Creature Feature : 50 Years of the Gill Man

Review by 42nd Street Pete

Directed by Matthew Crick, Written by Sam Borowski.

This is an excellent documentary about the most enduring of the Universal Monster, The Creature From the Black Lagoon. This is a must see for any Creature fan as it covers everything from it's conception to it's impact in pop culture today. I was truly amazed at the scope of it all and some of the little known facts that came out. The Creature was conceived by a woman artist, he was introduced to the world on the Colgate Comedy Show with Abbott & Costello, Glen Strange was originally offered the role, but turned it down because he couldn't swim, and so many more interesting facts.

The film has a few of the stars that were in the film, Ben Chapman, Julie Adams, Ginger Stanley and others. Included are interviews with Creature friends and fans like Benicio Del Toro, Daniel Roebuck, and Tom Savini. There are also interviews with Creature collectors, who scoured the world in search of rare Creature items. Rob Hauschild of Wildeye Releasings tell how many other films were influenced by the Creature.

The "star" of this doc would have to be Ben Chapman. Ben was one of the coolest people that I ever met during my tenure with a certain convention. Ben was a fine human being and just a great person to hang out with. Ben truly cherished his fans, many who became personal friends. There are clips of Ben's many appearances at conventions like Monster Bash and Monster Mania. A lot of us have great Bennie stories from hanging out with him.

I saw this film last Saturday night at a packed house. If your a fan of the Creature or just a fan of the genre in general, I urge you to see this film. I enjoyed the hell out of it and actually learned some little known facts. A must see!!