Rising From The Murky Depths

A life in the Black Lagoon

The following is my review of The Lady From The Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick, originally posted on Amazon. I’ve added a few photos to this post that are not a part of the original review as well as a brief side note at the end of the review.

I’ve been a fan of Universal’s classic monsters for a few decades. I started watching them as a child on Saturday afternoons and as I grew older I began to collect the films. The Creature From The Black Lagoon and its sequels were some of the last films of that era that I got to watch. I was mesmerized by the Creature, especially by the way his gills would expand while he was out of the water. It was an amazing thing to see, especially considering the fact that it was 1954. I knew nothing of the Creature’s designer other than the fact that Bud Westmore was given credit for it.

It was only a few months ago that I learned of Milicent Patrick through a meme that one of my fellow monster friends posted. It credited her with being the designer of Creech. This caught my attention and I sought out more information on her. That’s when I stumbled upon Mallory O’Meara’s wonderful book, The Lady From The Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick.

O’Meara’s book is actually three stories at once. The primary story is of Patrick’s life and career. The two secondary stories are of O’Meara’s trials and tribulations while researching Mil and of the struggle of women in the male-dominated arena of film and television.

All three stories are quite amazing. O’Meara brings Milicent Patrick to life on the page. We learn about her upbringing that was both amazing and heartbreaking at times thanks primarily to her father, Camille Rossi, as he pursued a career in architecture. We also learn that Milicent became one of (if not the first) woman hired by Walt Disney to work at his studios in the Ink and Paint Department. Reading this particular part of the book was fun for me, as I’ve read a few biographies about Walt Disney that mention his all-female Ink and Paint Department. None of them, however, named Mil specifically as being part of that department.

O’Meara then takes us along for the ride as we explore Patrick’s time as an actress and artist. We learn about some of her strongest friends, greatest enemy, and the many loves won and lost over her life. O’Meara does an excellent job of presenting Mil’s life to the reader, all of the glamorous and not so wonderful parts of it.

Obviously a lot of attention is given to Patrick’s design work on The Creature From The Black Lagoon and how she received zero credit for all of her work thanks to Bud Westmore and the lack of action from others. You’ll have to read the book to find out how that particular tale goes down.

O’Meara also gives us an in depth look at how difficult it was to find information on Patrick. Just the fact that Mil went by quite a few names over her lifetime made it hard to track her moves through Hollywood. O’Meara also turned me on to a few other books and people that she utilized to piece together Mil’s life and career. I’m particularly interested in the work of the Mormon Church. Again, you’ll need to read the book to see what that is all about.

Finally, the battle for equality that has been a part of film and television since its inception is addressed. As more and more information is brought to light, men are becoming more aware of just how oppressed women are in the film industry. O’Meara handles this topic with fire. She handles it well. In all honesty I would like to see O’Meara write a book specifically about this subject. I’m sure that it would be a great read.

All three stories in this book appear to be written with love, anger, humor, and intelligence by O’Meara. Her footnotes offer solid information and a few laughs. She gives a solid example of Milicent Patrick’s world, the good and the bad of it, while keeping the story engaging.

Milicent Patrick’s work and contributions to cinema are slowly rising from the murky depths. I see even more women being brought to the top of the lagoon in the future and I believe that O’Meara’s book will be heralded as the beginning of a new age for women in Hollywood.

Highly recommended.

Additional side note: One of the things that makes The Creature From The Black Lagoon so wonderful is that up until February of this year, both Julia Adams (Kay Lawrence) and Ricou Browning (the Creature in underwater scenes) were still alive. It’s one of those rare occasions where people that were a part of a classic film are still alive. Sadly, Julia Adams passed away in February of this year. As far as I know I was one of the last people to get an autographed photo from her, as she passed away just days after I sent in a request for a photo. Ricou Browning is still alive as of this writing. I still need to acquire his autograph.

As always, thanks for reading.