It’s Never Easy Being Green
by Kim Pederson…….
Some friends here in Key West recently started a Kickstarter campaign for a feature film The Curse of the Spongeman. Reading about the project and seeing their short film precursor made me think about one of the movies that inspired the filmmakers: The Creature from the Black Lagoon (CFBL).
in a 1962 TV show. Thus this public domain FDA photo
The original “camporredy” (campy horror comedy) came out in 1954, filmed in black and white and 3D. It had two sequels, Revenge of the Creature and The Creature Walks Among Us, that I have not seen (or at least cannot recall seeing). I won’t go into the CFBL story here other to say it involved a team of scientists in the Amazon being attacked by the Gill-man, a piscine amphibious humanoid. (I was surprised to learn, as you might be, that the CFBL creature is not the sole example of a PAH.)
Reading about Spongeman also reminded me of a segment from the novel Forrest Gump that never made it into the film. In one of many adventures we did not see on screen, Forrest stumbles into being a stuntman in Hollywood, gets chosen to be the green Gill-man in a remake of CFBL, and, becoming a little confused during the film shoot, ends up, while in his creature costume, carrying a naked Raquel Welch off the set and down the city streets.
Sadly, I missed seeing Creature from the Black Lagoon: The Musical, which ran for less than a year at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park. In it the creature and the female lead Kay sing a duet titled “Strange New Hunger.” Then the creature gets speargunned with a weapon that happens to be coated with human growth hormone, mushrooms into a 25-foot tall monster, and, unable to control his strange new hunger, eats Kay. Afterwards, the Captain ends the show singing about the unpredictability of love as he reprises the opening number “Black Lagoon.” It’s at times like these that I wish time travel were possible. Oh, well. Maybe someone will revive the show or, failing that, at least release the original cast album. One can only hope.
Visit Kim Pederson’s blog RatBlurt: Mostly Random Short-Attention-Span Musings
Kim, If I’m not mistaken, all the Godzilla-Rodan Japanese monster movies have environmental messages, that is, something we humans have done led to these monsters. Love your stuff, PCM
Thanks, Jerome. What you say is true. My favorite is Godzilla vs. Hedorah (or Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_vs._Hedorah) made in 1971. I recommend it for a great “bad movie” night.