“The Creature is back! He needs a doctor! A plastic surgeon. He’s been touched to the quick…slowly. It’s a sad tale, the creature who walks among us sings. He is the last of the strolling troubadours…the very end. Listen as he sings, ‘Who is the fairest one of all?’”
Most monsterkids will recognize that little intro from the album Themes From Horror Movies by Dick Jacobs and his Orchestra. The intro, written by Mort Goode and narrated by Bob McFadden, sets the scene for the theme “Stalking the Creature” from Universal’s 1956 entry The Creature Walks Among Us (1956). I was listening to this worn-out album this past week, reliving in my old mind the scenes these themes accompanied. What visuals they conjure up!
I had an idea: I went over to the Witchwood Cemetery to visit my old friend, The Radio Reaper. I found him in his tomb, doing some much-needed housekeeping.
“Reaper,” I said, “I’m looking for some old spots to a certain movie. Do you have The Creature Walks Among Us?”
A gleam lit up his old sunken eyes and a smile came across his withered lips.
“I believe I do. Let’s see.” he said.
He grabbed his old reliquary and blew off the dust. He opened it, thumbed through some things, and pulled out a red, 12” record.
“Here you go,” he said and handed it to me.
“Wow!” I exclaimed. “Only four spots?”
“Yep,” he replied. “I guess they figured the public knew who the Creature was and what they could expect.”
I thanked him and went on my way.
The movie is the third installment of the Creature franchise, the first two being Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) and Revenge of the Creature (1955). This time around scientists, led by Jeff Morrow and Rex Reason, attempt to capture the Gill-man again, this time in the Florida Everglades, in an effort to study him up close. After they examine a sample of his blood, Morrow goes off the deep end and decides to try and develop a new species through blood and genetic manipulation. While hunting the creature, they soon become the hunted, and the creature jumps into their small boat, gets shot by two spears containing the anesthetic rotonone, and accidently douses himself with gasoline. Gregg Palmer’s character throws a gasoline lamp at him which ignites him. Falling into the water, they soon rescue him, his body now covered in third-degree burns and having trouble breathing. They take him back to their science yacht where they discover that his scales and gills have been burned away but that he possesses human-type skin underneath and a rudimentary set of lungs. His eyes mutate into human-like eyes and his body shape changes, due to his inflated lungs (and to match the drawing we see of him early in the movie showing a much bulkier creature than we have previously known). The creature is provided clothing to cover his sensitive skin and is eventually locked in an electrified enclosure where he observes man’s inhumanity to man – and woman. Out of fear he escapes, and the last we see of him he is staring remorsefully at the ocean before slowly making his way to it.
Don Megowan gives a heartfelt, emotional portrayal of the creature, mostly through eye movement and body language. We feel sorry for him as he tries to adjust to a new land environment and to learn the good and evil ways of his captors. The movie uses a lot of underwater footage from the two previous movies and some new underwater scenes with Ricou Browning, this time in the old suit and in the new suit.
Here now are the four spots as Creature fans heard them in 1956. So, dive in…and enjoy.