia during decades of war and upheaval. Even in the safety of America, she lives in fear of the legend (and by extension herself). Meanwhile, Oliver has never encountered real pain or adversity and just assumes he can work through whatever is wrong with Irena like any other minor problem in his life. Then Alice actually feels bad for Oliver after he says that shit! If only these two dumb dipshits had realized their bland love for each other before Oliver bulldozed an emotionally damaged woman into marrying him. And while it does feel like the movie goes a little easier on Oliver than it should, to its credit Irena is never reduced to simple villainy. Irena fights her (understandable) urges to attack Alice, leading to a great stalking sequence and then a great set piece.

*SPOILER* When Irena does finally bring the claws out it's because of the sleazy psychiatrist forcing himself on her. *END SPOILER FOR 80-year-old movie*

I really liked this one and have been thinking about it for days. This has a lot of thematic and stylistic meat worthy of future viewings and additional reading (the short essay in the Criterion DVD was a good start). I also realized afterwards that the same director/cinematographer duo (Jacques Tourneur/Nicholas Musuraca) made Out of the Past, one of the first film noir movies I watched and loved, so I need to seek out more of their work. There is also a sequel (Curse of the Cat People [1944]), and a remake (Cat People [1982]), that I have added to my watchlist.