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A late addition to the Universal Monsters canon, Jack Arnold's "Creature from the Black Lagoon" was released in 1954, a full 23 years after the premiere of Tod Browning's classic adaptation of "Dracula" starring Bela Lugosi.

Some might argue that the Universal Monsters had already established itself with "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1915), "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1923), and "The Phantom of the Opera" (1925), but I feel it wasn't until Carl Laemmle Jr. took over the monster arm of Universal in 1931 that the canon would officially form. Within the next 15 years, Universal would churn out 25 monster movies that existed within the same continuity, making it the Marvel Cinematic Universe of its day. Indeed, just like in the MCU, the characters frequently met one another in epic crossover films like "House of Frankenstein" and "House of Dracula."

"Creature from the Black Lagoon" came when the classic Monster canon was more or...

Francis the Talking Mule – 7 Film Collection

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1950 – 1957 / 1.33:1, 2:1, 1.85:1

Starring Donald O’Connor, Chill Wills, Piper Laurie, Julie Adams

Written by David Stern, Oscar Brodney

Directed by Arthur Lubin, Charles Lamont

Born in 1909, David “Tom” Stern III was a journalist who lived a long and prosperous life—his father was media magnate J. David Stern, publisher of the now-defunct Philadelphia Record, the New York Post, and New Jersey’s Courier-Post. The younger Stern emulated his father’s success in the newspaper business; by 1949, Stern III was able to purchase the New Orleans Item-Tribune for 2,000,000. The rest of his fortune arrived in 1946 with Francis, The Talking Mule, Stern’s tall tale about a loquacious donkey. The scope of the book’s success was almost as unreal as the mule itself. In 1999, on Stern’s 90th birthday, a friend dedicated this verse;

Here’s a toast to Tom Stern

A man of great class.

Another key ’50s sci-fi makes it to Blu-ray in an admirable encoding. Roger Corman’s end-of-the-world survivalist struggle against radioactive mist and three-eyed mutants shines in the glory of Superscope: Richard Denning and cute Lori Nelson must contend with a human monster in Touch Connors’ gangster. Adele Jergens spices things up, while Paul Birch delivers downer sermons about doomsday. It’s a truly marvelous atom fable, full of fanciful silly-science that makes for good storytelling. With a commentary by Tom Weaver. And don’t forget to click the ‘Rhododendron’ link.

Day the World Ended

Blu-ray

1955 / B&w / 2.00:1 widescreen / 79 min. / Street Date December 21, 2021

Starring: Richard Denning, Lori Nelson, Adele Jergens, Touch Connors, Paul Birch, Raymond Hatton, Paul Dubov, Jonathan Haze, Paul Blaisdell, Chet Huntley (voice).

Cinematography: Jock Feindel

Set Decoration: Harry Reif

Film Editor: Ronald Sinclair

Special Effects: Paul Blaisdell

Original Music: Ronald Stein

Written by Lou Rusoff

Executive Producer:...

Lori Nelson, the 1950s starlet who was kidnapped by an amphibious monster in Revenge of the Creature and portrayed Barbara Stanwyck’s younger daughter in Douglas Sirk’s All I Desire, has died. She was 87.

Nelson had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for several years and died Sunday at her home in the Porter Ranch section of Los Angeles, her daughter Jennifer Mann said.

In Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair (1952) and Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1955), Nelson played Rosie Kettle, one of the daughters of the characters played by Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride in the Universal series of films.

Nelson also made her mark in I Died a Thousand Times (1955), a remake of the Humphrey Bogart classic High Sierra in which she portrayed the club-footed love interest of Jack Palance’s crook; Pardners (1956), working opposite Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in their penultimate film together...

Jane Russell in Underwater! is now available on Blu-ray From Warner Archives. Order info can be found Here

Master director John Sturges lends his talents as the helmsman of “Men’s Adventure” movies to this Howard Hughes production starring Hughes’s favorite muse, Jane Russell. While diving off the coast of Cuba, Dominic Quesada (Gilbert Roland) discovers a long-lost fortune but needs help to raise his find from the depths bringing Johnny (Richard Egan) and Theresa Gray (Russell) into his scheme. Now, as the trio fights to lift the decaying hull from its precarious resting spot on the brink of a bottomless undersea chasm, they are attacked by sharks and modern-day pirates (Joseph Calleia). Roland and Egan may bring the beefcake, while Russell and Lori Nelson provide the cheesecake, but the real meal is Sturges’ sweeping undersea spectacle. 16×9 Letterbox . New 2020 1080p HD Master From 4K Scan of the Original Camera...

No, this isn’t a documentary about the sorry situation faced by too many American homeowners. Howard Hughes takes Rko into SuperScope and color for this attractive, somewhat tame sunken treasure adventure starring his captive glamour star Jane Russell. No off-color advertising slogans this time around, but the show shapes up as a swimsuit catalog for Jane as well as her handsome co-stars Richard Egan and Gilbert Roland. Plus, the Latin rhythms of the incomparable Pérez Prado!

Underwater!

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1955 / Color / 2:1 widescreen (SuperScope) / 99 min. / Street Date January 29, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Jane Russell, Richard Egan, Gilbert Roland, Lori Nelson, Robert Keith, Joseph Calleia, Eugene Iglesias, Ric Roman, Dámaso Pérez Prado, Max Wagner.

Cinematography: Harry J. Wild

Film Editors: Stuart Gilmore, Frederic Knudtson

Original Music: Roy Webb

Second Unit Director: William Dorfman

Underwater photography: Lamar Boren

Written by Walter Newman story by Hugh King, Robert B. Bailey

Produced by Harry Tatelman,...

