War of the Gargantuas and Creature from the Black Lagoon 60th B-Day Celebration Highlight Monsterpalooza

From Monsterpalooza

One of the most beloved art/horror fests on the West Coast is Monsterpalooza, which celebrates the "Art of Monsters." The fest will hit Burbank once again on March 28-30. Save the date!

As usual, Monsterpalooza will feature award-winning F/X artists, special presentations, a walk-thru monster museum, and monster-related artwork on display and for sale. The list of celebrity guests is large and impressive. Take a look at whom you can expect to see at this year’s Monsterpalooza.

Special Celebrity Guests From The Genre And Beyond!

Kenji Sahara – War Of The Gargantuas, Destroy All Monsters, Rodan, Godzilla vs The Thing, The Mysterians, King Kong vs Godzilla

Harou Nakajima – Godzilla, Rodan, Destroy All Monsters

Russ Tamblyn – “Twin Peaks”, War Of The Gargantuas

Rutger Hauer – Blade Runner, The Hitcher, “True Blood”

Dee Snider – Twisted Sister, Strangeland, Van Helsing’s Curse

Tippi Hedren – The Birds, Marnie, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”

Nancy Allen – Blow Out

More at Monsterpalooza

A Silver Springs story: Ricou Browning was the Creature

In the mid-1950s, a grotesque costume turned Ricou Browning from a soft-spoken family man into an ugly "gill man," also known as the "Creature from the Black Lagoon."

Now remembered along with King Kong and Godzilla as one of the most horrific monsters of the silver screen, Browning had the underwater role of the amphibious monster in the Universal Studios black-and-white horror flick, originally shot in 3-D. Browning then continued filling that role in two sequels, "Revenge of the Creature" and "The Creature Walks Among Us."

According to Browning, the underwater portions of the film were shot at Silver Springs, Wakulla Springs and in a tank at Marineland in St. Augustine. While professional actors played the creature on land, Browning donned the full-body suit for the underwater scenes.

"It was cumbersome at first," Browning recalled. "When I first put it on, it seemed awkward and clumsy. But, once I got into the movie, I forgot I had it on. I became the creature."

While Browning's swimming ability made him a perfect candidate for the monster's role, his daughter, Renee Le Feuvre, who is working on her dad's biography, remembers him as a mild-mannered, but fun, family man. She recalled the exotic animals he brought home in a day when a permit for such pets wasn't required.

READ MORE

Ricou Browning performed swimmingly as movie monster

From nj.com

The monster suit in "Creature From the Black Lagoon" is one of the most memorable in horror films. But it would have been all wet if the audience didn't believe that the part-man, part-fish Creature could swim underwater.

The scaly title being in "Creature From the Black Lagoon" (1954).

Luckily for fans of the 1954 classic, Ricou Browning dove headfirst into the project.

Browning performed the underwater swimming as the Creature in three '50s films. (Other actors played the Creature on land.) Florida native Browning, 83, is among guests at the Chiller Theatre Toy, Model & Film Expo to be held Friday through Sunday in Parsippany.

As the Creature, Browning swam with balletic grace. One imagines it was harder than it looked.

"I'll put it this way," said Browning. "It's like when you play football and you put on all the gear — the shoes and the pads and the helmet. At first, it's bulky and cumbersome. But then, when you go in the game and you start to play, you don't even know you have it on.

"Swimming in the suit was like that. Once you get into it, you forget about the suit."

(More After The Break)



How did Browning breathe while filming the underwater scenes? (Some fans assume that an air tank was built into the costume.)

"We were going to put a tank in the suit, but it was going to be too bulky," Browning said. "It just didn't work. Then we were going to use a face mask, but it would make the nose protrude out too far."

READ MORE

Talking About The CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON'S Texas Roots

Source: My SA

Well .... maybe not the monster itself but the man who played him underwater.

Everyone should know by now that I just love the "Creature From The Black Lagoon" so I decided to repost this article about Gil-Man actor Ricou Browning:

Meet a Creature from the Black Lagoon with a San Antonio past

Ricou Browning is best known for his scaly, scary turn as the Gill-Man in the 1954 classic Creature from the Black Lagoon as well as 1955′s Revenge of the Creature and 1956′s The Creature Walks Among Us. But few know that in the ’50s he also made a bit of a local splash as a physical training instructor at Lackland Air Force Base, where he put servicemen through the pool and other paces.

Browning is back in the Alamo City this week for San Antonio Horrific Film Fest 4, the indie horror flick festival that runs Thursday through Sunday at Alamo Drafthouse Westlakes.

These days you don’t have to swim laps or scream to the rafters to win Browning’s favor. After all, he’ll be the first to tell you his iconic role didn’t exactly make him an overnight sensation.

“After the picture was made and released, I’d say 20 years passed and I started getting some letters,” says Browning, now 81, crediting the late fame to the movie’s later TV broadcast.

It wasn’t just because Browning had an un-credited role as a masked amphibious humanoid. He only played the Gill-Man for the films’ underwater sequences, while other performers like Ben Chapman played the Gill-Man in more memorable on-land shots. Still, it was necessary work for a movie about a fish-man out of water. And Browning was perfect for the job.

The Florida native had a background in water shows, having taught the mermaid performers at Weeki Wachee Springs how to perform their underwater magic. When the folks behind Black Lagoon saw Browning flip his own feet in the water, he got the creature gig.

“The way the creature swims is the way I swim,” Browning says, noting that he breathed from an air hose then held his breath for his underwater creature scenes.

Browning would leave Gill-Man behind but stick with the wet. He went on to produce 1963′s Flipper and write for the subsequent TV series, plus direct two of the underwater sequences for the Bond films Thunderball and Never Say Never Again and do miniature work for 1980′s Raise the Titanic.

“I didn’t find (filming) underwater as any different than filming upside,” Browning says.

Just what you’d expect from a guy who’s made a monster of a career in and around the water.