Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings.   For today’s Femme Fatale Friday, I have decided to discuss two characters from classic Golden Age Hollywood Horror films, as they have some things in common.   I was inspired to write this post after my recent rewatch of Creature from the Black Lagoon.   I had not seen the film since I was in junior high, or maybe early high school.   This meant that some things really popped out to me on this rewatch!

I realized that I truly loved the film way more than I remembered, as I had always remembered liking it, but thinking it was not as high on my Universal Monsters ranking.   I also realized just how much this film falls into the Death and the Maiden Motif and the Beauty and the Beast Tale Type, as does King Kong.   With King Kong, this is much more obvious on the surface, with the famous line ‘It was Beauty killed the Beast’ literally being uttered!   However, I noticed this deep similarity in the way the women react to the Monsters in their films, which is why I just had to write this post.

In King Kong, Fay Wray’s character, Ann, is taken on a ship by a filmmaker to visit Skull Island, and there she encounters Kong for the first time, and he becomes infatuated with her.   In Creature from the Black Lagoon, Julie Adams’ character, Kay, is part of a research team exploring the Amazon River, which is how she encounters the Gill Man (which is the name given to the Creature in the film), who likewise becomes infatuated with her.   Both Ann and Kay are incredibly empathetic to the Monsters they meet, but also have a large degree of repulsion; however, to be fair, Ann shows a much larger degree of repulsion to Kong.   This shows an interesting blend of attraction to the unknown and fear of it, which is what leads to the screaming in fear of the Monster, even if they are viewing him in an empathetic light.

These women are truly here to embody the Maiden who encounters a Beast, the Beauty who draws in this Animalistic Creature.   In the case of Ann, Kong is a Giant Ape, and in the case of Kay, Gill Man is an Aquatic Creature.   Each woman draws the attention of her Monster in different ways.    Ann simply looks different than any woman Kong has seen before (with her blonde hair as directly stated in the film), which is why she is given to him in offering at the beginning of the film.   Kay draws the attention of Gill Man by her love of the water and her great ability as a swimmer.    That is actually one of my favorite scenes in the whole of Creature from the Black Lagoon, when they are swimming together (even without Kay knowing Gill Man is there beneath the water), it is so enchanting!

While the women draw the Monster’s attention in different ways, the result is the same: they end up both fearing and caring for the Monster.   They are also both the only women in a group of men in their adventure stories, and both are engaged to one of the men.   In the case of Ann, she gets engaged to one of the men she traveled with after Kong is captured, while Kay was already engaged to one of the researchers before going to the Amazon.   In my opinion, in both of these cases, the relationship the woman has with her fiancé is not as compelling as the bond she has with the Monster!   The Monster is finally finding someone who cares for him after so long a life spent alone, adding true poignancy to the narrative of each film.   But, in each case, the Monster comes to a tragic end when he tries to keep this woman as his own.

However, I want to end this post by noting that in neither film is it at the hands of the woman that he meets his fate.   Each of these women holds true empathy for the Monster, and tries to let him go, while men around attempt to kill him off.   In the case of Kong, he does perish.   It is when Kong is dying that we see Ann looking a mix of relief that she was free and sorrow at what had happened.   Before this, her primary emotion was fear and revulsion, but she had not wanted him to die.   It had been clear that Ann was not comfortable with Kong being brought to New York from Skull Island, if only for her own safety, and then he was gunned down because he had been taken from his home to be used in a spectacle.   In the case of the Gill Man, he is eventually allowed to go back into the water, but ultimately kept alive, without Kay and without any companionship, so it is still a sad end!   In fact, we never know Kay’s reaction to the Gill Man still being alive, as she does not appear in the two sequel films.   It is in the sequels that he is taken from his home in the Amazon to be studied and gawked at, in another parallel to the Kong story.   The dynamic between Maiden and Monster is so complex, even in films that tell a rather straightforward narrative.   I find the layered emotions that the women feel towards these Monsters to show just how much the Feminine craves the Wild, even while fearing the destruction it may cause.   I think that is why so many of us women are drawn to these types of films!

I hope you have enjoyed this look at Maidens and Monsters.   Which is your favorite of these two films?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a production still from Creature from the Black Lagoon.    I found the picture on https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046876/mediaviewer/rm595408384/.

LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries

Further Watching

• King Kong (1933)
• The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)