No one… absolutely no one mangles the English Language more than good old working class Archie Bunker. It’s a fine art to be able to take an ordinary word, put it through the Bunker brain rinse cycle and see what comes out the other end… a faint reference to the actual word yet used in just the right place in the conversation!
A few wrecked words in the car crash that is Archie Bunker’s vocabulary! or Archie Bunkerisms!
SEASON ONE
1) Archie asks “what’s that smell” Gloria tells him that her friend Robin is burning incense. “It smells like a house of ill–refute.”
2)“They want people like your mother on the jury because they know she doesn’t have anypre-conscrewedideas”
3) “It’s a well known fact that capital punishment is adetergentto crime!”
4) Mike says, “It’s just pelvic construction women are built differently” Archie answers, “Oh please don’t draw me no diaphragms“
5) “There’s wide open sex all over the place, but that’s okay that’s just your submissive society!”
6) Talking about rioting in California. “Just look at that, bricks and bottles. It’s a regular insuruption.”
7) “Back in my day we learned to keep things in their proper suspective.”
8) “You and that bleeding heart Reverend Fletcher sittin’ up there in that ivory shower.”
9) “Dear Mr. President, your Honor, Sir. As one of your faithful constituionals.”
10) Mike and Archie argue, “It’s not irreverent to the conversation.” Mike corrects him ‘irrelevant” Archie says “What ever, it’s not German to the conversation.”
11) “Come on straighten this place up. Do you want people to think you live in a pig’s eye.”
12) “You have to admit that some of those foreign films are sheer porna-graphy”
13) ‘You two may have come from monkeys and bamboons...”
14) “You think I was Lazarus rising up from the bed.”
15) “… And I don’t need no change from the humdrum morning fare you just immunerated”
16) Talking to Gloria-“It ain’t enough that he’s a pinko and an Atheist, you’re gonna turn him from a man into a morphadite” She asks “what’s a Morphadite?” And Archie’s insight comes spilling forth… “A freak with a little bit of each… and not enough of neither!”
17) Gloria stirs things up in the house about Women’s Lib. Archie responds “Edith are you listening to this over here? A dreaded disease is infilterating our home, and your daughter’s bringing it in here!”
18) “I’ll tell you the basical problem with your drop outs today is that they aint got no gratitude. What they got here is the greatest country in the world, the highest standard of living and the grossest national product.”
19) “Gee Edith I haven’t had a dollar cigar…” Edith interrupts, “You never had a dollar cigar” “That’s right! Gee I don’t know who sent them, there’s no name on the card. I guess who ever sent them wants to remain “unanimous… These cigars are the nectarines of the gods!”
20) Mike is arguing with Gloria who has left the house. He says to Archie, “What do you want, I mean? aren’t we on the same side. Haven’t you told me that a man’s home is his castle, and he gets to be the king in it. Archie tells him, “And when you got a home of your own you’ll be king!… Meantime this is my house and I”m the king… and the princess in this story is upstairs. And you’re the lowly pheasant with the job of keeping her here!”
There have been sympathetic monsters that elicit our understanding, who cause you to care about them and their ordeal whether they’re the focus of a rampaging mob of villagers with flaming torches and pick axes or scientists armed with spear guns at the ready as surrogate penises –okay maybe I didn’t think about that surrogate penis thing when I was 9, but I see it so clearly now!
Back in the day of the musty cool matinee theatre’s air smelling of buttered popcorn and old leather shoes, you could slink down in your good ‘n plenty and Milk Dud encrusted red velvet seat and wish that the monster would not only get away… but that just maybe he’d get the girl– instead of the self righteous hyper-science macho hero who objectifies everything! After all, the creature is not the one invading their territory, he’s prevailed in that environment for ions, before these macho nerds came along!
As a little monstergirl, I used to think, and still do… just leave the ‘Gill Man’ alone!
We can sympathize with monsters, like Victor Frankenstein’s creation, due in large part to Karloff’s complex and poignant interpretation of the monster, & The Gill Man from Creature From the Black Lagoon. We can find our involvement (at least I can), as one viewed with empathy toward the monster’s predicament. Embedded in the narrative is a simultaneous pathos that permits these monsters to express human desires, and then make sure that those desires are thwarted, frustrated, and ultimately destroyed.
TheCreature from the Black Lagoon embodies the seductive mystery of the unknown, a restless ripple in the waters from the murky depths of classic horror, a synthesis of primal fear and awe, of human and waterborne beast, blending horror, adventure, and myth into one unforgettable creature feature.
The Gill-Man stands as a potent symbol of nature’s raw, untamable force, and the era’s fascination with scientific discovery teetering on the edge of hubris. Whether it intended to do so or not, The Creature from the Black Lagoon isn’t shy about exploring themes of colonial arrogance and the ruthless plundering of indigenous lands, as well as colonial extractivism. The film touches on the harsh reality of greed, the tragic cost of intrusion, the taking, destroying, and plundering of Indigenous lands and their resources.
