a review of

I saw this classic many years ago, and only remember the wonderful costume the eponymous creature wore. I think it's worth a whole star by itself, and the true designer was right to fight for recognition. Sure, there was conflict between it and the crew, but not initiated by the gillman who would have been fine being left in peace, up until he grew obsessed by the lone female in the cast. If he had stuck to his main task, the infighting between the two macho leads would have made for insignificant adversaries, I think. I did grow weary of the three note phrase the brass section of the orchestra would blare out every time the Creature appeared to menace the humans on screen, over and over and over. A lighter touch would I think have been better. Still, it was better than a lot of the rubber-suit films it inspired. It couldn't have been easy leading the way in the early 1950s.