Another Monster Movie

Not much to talk about today....
Here's a sci-fi picture from 1959. It teaches us all about the feared Alligator People of the Louisiana swamp. They're bad, but not quite as dangerous as the Crocodile People of the Australian Outback.

The Alligator People (1959)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052549/


Netflix description:
"A couple is separated on a train when the husband (Richard Crane) gets off and is never seen again. His wife (Beverly Garland) spends years searching and finally finds him in a bog near his family home, but their meeting is soured when she discovers he's been turned into part alligator, part human by a mad scientist (George Macready). Now, she must race against time to rescue her mutant husband from the scientist before it's too late."


So, I rented this one from Netflix with the assumption that it would fall into the So-Bad-It's-Funny category. As the film rolled, I did my best to give it the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment, but about 20 minutes in, my smart comments had pretty much trailed off. I actually found myself watching the movie, instead of trashing it.

The Alligator People is about a woman who goes deep into the Louisiana bayou in search of her husband, who mysteriously disappeared on their wedding night. A long journey brings her to some kind of plantation, where she's quickly told that she's not welcome. The whole situation is pretty suspicious, so the woman refuses to leave, and eventually, we learn that her husband has been turned into a half-man, half-alligator by the local mad scientist.

Despite its ridiculous premise, I actually found The Alligator People to be a rather engaging picture. Sure, it seems like a silly idea, but then again, couldn't the same also be said of The Fly? Several of the swamp-related effects in this film actually impressed me. I caught myself thinking, "did they really send that pretty little 1950s woman running through a set full of gators? It certainly LOOKS like they did!" Granted, the gators' jaws were probably wired shut, but STILL, I respected the fact that the filmmakers even bothered to get some real ones. And the man-wife drama here between our heroine and her reptilian husband is compelling and well-played. Overall, The Alligator People had surprisingly high production values.


Except, of course, when it came to the alligator costume. When a radiation treatment goes awry, our hero grows a full-blown alligator head within a matter of seconds, and it's guaranteed to get a few chuckles. As a result, the film's deepest dramatic moment also turns out to be its most laughable. There's also a one-handed, over-the-top swamp hillbilly who constantly rants about how much he hates them gators, and eventually tries to rape our heroine (whoa!). He makes the ride a little less enjoyable, and I could easily have done without him.

Nevertheless, The Alligator People is one of the higher-quality late-50s monster flicks still available, and at a mere 70 minutes, it works well as an agreeable afternoon diversion. Give it a chance -- it's better than you'd think.

3 out of 5.

b.