Sunday, August 31, 2008

Movie review – Creature #3 - “The Creature Walks Among Us” (1956) **

The third in the Creature trilogy has another expedition up the Amazon. Again, there are two guys who run around in tight shorts, and a sexy girl – only this time the girl is a bit of a good-time party girl, and she’s married to a mad scientist.

The second Creature film had a reason to exist, in that it came up with a fresh idea, i.e. the Creature visits America. This one just rehashes the plot of the first film, with the difference being they already know the Creature is going to be there.

The poor old creature – they capture him, he almost dies, so the mad doctor starts some Mengele-like operations on the poor thing (even our “hero” Rex Reason, who’s meant to disapprove, goes on along with it), they dress him in a weird suit… you can’t blame him for going on a rampage. Quite frankly, he was entitled to kill more people.

This one feels less like King Kong than Frankenstein, with the Creature as Frankenstein’s monster and Jeff Morrow as the mad doctor. At the final rampage he could easily be Boris Karloff, staggering around in his suit, looking overweight and going on his rampage.

Rex Reason is solid (as in wooden) as the good scientist, Jeff Morrow could have been madder, Leigh Snowden is Ok as the semi-slut (she kind of falls between two stools – too nasty to be a sympathetic heroine, not saucy or bad enough to be a proper villain). The other main problem with his movie is it doesn't have enough action. And the Creature spends too much time wearing that weird overcoat on dry land, and not enough in the water.

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