Starring John Agar, Lori Nelson, John Bromfield, Nestor Paiva, Grandon Rhodes
Directed by Jack Arnold
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
After the legendary Gill-Man is captured and put on exhibition in a Florida aquarium, an animal psychologist and his beautiful assistant discover the creature can't be tamed.
This follow-up to the classic Creature From The Black Lagoon can't compete with the original, but Agar brings natural charm to his character in one of his first sci-fi credits, despite his cruel attempts to train the creature with a bull prod. One hopes this was an invention of the screenplay, and not indicative of the methods real animal psychologists used at the time, which makes me shudder if they were. The rest of the picture offers efficient thrills, Nelson is gifted with some meaningful dialogue as the film's leading lady, and Tom Hennesy and Ricou Browning bring the Gill-Man to life as memorably as in the first film. However, for me the Creature was far more effective in his native environment. Paiva is the only actor from the original film to reprise his role, as the charter boat captain Lucas, a rogue more colorful than most of the other characters, and it's a shame he's only around for less than the first half of the picture.
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