Count me among those that, while not holding it in high regard, like it alot! Cool write up Ted, you mention alot of the points that do it for me, allowing me to actually get through the movie...several times. I too love Ms. Garland, my "crush" has passed but not my fondness for all her films...there is a shot of her having just arrived on the bayou, she is waiting for a lift, sitting on a box marked 'radioactive', love that! Chaney is great in this, so much fun too watch and I love the scene where the butler has to go out there and calm him down as he rants on about his hatred for the gators, can't you just hear the Tick-tock o' the clock!
The other big point for me is Karl Struss's work on it, sumptuous cinemascope for a film like this, really stunning! I think in something I read, Ms. Garland makes mention of the lab ward scenes and those covers over the testing victims heads, she said they could not stop laughing because all they could think of was "toilet". It looked like they had lavatory heads! Still, I love this silly, great looking movie...