<< Were those real alligators snapping at Garland or some good special effects? <<

My memory is that she falls over one alligator, and makes a wide berth around another; I think the first one was fake and the second real. I used to know a guy who had a great 16mm print and he thought the first one was comically fake; it looked okay to me but, yeah, the mouth just opens and closes a couple times, exactly the same way, like something you'd see on the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN ride.