The Alligator People

This 1959 Fox picture was actually filmed in Cinemascope; I've never seen it that way. The television and video version are severely cropped from aspect ratio 2.35:1 to 1.33:1 - you're missing almost half the picture. I'm sure they will correct this if it ever comes to DVD. We need see the expansive mansion and exotic swampland locales in their entirety, as well as the giddy climax of the alligator man's LONG, horizontal snout. Top-billed Beverly Garland (here a brunette) is very good as a woman seeking her missing fiance, now holed up in a mansion with a doctor (George MacCready) who's trying to cure him (he was in an accident) with reptilian serum. The man's domineering mother (Frieda Inescort) also resides, protecting and hiding her son from all, including Garland. Lon Chaney is superb as a drunken, one-handed hunter who detests alligators. The music is also eerie and effective. However, the film's plotline begins to fizzle out, with the fiance escaping from the laboratory and not doing much and the film sinks, like quicksand.

I heartily agree with the comments provided by reptilicus from Vancouver, Canada (and I appreciate the "high heels" heads-up, and the various actors' cross-refs).

I recommend this movie for its creative application of pre-60s sci-fi/horror canon: eerie melodrama, sympathetic characters, strictly implied gore, rough & toothless scientific explanation, and absolutely no pretensions to credibility, 'cause we're all just here to have fun anyway. Great use of bookends, and of ominous bayou atmosphere.

Note that the synopsis on the DVD case (20th Century Fox, released September 7, 2004) incorrectly lists "Lon Chaney" as our heroine's husband. Mr. Chaney actually plays the drunken Cajun, and Richard Crane plays the husband.

With a crazy title like "The Alligator People" this late '50s shocker is much too vulnerable to jokes and attacks, and that's unfortunate because it's actually much better than you might think, and the subject matter is taken quite seriously. Beverly Garland plays a newlywed wife named Joyce who despairs when her husband (Richard Crane) ducks off the train they're honeymooning on to make an urgent phone call, and then is never heard from again. Desperate, she tries without success to locate him until she eventually gets a lead that he could be at a house secluded off in the swamplands of the Louisiana bayou. Once there she is made aware of unusual experiments gone awry which involved her husband, and faces the horror that he is gradually turning into a scaly reptilian creature. His mother (Frieda Inescort, who's pretty bad in this) tries to discourage Joyce in her search and at first does not give her a welcome reception.

Miss Garland is quite believable and sincere in her part, and this is a nice-looking black and white film shot in the cinemascope process, showing off some nice imagery in the land of alligators and snakes. Also adding to the experience is Lon Chaney, one of the uncouth local Cajun men who sports a hook in place of his left hand, having been a victim himself of an alligator attack. He never lets these "dirty, stinking gators" forget it either, as he constantly gets drunk and fires his gun at them, and tries to run them down with his jeep when they cross the road. One of the best lines in '50s schlock cinema may be when Lon yells to the human victim of the story: "I'll KILL you, Alligator Man... just like I'd kill any four legged gator!!". Chaney is also involved in a violent rape sequence, which is pretty shocking for those times.

The scaly makeup for Richard Crane in its early stages is pretty effective, but when he emerges in full alligator-headed form later on, the first instinct is usually to laugh. But this is a '50s monster movie, after all, and many creatures of this era have been bizarre. Once you get past the initial sight of the Alligator Man, the result actually comes off not too bad at all. This is an enjoyable movie of its type for the period, and also comfortably short at only 75 minutes. *** out of ****

This typical "drive-in" flick of the late 50s is actually fairly complicated that gets very interesting in the last 45 minutes. "Starring" the totally under-appreciated Beverly Garland (a scream queen of the 50s) and Tuesday Weld's mom in PRETTY POISON in the 60s, this sly "gator" tale is walked through Cajun swamps into unknown realms where George MacReady and Lon Chaney, Jr. live every day. Thankfully, Ms. Garland (beautiful, talented, and finally on the color MY THREE SONS episodes) is SO believable in her character's plight about her husband's "condition" ..you're sucked it.

Best performance - Ms. Garland. A 7 out of 10. The husband (who looks the same to me ..even when he's "afllicted" is good), but the Mom, the servants, the HOUSE. It has all the ingredients that make "B" movies fascinating with a lot of help from Beverly Garland playing a lead Chara ..along with Bruce Bennett and various types. Recommended for it's breed of cat.