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DENIS
GIFFORD'S
MONSTERS OF THE
MOVIES
(1977)
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Monster
#1 - Alligator People
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United
States, 1959
A 20th Century Fox Production
74 mins, black & white, 2.35 : 1 aspect ratio
(CinemaScope)
Director - Roy Del Ruth
Screenplay - Orville H. Hampton
Story - Charles O'Neal & Robert M. Fresco
Cinematographer - Karl Struss
Editor - Harry Gerstad
Music - Irvin Gertz
Beverly
Garland, Bruce Bennett, Lon Chaney Jr. (billed as
Lon Chaney), George Macready, Richard Crane,
Douglas Kennedy, Frieda Inescort
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The Alligator People from the
movie of the same name are the first monsters on
Denis Gifford's alphabetically ordered list.
To my 13-year
old self the image of Richard Crane in the
process of transformation into an alligator
wasn't one of my favourite pictures in the book,
but it did hold a certain fascination - and if
nothing else, it was the entry point into the
collection of Monsters of the Movies.
The make-up
provided by Ben Nye and Dick Smith is well
balanced and quite effective for as long as the
main male character is in the transformation
process. Once you get to the fully developed
"alligator people" stage, however, the
resulting gator head on a human body is simply
too stilted and unconvincing (and therefore
ultimately cheesy) to truly work.
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(Carousel Books / Transworld
Publishing)
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| Alligator People is a
wonderful surprise and even something of a little gem. In
spite of its somewhat unpromising title, it displays
quite a bit of refinement - the story, naturally,
requires the usual suspension of disbelief and basic
knowledge of science, but it is nicely presented in a
framing story in which the female lead is put under
hypnosis and recounts the film's events as a
subconsciouly buried memory. |
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The bayous of Louisiana are
recreated well and set a convincing background
and atmosphere for the plot to unfold, and the
photography and production values throughout are
generally very high and lift this film clearly
above the usual B-Movie levels of the 1950s. The acting, too, is to the
point and works well, even though female lead
actor Beverly Garland famously noted that "the
hardest thing in that movie was simply to keep a
straight face." (Warren, 2016)
Alligator People
was developed as a double-bill co-feature with
the similarly themed Return of the Fly
and shot to a budget of $300,000. It was first
released in the US in July 1959.
The movie received rather
upbeat reviews at the time (Variety
called it "a good program horror film"
and praised its "good
characterizations"), while film historian
Bill Warren in 2016 felt it was a "decently
crafted and intelligently made program SF-horror
film, sadly let down by misconceived makeup and
perfunctory ideas".
Leaving aside the truly ineffective
"gator head make-up", Alligator People
tells its story well and manages to keep up
viewing interest rather effortlessly for its
entire 74 minutes. It has aged rather well.
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| I watched this movie for the
first time on 101 Films' 2017 Blu-ray release, the great
picture quality of which underscores the quality of the
work originally put into this movie. Extras are rather
sparse, limited to a reversible sleeve (one side
featuring the original 1959 poster art, the other newly
created imagery) and a physical extra in the form of a
poster repro. |
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Denis Gifford on The
Alligator People
in A Pictorial History of
Horror Movies (1973)
There is no
specific reference by Gifford to Alligator
People in his seminal reference
book, and the film is represented only by
a still image showing a fully transformed
Alligator Person with an actual gator
head. Gifford does however make a general
comment applicable to Alligator
People:
"The
German horror film had been cursed by the
Doppelgänger; the American horror film
was cursed by the Double Bill. Every big
picture had to have a little picture in
support. Every 'A' must have its 'B': it
was a Hollywood law as immutable as any
of Amun-Ra's."
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| Sources WARREN
Bill (2016) Keep Watching the Skies!: American
Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties, The 21st Century
Edition, McFarland
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Back to main index page
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The illustrations presented here are
copyright material.
Their reproduction in this non-commercial review
and research context is considered to be fair use
as set out by the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, 17
U.S.C. par. 107
and in accordance with the the Berne Convention
for the Protection of Literary and
Artistic Works.
All images from
Monsters of the Movies
(Carousel/Transworld) were scanned from my
personal copy purchased in 1977
All images of Blu-ray or DVD covers were scanned
from my personal copies
Page created 21
February 2023
Last updated 2 September 2023
(c)
2023
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