Gill-Man: B+ Movie Edition, The

I vaguely remember seeing this film as a youngster so I went into it with an open mind, as a result the only thing that made it obvious this was quite a streamlined cut was the runtime itself. I didn't notice any jumps in narrative, each scene flowed naturally from the previous one and video and audio seemed smooth for a low budget film from the 50's. I have had a look since at some of the untouched scenes and really appreciate how much chaff the editor has managed to eradicate from film which works in the films favour even if it does make the runtime quite brief for a main feature. Where the edit really shines though is in how with clever and quite intricate editing it manages to give some menace and agility to what is essentially a clumsy bloke in a rubber suit who can't see where he is going. It's not a stretch to say the film now has quite an affinity with Jaws and I remain convinced a young Speilberg was heavily influenced by this film. It's certainly evident in this edit that it has some striking similarities and now has a more Jaws like pace too. Highly recommended for any fan of old B movies, it's also an excelent quality print for its age. I give this B+ edition an A-

What a wonderful edit!

At its best, The Creature From The Black Lagoon is a moody monster movie that definitely deserves its 'classic' status. At its worst, it is a plodding slow burn of a film that is stuffed full of content simply there to pad the run time. This edit does away with all that filler and leaves us with a tight, suspenseful drama that brings forth the best qualities of the film. I went into this edit blind and then watched the original release for the first time afterwards. The difference is day and night. The cuts make sense, the pacing is vastly improved and all the minor changes add up to give a very fluid experience. The editing was seamless, the audio work was very nice and I love the black and white fanedit card. My only quibble was the video quality but with a little luck we'll see a HD rebuild of this edit in the not to distant future.

Fantastic work Scrib.

Effective trim of an already shortish horror film. The editor's aim was to carve out the slack bits, and thereby boost the pacing. Nicely done.

Video - 1280 X 720p. Black n white, with good contrast. The underwater photography in this is outstanding, and the final interior cave shots are fine. Cuts went by unnoticed.

Audio - 224 Kbps 2-Channel, AAC. No subs. Dialogue is clear and understandable throughout. One might argue the finest element of this film is the soundtrack, which is dramatic and effective.

Narrative - Tell the truth, I did not notice any change in the narrative. And yes, quit a bit was excised. The story flows fine, I did not notice missing passages. This is a light edit and, because of the brevity, easy to digest. Boy meets girl - boy chases girl - conflict.

Enjoyment - Of all the "classic" Universal monsters, the Creature has always been one of my least favorites. Possibly because there is next to no history or backstory for the guy. He's existed for thousands of years in his isolated bachelor pad? Is the Creature even a he? If the Creature is actually a "she" then the sequence where it kidnaps Kay has a whole new dimension! Otherwise, the Creature comes across as this lovesick sap. Where were the village maidens? Countless manfish mutant fishpop offspring?

Yeah, kicking a rock, sorry. Nevertheless, compared with the original feature, Scribbling Man's edit is much preferred. Enjoy with your favorite fish sticks!

I heartily endorse A Scribbling Man's B+ movie series -- what a fantastic idea, to make older-but-iconic movies (or obscure overlooked ones) punchier and more palatable to modern audiences. Much like classic TV-to-movie edits, this a great idea and framing it as a series is a wonderful way to put these edits under one umbrella.

This edit, the inaugural entry in the series, ditches a lot of the dull bits of TCFTBL but still feels a bit poky in places. Part of that is just the nature of "slow burn" suspense movies from this era, and ASM has done the best possible job without reducing the film to a super-8-style clip reel, but there are other movies that will likely have more incident that will make the jump to modern action pacing a bit better. Nevertheless, this aquatic beast is a world-famous one for a reason and without all the slog that originally was part of the movie, this primeval monster can shine a whole lot better.

This was a great edit. I don't usually like many older movies due to pacing, and this one one of the cult classics I could never get into as much as I felt I should. But this was great, even almost half a century later, completely due to the pacing. Solid edit that keeps the best of the original and improves pacing so that I was glued to my seat the whole time, even for an old movie.

Thanks to the editor for this one. I know an HD update was discussed, but I watched the 720 on a big screen, and I thought it looks perfect - time period appropriate and probably keep a better suspension of belief. No need to update from this viewers POV. This was awesome.