THE AMPHIBIAN MAN (1962)
(a.k.a. CHELOVEK-AMFIBIYA)
Article #150 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-13-2001
Posting date: 12-27-2001

A boy who has been transformed by his scientist-father to live underwater meets and falls in love with a woman. He runs into problems when he leaves his water environment to track her down.

This movie links up nicely with two other movies this week, being a Russian film (like AELITA, QUEEN OF MARS) and another half-man, half animal-elsewhere-on-the-evolutionary-scale movie (like THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE; incidentally, we have another one of these coming up shortly). It’s half a love story and half a fish-out-of-water story (and no, I didn’t have to strain to come up with that phrase). I’ve seen the movie only once at this point of time, and I enjoyed it well enough, but I prefer to reserve my judgment at this poiint, as I believe it needs a second viewing for me to really decide; at this point, I think the characters are quite well-developed and multi-dimensional, but I’m less impressed by the story as a whole, but that could easily change with another viewing. Though the dubbing has no doubt interfered with the movie’s impact, the movie does feel more-or-less intact. It’s also nice to see a Russian science fiction movie from this period that wasn’t pillaged for footage.