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THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE
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Re: THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE
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Ted Newsom
Re: THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE
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Jun 25 06 3:05 PM
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There's actually been plenty of info on this l'il wonder over the years. Beverly Garland has been interviewed innumberable times about it (I did her for 100 Years of Horror; Tom Weaver did an extensive Fango interview & reprinted it, etc.). She says he was a pusssycat. Bill W (above) does a good chapter on it in KWTS.
Don't know where you're getting the Warners connection; nothing to that. F'er goodness' sake, it opens with the 20th Fox Fanfare and the CinemaScope extension, in glorious black and white.
It was a Lippert production, I'm pretty sure. Theater chain owner/ producer Robert Lippert ground out mostly 2nd features for Fox because he was pals with Spyros Skorous, owner of Fox. Lippert could make them cheaper. In the case of ALLIGATOR PEOPLE, I think Fox gave them access to the Fox back lot and stages, which enhanced the production value.
Eight film historians and a hungry armadillo will jump on me if I'm wrong, but I believe THE FLY was a Lippert picture, too. ALLIGATOR PEOPLE has a lot of parallels structure-wise to it, and I don't think that's accidental. Of course, you had a prize-winning short story for THE FLY, adapted by James Clavell; with ALLIGATOR you had Orville Hampton. That's like getting a haute cuissine meal from Le Dome heated up and deep-fried by the guy at Mel's Diner. Whatever.
I wouldn't be surprised if Vincent Price influenced George MacCready to take the part of the scientist. They were pals and partners in an art gallery, and MacCready hadn't done anything like it before this, very little afterward (a one-scene bit for his son in RETURN OF COUNT YORGA being the exception).
I think the Karl Strauss widescreen images are neat. Roy del Ruth clearly did more prestigeous work, but there's nothing wrong with this. Frieda Innescourt is good as the grande dame with a secret, Chaney's terrific drunken Cajun. Actually, I'll bet he liked this, since it really is a part like his old man woulda done-- grizzled, physically handicapped, bitter ("I hate gators."), a societal reject, gets to have a big fight, jumps Beverly Garland, and he's in the film a lot.
A lot of people have put the knock to the final transformation image, the guy in the alligator head. Those stills with him and Garland always spooked me as a kid. There's something mythic about them, a half-man half-animal thing, evocative of Egyptian or Greek mythology. OK, yeah, when he's on screen he looks silly, but what the heck.
However, my film critic pal Mark Berger sent me a dvd of this movie a year ago and I try to watch it every couple of nights. Can't do it. Even when I chapter stop to the point a fell asleep last time, I'm zonked in two minutes.
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Welcome to the CHFB
Forum Guidelines
CHFB TURNS 20!
Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards
Universal Horrors
The Universal Monsters Blu-Ray Collection
Golden Age Horror
Kong - 8th Wonder of the World
Silent Horror
Poverty Row
The World of Sherlock Holmes
Murder and Mystery
Thrills and Chills
'50s Horror and Sci-Fi
'60s Horror and Sci-Fi
'70s Horror and Sci-Fi
Hammer Horror
The Psycho Ward
Foreign Horror
Japanese Giants
Horror and Sci-Fi of Recent Decades
Current Films
Second Takes on Films of the 2000s
Independent Films and Documentaries
Coming Soon
TV Terrors
Classic Horror on DVD, Blu-Ray and Streaming
Stream and Stream Again
Horror Film Books and Magazines
Horror by Candlelight
Horror Comics and Fantasy Art
Monster Toys and Collectibles
Classic Horror Movie Memorabilia
Horror Music
Old Time Radio and Audio Horror
Classic Horror Online
CHFB Member Reviews
Our Favorite Horror Hosts
Classic Disney Scares
Horror Film Stars
Men Behind the Monsters
Monster Kid Memories
General Horror and Sci-Fi
Horror Tech
Movie of the Day
Off Topic Discussions
Classic Horror News and Events
Birthdays and Holidays
DVR / TiVo Alert
Final Farewells
Classic Horror Polls
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Monster Kids Helping Monster Kids
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