The Anthony Mann – James Stewart crowd-pleaser now comes to Region A Blu-ray. With its bright Technicolor hues, it’s the wagon train movie fans remember first after Red River. Stewart is a good guy with a dark background who tries to atone by helping some settlers. The thorn in his side is an unreformed former outlaw played by Arthur Kennedy in high style. Also shining bright is everyone’s favorite Universal contract player, Julie (Julia) Adams.

Bend of the River

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1952 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 91 min. / Street Date April 16, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Julia Adams, Rock Hudson, Lori Nelson, Jay C. Flippen, Stepin’ Fetchit, Henry Morgan, Royal Dano, Chubby Johnson, Frances Bavier, Howard Petrie.

Cinematography: Irving Glassberg

Film Editor: Russell Schoengarth

Original Music: Hans J. Salter

Written by Borden Chase from the novel Bend of the Snake by Bill Gulick

Produced by...

It’s controversy in the Black Lagoon! Universal releases a much-desired box of all three Gill Man epics — but goes cheap on the encoding and hands us a 3-D rendering of Revenge of the Creature at half-resolution. When is a Blu-ray not a Blu-ray? When it’s not even full HD. And all that after commissioning a state-of-the-art 4k 3-D video remaster!

Creature From the Black Lagoon: Complete Legacy Collection

Creature from the Black Lagoon (3-D + 2-D), Revenge of the Creature (3-D) + 2-D, The Creature Walks Among Us (2-D)

Blu-ray

Universal Studios Home Entertainment

1954-1956 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 79, 82, 78 min. / Street Date August 28, 2018 / 39.98

Starring: Julie Adams, Lori Nelson, Leigh Snowden, Nestor Paiva, Richard Carlson, Jeff Morrow, John Agar, Rex Reason, Richard Denning, John Bromfield, Jeff Morrow, Greg Palmer…

and as the Gill Man: Ricou Browning, Ben Chapman, Don Megowan, others.

Cinematography: William E. Snyder; Charles S. Welbourne; Maury Gertsman

Film...

It’s funny how much one year can change something as niche as a bizarre subgenre of ’50s monster movies. A year ago, the Crypt of Curiosities kicked off with a piece that touched on tons of different films in the “Gillsploitation” genre, a silly little corner of horror cinema that riffed on Jack Arnold’s classic The Creature from the Black Lagoon to deliver all sorts of bizarre B-movie delights. There were your run of the mill rip-offs, there were Vincent Price films, hell, there were even Japanese monster movies and Italian gore-fests. It was a short-lived, sparsely populated subgenre, and to tell you the truth, I wasn’t expecting there to be any real big Gill-Man films again after Carpenter’s Creature from the Black Lagoon reboot got canned in the ’90s.

And then a little movie called The Shape of Water came out and changed everything. Suddenly,...

The second Anthony Mann / James Stewart western displays excellent direction and impressive Technicolor location photography high in the high mountains of Oregon. A matinee staple, it delivers everything — Stewart’s mostly good hero and Arthur Kennedy’s mostly bad hero spar and tangle and eventually fight to the death near the timber line. Handsome Rock Hudson receives prime billing for flashing his ‘Dazzledent’ smile.

Bend of the River

All-Region Blu-ray

Explosive Media (Germany)

1952 / Color / 1:37 flat full frame / 91 min. / Meuterei am Schlangenfuss, Where the River Bends / Street Date August 10, 2017 / Amazon.de Eur 17,99

Starring: James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Julia Adams, Rock Hudson, Lori Nelson, Jay C. Flippen, Stepin’ Fetchit, Henry Morgan, Royal Dano, Chubby Johnson, Frances Bavier, Howard Petrie.

Cinematography: Irving Glassberg

Film Editor: Russell Schoengarth

Original Music: Hans J. Salter

Written by Borden Chase from the novel Bend of the Snake by Bill Gulick

Produced by Aaron Rosenberg

Directed by Anthony...

Previously, during the two week long 3-D film festival at the Egyptian Theatre, I had the pleasure to watch Creature From The Black Lagoon, House Of Wax, It Came From Outer Space, The Mad Magician and Jaws 3-D. This past Saturday night, I completed my experience with the World 3-D Film Expo with a screening of Jack Arnold’s Revenge Of The Creature, the sequel to the Universal classic Creature From The Black Lagoon.

As with many of the other screenings, I got to see Revenge in the format it was intended to be seen in, dual 35 mm, in luscious 3-D. The film had some great 3-D gags, and some fantastic underwater sequences, and didn’t look much worse for wear in comparison with Joe Alves’ Jaws 3-D. In fact, after seeing them both in such a short time, I was startled by the similarity in the two movies (in the less heralded sequels,...

She.ll always be best known as Kay Lawrence, the beauty that the Gillman falls in love with the moment he spies her swimming above him in Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954). Mimicking her movements in the water, the Creature performs a lustful underwater mating dance . he.s directly beneath her but she’s unaware of his amorous overtures in the murky depths of the river. It.s a desire most men (and monster kids) could relate to and Julie Adams is the actress who will always be fondly remembered as the .girl in the white one-piece..

Born Betty May Adams and raised near Little Rock Arkansas, Julie was bit by the acting bug early and moved to California to become an actress. She worked as a secretary to support herself and spent her free time taking speech lessons and making the rounds at the various movie studio casting departments.