:55:02
and had what are called flex gaps
near the elbows, shoulders and knees,
:55:05
which gave Ricou and Ben a little
freedom and mobility when they moved.
:55:09
But the suit worn by stunt man
Tom Hennesy in Revenge of the Creature
:55:12
was a moulded one-piece bodysuit,
:55:14
which Bob Burns, who's had
to wear suits like that in his time,
:55:18
tells me are not made to flex, give you
no freedom, and are very uncomfortable.
:55:22
There were two sequels to Creature:
Revenge of the Creature, in 1954,
:55:26
and The Creature Walks Among Us,
made in 1955.
:55:29
Ricou Browning played
the underwater gill-man in all three.
:55:32
In Revenge, the land gill-man
was played by Tom Hennesy,
:55:34
and in Creature Walks, where the
creature is seriously burned in a fire,
:55:38
the smooth-skinned gill-man
was played by actor Don Megowan.
:55:42
The only name listed in the credits
for make-up is Bud Westmore,
:55:45
but he was just head of the make-up
department. He did little of the work.
:55:48
He liked to make out he did, he was
a self-promoter and a publicity hound,
:55:51
and for most every Universal monster
movie there are a bunch of photos
:55:55
of Westmore painstakingly
working on the thing -
:55:57
Westmore in his white shirt
and tie and his sweater.
:56:00
That was a tip-off - nobody
who's really doing any work
:56:03
in a make-up lab wears an outfit
like that while he's working.
:56:05
But that's how Westmore would show up
when photos were going to be taken.
:56:09
There's a story I shouldn't tell, but
I will, about sculptor Chris Mueller,
:56:13
the very talented guy who sculpted
the gill-man's head and hands.
:56:16
He started as an architectural
sculptor, and his career went backaways.
:56:19
He worked on the Sabu Thief of Bagdad,
making the temple and the all-seeing god.
:56:23
He sculpted animals for The Jungle Book,
and for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,
:56:28
and also worked at Universal,
doing architectural stuff first,
:56:31
then gravitating
to the make-up department.
:56:33
He sculpted the hunchback and phantom
for Man of a Thousand Faces,
:56:36
the Hyde mask for
A&C Meet Jekyll and Hyde,
:56:39
the mummy for
A&C Meet the Mummy, etc, etc.
:56:41
So one day Mueller is at Universal,
working on the gill-man head,
:56:45
and somebody else tipped him off.
The guy told Mueller
:56:47
"If Bud Westmore tells you to take
the rest of the day off, don't."
:56:51
"That means that the press
is coming in to take pictures,
:56:54
and Westmore doesn't want you around."
:56:56
Mueller goes back to work and
sure enough, in comes Bud Westmore.