REVENGE OF THE CREATURE (1955)
Article #198 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-30-2001
Posting date: 2-13-2002

Scientists remove the Gill Man from his native habitat and place him in a tank in an aquarium.

The sequel is not up to the level of the original movie of the series, but it’s not too bad for all that. The only recurring character (outside of the creature himself) between the two movies is Nestor Paiva’s Captain Lucas, and he only appears in the first twenty minutes of the movie. There’s a lot of uninteresting romance to pad out the proceedings, but that was pretty much common for the period. It’s hard to actually feel much for the “heros” in this movie, as the tests that they make the creature undergo seem somewhat cruel and mean-spirited; my sympathy ends up very much with the creature, which is actually something the original never quite accomplished for me. Part of the credit goes to Ricou Browning, who plays the creature in the underwater scenes; he actually does some fine acting while holding his breath and wearing a costume that obscures his face completely.

John Agar and Lori Nelson lead the cast, but the real treat is the celebrity that appears uncredited in a small role; I am referring, of course, to Flippy, the educated porpoise, who would later make a name for himself on “Sealhide”, and then appear in several spaghetti westerns as the dolphin with no name, sitting astride his horse with no name and balancing a ball on the end of his nose. It’s fun to see him in his early years.

Oh, and Clint Eastwood makes an appearance, too.