150 Movies You Should Die Before You See - Miller Steve [11]
Why It Sucks
Back in the 1940s, Hollywood was cranking out war propaganda, and some of it was actually pretty good filmmaking. Black Dragons, sadly, isn't. A sloppy, badly constructed script manages to snuff out every spark that could have set this movie on fire. The ideas the filmmakers had aren't too bad; but evidently William Nigh was so worried about enemy sabotage that he forgot how to direct a movie.
Thumbs Down Rating:
The Crappies
The Worst Script Award goes to … Harvey Gates for a script in which Bela Lugosi's character can apparently vanish into thin air when at risk of discovery and capture.
And the Worst Director Award goes to … William Nigh for letting Lugosi chew up the scenery and not even giving him a decent supporting cast.
They Really Said It!
Amos Hanlin: “A busy man has very little time to engage in feminine emotions.”
Betcha Didn't Know
The Black Dragon Society was a real-world, ultranationalist Japanese organization founded in 1901. From the 1920s to the 1940s, it assisted the Japanese Imperial Army in espionage, psychological warfare campaigns, and in the distribution of propaganda materials. It operated its own spy school and dispatched espionage agents throughout the world. (Unlike this movie, however, there is no record of the society using plastic surgery to transform short Japanese men into tall Caucasian men.)
Trivia Quiz
What was the first movie in which William Nigh directed Bela Lugosi?
A: The Ghost and the Guest
B: Mystery Liner
C: Monte Carlo Nights
D: The Mysterious Mr. Wong
Answer: D. The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934). Bela Lugosi stars as Mr. Wong, a Chinese crime lord seeking ultimate power through the mystical Twelve Coins of Confucius, and only a wisecracking reporter (Wallace Ford) can stop him..
CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON
Universal International Pictures, 1954
PRODUCER William Alland
WRITERS Harry Essex and Arthur A. Ross (script), Maurice Zimm (story)
DIRECTOR Jack Arnold
STARS Richard Carlson (Dr. David Reed), Julie Adams (Kay Lawrence), Antonio Moreno (Carl Maia), Richard Denning (Dr. Mark Williams), and Nestor Paiva (Capt. Lucas)
A group of scientists travel into the Amazon jungle to retrieve an unusual fossil, but instead they find themselves battling a very-much-alive amphibious humanoid.
Why It Sucks
Sometimes a movie's so bad you root for the monster. If the socalled scientists in this movie behaved a little more like, oh, I don't know, scientists instead of 1920s big-game hunters, they might learn the creature's intelligent. More intelligent than them, anyway, though that's not saying much. I mean, look at it from the creature's point of view: Wouldn't you be angry with interlopers who keep shooting sharp sticks and shining blinding lights at you? Someone needed to ask, “What would Margaret Mead do?”
Thumbs Down Rating:
The Crappies
The Ugly American Award goes to … The main human characters for being unsympathetic, stupid, or both.
And the Worst Picture Award goes to … Producer William Alland for a film that was creepy and politically incorrect even in 1954.
They Really Said It!
Lucas: I can tell you something about this place. The boys around here call it “The Black Lagoon”; a paradise. Only they say nobody has ever come back to prove it
Betcha Didn't Know
This was the first 3D feature produced by Universal Studios. It was made in attempt to replicate the financial success that Warner Bros. enjoyed with its 1953 3D film House of Wax.
The Creature (or “Gill Man”) is considered by many critics to be the last of the great monsters created at Universal Pictures, although some might argue that the Graboids from the Tremors series have taken that title. The latter were also featured in two fairly decent movies, two semi-watchable ones, and a television series