Film Forum

(1954, Jack Arnold) Pre-Jaws underwater terror as intrepid scientists search the Amazon for clues to the Missing Link and its prehistoric past, but find instead a “Gill Man” with both a nasty streak and a healthy fascination with Julie Adams and her tight white bathing suit. See also: Revenge of the Creature. Plus Oscar-nominated AUDIOSCOPIKS (1935), Hollywood’s very first 3-D movie. Both DCP. Approx. 87 mins.

Reviews

“Director Arnold was an early pioneer of the art of playing on the fears of the average human being—as Spielberg did in the seventies with Jaws and Spielberg was reportedly heavily influenced by the brooding, menacing style of Arnold’s atmospheric film…Strong on atmosphere and plot, but with a low budget, AN EXCELLENT EXAMPLE OF HOW TO MAKE A GOOD MONSTER MOVIE.”
– Phil Hardy

“The 3-D lensing adds to the eerie effects of the underwater footage, as well as to the monster’s several appearances on land. The below-water scraps between skin divers and the prehistoric thing are thrilling and will pop goose pimples on the susceptible fan.”
– Variety (1954)

“The routine story is mightily improved by Arnold's sure sense of atmospheric locations and by the often sympathetic portrait of the monster.”
– Time Out (London)

“Archetypal 50s science fiction…Jack Arnold has a flair for this sort of thing.”
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader