Back when I was painting monsters in various effects shops, one of the conversation topics was “What genre movies came out the year you were born?” Since I was often lucky enough to be sitting next to my favorite artist, my lovely wife, Cathy Tharp, I would get to remember 1954. She shares a birth year with three of my all-time favorite monster movies.
Top of my list for the best horror movies of 1954 is…
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Them!
Them! is the first and best of the giant monster movies from the 1950s. Atomic radiation has created enormous ants. I saw this for the first time on television back in the early sixties and loved it. I re-watch it every couple of years and it still holds up.
The acting, the pacing, even the full-sized monster ants are great. The ants don’t look perfectly real, but hey! They’re mutated. And the danger they pose is obviously real.
Another plus for me is the climax of the film takes place in Los Angeles’ storm drains. I used to play in those storm tunnels in my younger ‘daze,’ so added chills for location. Mimic is my second favorite giant bug movie, but Them! will always be my favorite. If you haven’t seen it, check it out!
Them! release date: June 18, 1954 (US)
Where Them! is streaming now:
Next from 1954 is…
Godzilla AKA Gojira
Another favorite from my 1960’s childhood. I watched the version that had Raymond Burr in it. He was playing TV super lawyer Perry Mason at that time, so it was easy to take what he said about Godzilla seriously.
This Godzilla was kind of scary to the younger me — he had yet to become the goofball Godzilla of the late sixties and seventies movies. This Godzilla was a dinosaur the size of a mountain that was killing lots of people and destroying Tokyo.
The effects in this first movie were the best of all the Godzilla movies until the 1980s. The movie is dark, moody, and very serious. [I finally got to see the original Japanese version of Godzilla (Gojira) a few years ago, and it’s even darker and grimmer than the American version!]. It’s easy to see why this monster has stayed so popular for seventy years.
Gojira AKA Godzilla, King of the Monsters! release dates: November 3, 1954 (Japan) and April 27, 1956 (US).
Where Godzilla is streaming now:
Last but not least is my wife Cathy’s favorite Universal monster…
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Creature from the Black Lagoon has one of the best man-in-a-suit monsters ever. It’s so good, you easily forget it’s a costume and believe it’s a real creature. This is the last classic monster from Universal Studios. (Sorry, Mole People).
Creature is a nice, tight “B” monster movie. Good story, good cast, moves quickly, and has plenty of suspense. Julie Adams is the perfect Beauty to the Creature’s Beast. Just like Fay Wray and King Kong. They click!
I got to see this movie on the big screen in 3D once. It was fun, but it’s just as good in 2D. If you’ve never seen it, go catch up! The first sequel, Revenge of the Creature (1955), is also pretty good. The third movie, The Creature Walks Among Us (1956), totally sucks. Word to the wise.
Creature from the Black Lagoon release date: March 5, 1954 (US).
Where the Creature from the Black Lagoon is streaming now:
Which Films Do YOU Consider the Best Horror Movies of 1954…?
Lauren Spear gave me a list of all the genre movies released in 1954, and there were some very good movies besides these three. (Shout out to the awesome squid in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea!) But these were my favorites, born the same year as Cathy, and all classics!
Next year I’ll take a shot at 1955, my own birth year. I don’t think there were as many good monsters that year, but I’ll let you know.
Play the effects shop monster makers game at home! What monsters or scary movies share a birth year with you? Maybe you can tell us about your favorites.
Thanks to Lauren for letting me ramble. If you agree or disagree with me, let me know. I like to hear other people’s opinions.
Images used in this post were purchased via MovieStillsDB.
Only now did I realize I’d confused Hugh Marlowe with Richard Carlson, the true protagonist of “The Creature From the Black Lagoon” and so many other classics of the genre. In keeping with the article’s subject, it was a “monstrous mistake.”
Oh, no worries! It happens. I have a decent memory, but my brain struggles with names. I feel like this is a conversation my husband and I have constantly…
FRANK: Do you know [NAME]?
ME: Nope.
FRANK: Yes, you do. *shows me a photo*
ME: Ohhhhhh! Yes. They were in [lists off nearly their entire filmography]. What about them?
I try really hard – because I really WANT to remember people’s names – and I’m better at it than I used to be, but it’s still something I struggle with. I didn’t catch the error in your original comment either. My brain just went “That’s a 1950’s actor name I’ve seen before – works for me!” Haha. I think Hugh Marlowe was in All About Eve though, right? That’s a good one. And if Richard Carlson is the Creature from the Black Lagoon cast member I think he is, then he was also in The Ghost Breakers (a Bob Hope horror comedy I enjoy). If that wasn’t him, then we’ll need to cross-reference faces/names with each of those movies and figure it out! One of the Creature guys was in both of those movies, I swear! LOL!
Another great article from Mr. Tharp! Unforgettable films whose frames wrote the “monster movie manual” on the screen. “THEM” terrified me as a kid. I’m a fan of stop-motion cinema, but these full-size monsters are some of the best ever made. Besides the underground scenes, the desert scenes are quite chilling. And, as isn’t always the case in this genre, “THEM” features well-developed characters that help us believe what we’re seeing.
The original Godzilla is still the best of all, as the nuclear nightmare of WWII was still very much alive in Japan. The detail of the miniatures is as impressive as the monster. Unfortunately, the sequels, which introduced color and more and more room for humor on screen, increasingly diluted the character.
“Creature From the Black Lagoon” introduced Universal’s last great monster. I would have loved to see it in 3D, but I only got to see it on TV. Then I bought the DVD with an excellent documentary as an extra. I like this film so much that the protagonist watching it in a midnight session opens my short story “The Heretic’s Fork.” Nuclear radiations are absent here, but the film has ecological symbolism, highlighted by the scene where Julie Adams throws her cigarette into the lagoon and the creature watches it sink. It’s as if the creature is the avenger empowered by nature to defend it against human exploitation. I consider Hugh Marlowe the best protagonist for this genre. Besides being a good and charismatic actor, he often acts more like a scientist than a square-jawed hero. The film also features one of the best Brazilian settings for its time. Even the flag is accurate. These films also demonstrate the power of black-and-white photography. Light, shadow, and contrast project a sense of reality that greatly contributes to making the impossible seen on screen believable. Nuclear power is a constant threat, but it has given us great films.
Dad’s been great about covering the horror films from the 1950s! He wrote about the horror films from 1955 this year, and he’s looking forward to covering 1956 next year.
I love THEM! It’s one of my favorites. In my head canon, one of the ants from THEM! and one of the Zanti Misfits (from season 1; episode 14 of The Outer Limits in 1963) each survived their respective movie/show and bred – ala the house spider and deadly tarantula in 1990’s Arachnophobia – and that’s how Zander was born. lol. That would explain why HorrorFam.com’s Zander ant is large for an ant (but not as large as the ants in THEM!), how he can talk, and how/why he’s male (nearly all ants are female IRL). ♥
Is Godzilla Minus One available where you are?? If so, you’d probably really enjoy it! It’s MUCH more like the original. Godzilla’s back to being a scary menace – as he should be! I enjoy all of the Godzilla films on some level, but not all of them can be recommended as great films lol. Godzilla Minus One is a great movie all around. Check it out if/when you can!
Also, your perspective on the Creature being an ecological avenger is so interesting! I’ll also have to press Pause and take a closer look at Brazil’s flag next time I watch. Thank you for commenting!