1:05:03
and on the cards people were asked
to fill out, one of the questions was
1:05:07
"Which scene did you like most?"
The underwater scenes won hands down.
1:05:11
Funnily enough -
talk about a sign of changing times -
1:05:13
in answer to the question
"Which scenes, if any, did you dislike?"
1:05:17
More than one person
complained about Kay's line
1:05:19
"David and I are together
all the time anyway."
1:05:21
To them, that meant that they were living
together, and they squawked about that.
1:05:25
One person said
he disliked all of it, especially
1:05:28
"when Kay made like Esther Williams -
not the time or place for it."
1:05:32
Some other comments: "Most exciting
picture I have ever witnessed."
1:05:35
"Give us more pictures like this,
only in colour."
1:05:38
"I'm a bundle of nerves.
I'll never swim in a lagoon."
1:05:41
"The spookiest picture I have ever seen,
and screamed throughout."
1:05:44
One person complained the plot was
too much like The Thing, which is true,
1:05:49
but nobody mentioned King Kong,
which was the inspiration.
1:05:52
As I said, watch Creature and Revenge
back-to-back and you can't miss it.
1:05:56
In fact, one early script
of Revenge of the Creature
1:05:58
ended with the gill-man being shot,
not by the sheriff's posse,
1:06:02
but by a guy, or guys,
shooting at him from a helicopter,
1:06:05
just like the biplane pilots
who killed King Kong.
1:06:12
Speaking of the preview,
or one of the previews,
1:06:15
Arthur Ross, who cowrote the picture,
told me an interesting anecdote about it.
1:06:19
Ed Mull was the head of production
at Universal, and according to Ross
1:06:23
"He sensed something in
Creature that nobody else did
1:06:25
and they sort of laughed at him, but
he said it was going to be a smash."
1:06:29
"For the preview of Creature,
there were three buses of people."
1:06:32
"They took us to dinner
and then downtown for the preview."
1:06:36
"Ed bade every executive,
every contract producer,
1:06:39
every contract director come
watch Creature, because, he said
1:06:42
'This will be the pattern and form
and intent of our future films."'
1:06:46
"Harry Essex and I looked at each
other and said 'He must be crazy!"'
1:06:51
Well, Ed Mull turned out not to be crazy.
Creature cost Universal $463,700,
1:06:56
and by the end of 1954,
it had already grossed three million.