Pity the poor old Gill-man – minding his own business in the black lagoon when some grubby money-hungry scientists rock up and capture him. Then they spirit him away to a marina park where he’s prodded and poked and photographed and gawked at by whiny Americans. They chain him to the floor, electrocute the poor thing – who can blame him for going on a rampage?
But the thing is, it’s not a very sensible rampage – he kills a few people then goes missing. No one knows where he is, he could be anywhere on the east coast… but he manages to track down Lori Nelson, who he’s fallen in love with. And instead of trying to swim home or to safety he kidnaps Nelson. Then he leaves her by a riverbank and gets busted.
There is a lot of humour in this film. Much of it is likely to be unintentional – scientist John Agar tells Nelson that unlike her he doesn’t have to decide between a career and family because he’s a man. Some of it surely must have been intentional: the Gill man shoving his face in the window while Agar smooth talks Nelson, Agar grabs Nelson as he’s about to ask her out, Gill man perves into Nelson’s room just as she’s about to take her shower and sees her in her underwear, Gill man walks into a mid 50s groovy party.
Like the first film they set up this pseudo-love triangle between Agar (scientist who rocks up to investigate), Nelson (science student) and John Bromfield (the dude who actually captures the Gill man). But for some reason they don’t really do much with the Bromfield character, which is a pit – he had potential, to be a baddie or quasi-goodie or something, but they kill him off early and give the action to Agar, even though he’s not in the first bit of the movie.
Clint Eastwood fans will be delighted to see him playing a scientist in an early scene. Nelson is pretty, though she’s not as good as Julie Adams. It’s a pretty crappy movie, but enjoyable.
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