1:01:02
"This adventure has no depth."
1:01:04
Variety said "The below-water scraps
between skin-divers and the thing
1:01:08
are thrilling and will pop
goose pimples on the susceptible fan,
1:01:11
as will the close-up scenes
of the scaly creature."
1:01:14
"Arnold's direction has done a first-rate
job of developing chills and suspense."
1:01:19
The Hollywood Reporter:
"Arnold's megging is briskly competent,
1:01:22
but too much time is wasted on
underwater shots which are not novel
1:01:26
or dramatic enough to hold
interest for the entire footage."
1:01:29
We're about to go underwater. This movie
has 18 minutes of underwater footage.
1:01:34
Everybody working underwater
had scuba gear,
1:01:36
but the way Ricou Browning
worked underwater was,
1:01:39
he did what is called hose-breathing. He
knew how to do that long before Creature.
1:01:43
Ricou says that his old boss, Newton
Perry, the manager of Wakulla Spring,
1:01:47
was probably one of the first people
to breathe from a hose underwater,
1:01:50
and he taught Ricou
and other people how to do it.
1:01:53
You'd have an oxygen tank at the bottom,
or, coming from the surface, an air hose.
1:01:58
Ricou could stick the air hose
in his mouth and breathe,
1:02:00
like you would drink water
from a hose in your back yard.
1:02:03
Ricou says they did hose-breathing
in the shows at Weeki Wachee Springs.
1:02:07
That was how the mermaids breathed.
Anyway, Ricou could do it very naturally.
1:02:11
He could insert the hose
in the mouth of the creature,
1:02:14
then insert it a couple more inches
to get it to his own mouth.
1:02:18
Ricou had several safety men with him
at the bottom of Wakulla Spring,
1:02:22
guys he'd brought in himself. Some
had worked with him in water shows,
1:02:25
others had done
some cave-diving with him.
1:02:28
As he was getting ready to do a scene,
Ricou would just be underwater,
1:02:31
ready to go, breathing from
an air hose, with a safety man nearby.
1:02:35
When he was ready to do a scene,
he'd give the cameraman a hand signal,
1:02:38
but he'd just stay in place,
waiting for the cameraman to signal him
1:02:42
that the camera was rolling.
Ricou'd hand the hose to his safety man,
1:02:46
swim into the scene
and do what he had to do -
1:02:48
let's say it was a swim-through - so
he'd swim right past the cameraman.
1:02:52
On the other side, there'd be another
safety man with another air hose.
1:02:55
Between the fact he could
hold his breath for a long time,
1:02:58
and all the air hoses
and safety men down there,