Polaroid’s Vectograph process allowed Creature from the Black Lagoon to be the first 3-D film projected with one print. Until then, two prints and two projectors working simultaneously were necessary, which led to considerable expenses for theater owners and to numerous production defects. However, Vectograph came too late to save 3-D, which had never reached great public consensus. Creature from the Black Lagoon was moreover the third of four films in which Arnold used relief (following It Came from Outer Space and The Glass Webb). It was one of the biggest successes of 3-D in the United States, and can count many merits. It launched one of the few monsters popular after the war, and was frequently imitated as a result. The film furthermore possessed a clear poetic appeal, which some were quick to define as «Cocteau style». For these two reasons, the film stands up to Universal’s great fantastic films of the Thirties.

Jacques Lourcelles, Dictionnaire du cinéma. Les films, Paris, Robert Laffont, 1992