On The Media

I was not impressed with Mr. Mallory's comments. He is supposed to be an expert? He did not get the name of one movie correct- and it was a classic. It was "The creature from the Black lagoon." Also pairing Night of the Lepus with The Thing was not credible at all. The Thing was a classic movie that still plays well and is better than the John Carpenter remake. Night of the Lepus was a far more recent exploitation movie of poor quality.

I was employed in the post-production department at Universal between 1968-78 and had many occasions to deal with its library and Mr. Mallory is wrong about certain historical points. Universal did not sell its library to Realart in 1946 but licensed certain titles for theatrical reissue for a short period. In 1956 they licensed their pre-1949 library to Columbia's Screen Gems tv division for syndication purposes. Screen Gems put the horror films in a special separate package called "Shock Theater" which proved very successful during the 14 years of the Screen Gems license.

For Mr. Church, the title on the film is CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON.

Rick Mitchell

Film Editor/Film Historian

Also for Mr. Mallory: TARANTULA was not the first "Big Bug" science-fiction film. It's production was inspired by the success of Warners' THEM! (1954), whose production was inspired by the success of their pickup THE BEAST FROM THE 20,000 FATHOMS (1953).

Rick Mitchell

Film editor/Film historian