What really stays with me about Gill-Man is what a sympathetic hero he is, how he captures the tragic cost of human arrogance; he’s an innocent force of nature caught in the unsettling squeeze between man’s devouring hunger and the tightening grip of primal threat, making him less a monster to be feared and more a silent victim of a world that refuses to understand him.
Unlike typical ’50s monsters who are villains by design, he feels like a displaced guardian, more victim than villain, struggling to survive against relentless exploitation. His haunting presence resonates as a poignant reminder of what is lost when curiosity crosses into invasion, making it less a creature to be feared and more a symbol of nature’s misunderstood and mistreated majesty.
Behind this iconic figure lies a lesser-known story: Milicent Patrick, a brilliant artist whose visionary design shaped the Creature’s unforgettable silhouette but whose name was largely erased from the credits. The Gill-man drifts between worlds—horror, myth, and adventure—beckoning us into those shadowy waters where curiosity, fear, and Julie Adams, and us, swim side by side. Milicent Patrick, a pioneering artist and makeup designer who created the iconic Gill-Man design for TheCreature from the Black Lagoon. Unfortunately, her groundbreaking work went largely uncredited at the time, overshadowed by Bud Westmore, her jealous supervisor, who took credit and effectively ended her Hollywood career. Her story has only recently been reclaimed and celebrated as an important chapter in horror film history
Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, and Whit Bissell as Dr. Edward Thompson study the fossil of an amphibious man found near the Amazon.The crew catches something in their net… and whatever it was… has ripped a giant Gill Man size hole in it leaving behind a claw!
“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?” -Friedrich Nietzsche
Mr. ‘It’s mine all mine” and Kay and Mr. “But think of the contribution to science!” looking at the poor trapped Gill Man-a lonely prisoner of scientific hubris and egocentric men.The creature trapped in a bamboo cage… floats, quietly thinking deep thoughts–while the three look on, pondering what to do with him..
“The Outsider Narrative” can be seen so clearly in Jack Arnold’s horror/sci-fi hybrid, Creature From The Black Lagoon. Film monsters like The Gill Man form vivid memories for us, as they become icons laying the groundwork for the classic experience of good horror, sci-fi, and fantasy with memorable storytelling and anti-heroes that we ‘outliers’ grew to identify with and feel a fondness for.
As David Skal points out in The Monster Show, he poses that films like Creature From the Black Lagoon …are the “most vivid formative memories of a large section of the {American} population…{…} and that for so many of these narratives they seem to function as “mass cultural rituals.”
Creature From The Black Lagoon is quite a perfect film, as it works on so many different levels of examining human nature and nature as human.
When belligerent scientists and their relentless pursuit of expanding control over the natural world invade a unique creature’s habitat, forcing their domination of him, naturally, he’s compelled to fight back.
In the midst of this evolves a sort of skewed Romeo and Juliet. The Gill Man never intends to threaten Julie Adam’s character Kay Lawrence, he seemingly wants to make her his love object and maybe just maybe (idealizing of course while I imbue the ‘creature’ with a higher consciousness) the Gill Man seeks to free Kay from the dangerous men she is surrounded by. An amphibious knight in scaly armor, a rugged green scaly Adonis with limpid eyes and full lips.
The arrival of the expedition creates chaos and swampy mayhem due to the intrusion of the two opportunistic men who tote phallic harpoons around and fight with each other over questions of ethics, how to conduct scientific research, and naturally who will conquer Kay– acting like spoiled children-the both. Only the Gill Man sees her beauty from a place of primal hunger and desires her above all else, perhaps with an innate sense of possessing her, but without all the cocky male posturing.
THE LOVABLE HUGGABLE GILL MAN!! “I promise to keep my claws trimmed and never come to bed with cold, clammy feet!”
“Yes, yes,” said the Beast, “my heart is good, but still I am a monster.” –Among mankind,” says Beauty, “there are many that deserve that name more than you, and I prefer you, just as you are, to those, who, under a human form, hide a treacherous, corrupt, and ungrateful heart.”
“•Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont
“What freedom men and women could have, were they not constantly tricked and trapped and enslaved and tortured by their sexuality! The only drawback in that freedom is that without it one would not be a human. One would be a monster.”
“• John Steinbeck, East of Eden
In trying to capture the amphibian man he is driven out of his home in the mysterious upper Amazon by these otherizing anthropologists. And so the Gill Man–being shot at by spears and besieged by sweaty men in bourgeois khakis and unfashionable swim trunks blech! –must defend his realm.
He who is just lazing around, dreaming through the sun’s rays which sparkle upon the surface of the water amongst the little fishes and coral… bothering no one. Suddenly surrounded by intruders with weapons and nets, poison, and cages.
