gloorp, then and now

Went off with Barbara and saw a silly movie last night, R.I.P.D., which has the premise that good lawmen killed in the line of duty come back as cops who pursue the undead.  You know, the monsters who are always scampering around killing people and wrecking whole city blocks with their antics.  Some of the over-the-top comedy was droll.  Lots of good rubber monster costumes.
It's worth contemplating that when those rubber suits first came out, in the fifties, the costumes were central to the movie's premise; they had star value.  The Creature from the Black Lagoon.  Especially This Island Earth – I remember reading, at 11 or 12, a magazine article about how they created the monster from a body cast, meticulously hand-painting its gloorpy outsides over latex, a new miracle substance.

And now they have dozens of them in throw-away crowd scenes.  Sic transit Gloria monstrii.

Joe