The last of 'Universal's great monsters, 'Creature From The Black Lagoon ' is a real cult favourite and a darn good film to boot !! .... It spawned two sequels, somewhat varying in quality and was immensely popular in it's day (1954 -1956 ) The Gill Man, as he is loosely termed in the movie is also one of the 'Classic Monsters' in that, we feel a certain degree of sympathy for him, from time to time .... ( That is, when he is not busy ripping out people's throats and so on, with his massive claws !! ) He does after all, get a pretty rough deal from some of the more dastardly Humans ( especially in the later movies ) that are only interested in exhibiting & / or just ripping him off !! .... The locations - Florida, doubling for 'The Upper Reaches of The Amazon' are good and rather convincing .... Also worth mentioning is the underwater photography, passing good muster .... In the Director's chair is cult favourite, Jack Arnold ( Tarantula, The Incredible Shrinking Man, It Came From Outer Space, amongst others ) & he does his customary excellent job .... Amorous Scientist and Tough Head Hunter / Businessman, Richard's : Carlson & Denning, ( Respectively ) compete for the attentions of budding lady scientist Julia Adams, inbetween battling the aquatic fishface, ( who by the way, also stakes a claim on her ) but one of course hopes that good sense will prevail in the end, as it would be unimaginable to think of 'Gill & Julia' walking down the aisle together !! ( perhaps only not in, The Rocky Horror Picture Show' !! ) Whit Bissel and Nestor Paiva are also on hand just to make sure sci - fi 'B' movies are properly represented. What more could you ask for ? !! .... The DVD itself has an abundance of extras, as do all of these in the 'Universal Classic Monster Collection', with an interesting & informative Audio Commentary & Documentary, amongst other goodies !! .... If you like 1950's Sci - fi / Horror movies this is sure to be on your want list .... !! .... P.S : the two sequels, 'Revenge Of The Creature' & 'The Creature Walks Among Us' are worth checking out too, though they may not be as good as this first installment of course, still there we are, what are sequels for .... !!