But wait, one of them is leggy and soft and looks divine in her one-piece bathing suit designed by Rosemary Odell... (Brute Force 1947, It Came from Outer Space 1953, This Island Earth 1955, To Kill a Mockingbird 1962) and what a pair of eyes!
The Gill Man goes on a mission to get the girl, and so endures his attackers because he has fallen for the simple beauty of Kay Lawrence (Julie Adams).
Though his world has become disordered, the presence of the beautiful Kay Lawrence (Julie Adams) has awakened his sexual desire.
The film starsRichard Carlsonas David Reed and Richard Denning as Mark Williams. The two men invade The Gill Man’s quiet life and argue about what should be done with the subject of their research findings, to exploit, study, or bring back to the states to gain notoriety and get paid lots of clams! without an ethical thought in their curly scientific brains, forcing themselves on the creature and making him an object of entrapment & exhibition.
“I think I love you, so what am I so afraid of? I’m afraid that I’m not sure of a love there is no cure for I think I love you isn’t that what life is made of? Though it worries me to say that I’ve never felt this way”— Insert music from The Partridge Family –“There’s just something about an Aqua Velva Gill Man!”
The Gill Man watches from below the surface, as Kay Lawrence casually smokes a cigarette, taking long sensual puffs and throwing the butts upon the lagoon like trinkets for him to worship. He feels compelled to reach out to her, but decides to be a voyeur for a bit longer.
Later the Gill Man sees Kay on the beach, the camera catches a notable deep sigh when he lays those deep green eyes on her. He moves closer. She lets out the obligatory monster movie scream queen shriek, that siren squeal, you know the kind, with the carefully place hands cupping her face in shock.
One of the men from the expedition takes a machete and tries to attack the creature, but he is killed for his efforts. Dave and Mark hear Kay scream and approach just in time for the knock-out powder they’ve placed in the lagoon to finally take effect and subdue the creature, who is now out cold. He falls flat on his green-gilled face down in the sand.
Kay passes out. The Gill Man places her down gently on the sand...Mark (Richard Denning) can’t wait to beat the fish guts out of the creature!
David (Carlson) has to intervene before Mark (Denning) bashes the creature’s head in “Stop, you’ll kill him!…”
Once Williams (Denning) sees that the Gill Man has fallen down, he says, “Got him!”then begins brutally smashing at him with his rifle, until David (Carlson) tells him to stop before he kills him. They throw a net over the unconscious creature. The scene shows the level of ferocity that man is capable of, and with this violent overkill, we, on the other side of the evolutionary scale, become monsters as well. It is a not-so-subtle contrast with the main character, who is considered the ‘creature.’
Ricou Browning portrayed the creature in the underwater scenes, and Ben Chapman played the creature on land. There’s wonderfully engaging cinematography by William E. Snyder. (Flying Leathernecks 1951, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt 1956)
The Gill Man has dwelt in the warm existential depths of the water, the lagoon, his endless cycle of existence, thriving until he is invaded by scientific hubris. While in the lagoon, he is connected to the creator of his world, remaining bound to a body of water that is symbolic of the eternal maternal womb. He is then forced out of his quiet, habitual life, where he becomes otherized. With an ‘Outsider’ narrative, the familiar then becomes monstrous.
Our perceptions are focused on how this creature’ shatters the mold of normalcy. He transforms the ordinary world into something provocative and forces the outside world to define him, once again, as with Frankenstein’s monster, he is perceived as a thing… a creature.
A film like Creature from the Black Lagooncan suggest to us the recognition of our notions of conventional sexuality and gender as well. The Gill Man is similar to a frog, yet walks upright and has the stance of a man, and possesses that archetypal ogling that shows he has sexual designs on our heroine, Kay.
Kay Lawrence: “And I thought the Mississippi was something.”
While he is placed in a role that sees Kay as the “˜object’ of his affection, he’s sort of an androgynous amphibian, and yet he suggests that “alternatives can exist which may be more desirable”-Mark Jancovich Rational Fears American Horror in the 1950s.Jancovich goes on to say that the film is “unremittingly sexual”The film has sexual symbolism throughout, as the outside world intrudes on an ambiguous sexual being living in the womb of the water, now unleashed as a sexual peril to women. The water scenes between the water ballet swimming Kay unaware that the creature is also swimming very near to her–are absolutely visual foreplay.
Sweaty men baring their chests, wielding shotguns and Phallic harpoons as much as possible.
Need I say more???
The most significant scene of the film is when The Gill Man swims a slight distance away from Kay, under the murky lagoon while Kay unaware, simultaneously moves through the water embracing its import with pleasure and liberation. She whirls above him, barely hinting at an erotic intimacy between the two.
