Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

Plot hole: The creature gets caught in the fishing net and (after a struggle that shook the whole boat) freed itself. The scientists, upon drawing up the net, find one of the creature's claws, and thus they now seek its source. Shortly after, while Mark is busy loading a harpoon gun, Dave is protesting, stating, "This...this thing *alive* and in it's natural habitat..." It would seem that at this point, they know the creature is *not* dead, but very much alive. They dive, they see it, Mark shoots it with a harpoon, and then upon surfacing, they argue a bit before reporting what they saw to everyone else. So why after seeing it underwater, fully knowing that "this thing (is) alive," do they act so surprised to see it, as if they didn't have a clue it could possibly still exist?

redbaron2000

Lucas: What kind of fishing is that? Who eats rocks?
Carl Maia: I eat rocks, in a manner of speaking. I crush and look inside them and they tell me things.
Lucas: What do they tell you?
Carl Maia: How old they are.

Trivia: William Alland who produced The Creature From The Black Lagoon, acted in Citizen Kane as the reporter who investigates Kane's career. During the filming Alland met Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa Mateos, who told him a legend of an amphibious creature who comes out of the River Amazon to seize women. Alland wrote a story based on the legend, which would form the basis of this 1954 horror film.

Rob Halliday