Under the water the creature is not a threat to Kay, he’s almost shy, as he barely touches her leg, he swims away as if he’s conflicted with uncertainty about this new experience. William E Snyder is responsible for the striking underwater footage, that creates an erotic spacial world of shimmering light.
It’s almost a type of Eden, that those pesky aggressive scientific males spoil…
We know that the creature shows a fascination toward Kay, but she sort of shares a kind of bond with him, as both are threatened by the domination of the two male scientists Mark and David. She tells the men to leave the creature alone, that it won’t bother them. Mark wants to capture the creature as proof of his discovery, rather than just study him in his own habitat. Mark also wants to possess Kay, both of them are treated as ‘objects’. There are several scenes where Kay and the creature stare at each other as if they see something in common within themselves. Harry Essex wrote the screenplay, but hated the script at first so he added the Beauty and the Beasttheme, to give the creature more of a sense of humanity.
The Creature from the Black Lagoon is relentlessly sexual. Inhabited by mostly male characters, scientists have traveled to the deep Amazon in search of undiscovered animal life. What they find instead of more fossils is the Gill Man who refuses to give up his freedom. And why shouldn’t the creature react violently to their intrusion into his quiet domain? What’s more interesting is how he quickly becomes attracted to the gorgeous Julie Adams and her gutsy character Kay, the only female on the expedition who once again looks smashing in a one-piece white bathing suit and swims like she’s in the water follies. Jancovich quotes Biskind from his Seeing is Believing – claiming that the creature is “driven into a frenzy by the proximity of Julie Adams in a one-piece bathing suit.” That sounds about right to me!
The Gill-Man evokes our sympathy who has become an object’ to be controlled, dominated and assaulted by the outside world. It’s the ‘men doing science’ who become the “˜aliens’ the bad guys, the human monsters, and the creature another existential anti-hero who we identify with. It’s just a different slant on the theme of unrequited love in the lagoon…
Okay, this is one hell of a tribute to the great Peter Cushing by Aurora from Once Upon a Screen! It brings back nostalgic feelings as I happened to have owned those copies of Famous Monsters of Filmland… And yeah he does sort of look like Helen Hayes in that photo -too funny!
The Film Preservation Blogathon–an important event that helps raise funds to keep essential historic classics from disappearing! Once Upon A Screen covers The Lost World (1925) Please visit the Blogathon to read more fabulous reviews and help spread the word!!!!
Nobody does still waters run deep kind of tough more than George Raft.
In Roy Del Ruth’s (The Maltese Falcon 1931 with Bebe Daniels and Ricardo Cortez, Du Barry Was a Lady 1943, yes tis true The Alligator People 1959, Why Must I Die? 1960) Noir morality play Red Light, Raft plays Shipping boss Johnny Torno, who catches Nick Cherney (Raymond Burr in one of his most sinister roles) embezzling funds. Torno gets Cherney a term in San Quentin with just enough time to build a psychotic grudge.
Arthur Franz who’s not being attacked by a giant dragonfly or turning into a pants monster in Monster on the Campus 1958.
Arthur Franz as Jess tells his big brother Johnny in his last dying words that he’ll find the answer to his death in the hotel bible
But instead of planning to kill Torno, he decides to hit him where it will hurt more, he pays fellow inmate Rocky who’s getting out in a few days (Harry Morgan in one of the most menacing roles I’ve seen him play, he deserves a place at the bad boy table with Dan Duryea and Frank Lovejoy) to kill Torno’s younger brother, war hero, and chaplain brother Jesse played by Arthur Franz.
Driven mad by the mystery of who shot his beloved baby brother down in a hotel room, Torno goes on a quest to find the bible where the name of Jesse’s killer is written. The cinematography and shadowy framework by cinematographer Bert Glennon ( The Red House 1947, House of Wax 1953) is tense and chilling, and all the performances are stellar. Including Gene Lockhart who plays co-owner of the 24 hours a day shipping company. The film also co-stars Virginia Mayo as Carla North who Torno enlists to help him track down his brother’s killer. There are some of the most brutal and uniquely violent moments in the film which is tempered by the question of vengeance and faith.
Arthur Shields as Father Redmond. He was a wonderfully complicated anti-hero in Daughter of Dr. Jekyll 1957Virginia Mayo as Carla wants to help George who exudes the ‘tormented man’, but he is too driven by revenge for having lost the only thing he truly loved… his kid brother Jess.
I couldn’t help but love Warni’s shared wisdom when he tells Torno who’s drinking himself into an angry stupor to let Jesse’s death go and move on with his life.
Gene Lockhart as Warni Hazard tells Johnny Torno (George Raft)- “My old man used to say liquor doesn’t drown your troubles… just teaches them how to swim.”
Gene Lockhart as Warni Hazard “My old man used to say liquor doesn’t drown your troubles… just teaches them how to swim.”
