Product Details

• Actors: Beverly Garland, Bruce Bennett, Lon Chaney Jr., George Macready, Frieda Inescort
• Directors: Roy Del Ruth
• Writers: Charles O'Neal, Orville H. Hampton, Robert M. Fresco
• Producers: Jack Leewood
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: June 30, 1998
• Run Time: 74 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304973411
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #36,685 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #7 in

  Video > Classics > Classic Horror & Monsters > Creatures

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
When Jane's husband disembarks from a passenger train immediately after their wedding and disappears without a trace, troubling questions are raised. How could his face, mangled beyond recognition in a plane crash during the war, have healed without any scarring? And what unspeakable acts took place on the alligator-ridden bayou plantation he left as an address? Wonderfully haunted, The Alligator People explores the mystery with skillful pacing, generally decent dialogue, and only intermittently laughable special effects. Miscegenation, anxiety over radiation and atomic science, homoeroticism, distrust of doctors and medicine, fear of the American South--all the major cultural obsessions of the late '50s are either tacitly or explicitly represented here; perhaps that's why the far-fetched scientific premise that underlies the plot makes a weird resonance despite its utter implausibility. The ubiquitous Lon Chaney is on hand, and his performance as a drunken swamp rat with a penchant for violence is a hoot; but the real star of the show is Beverly Garland, whose inspired lead, alternately detached and histrionic, decidedly puts to rest the myth of the inelasticity of early sci-fi and horror performers. A winner. --Miles Bethany

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars DVD Version, September 19, 2004

By	Dr. Freeman (Perry, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Alligator People (DVD)

I will not delve to much into the movie itself as it has been pretty well covered here. While i do not see a comparison to The Fly as one contributor did, i do think this may have been a precursor to Swamp Thing, as regeneration of body tissue and limbs is the idea of the mad scientist. Gator genes used on humans? You know its gonna go bad. And Lon Chaney Jr., although in a lesser role is a real treat. The DVD qulaity is spectacular and the Widescreen presentation is truly widescreen aspect, no anamorphic deception on this one as on so many of these old classics. If you like the old sci-fi/horror of the 50's this is a pretty decent movie and as said, a very nice print.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars some movies just have to be seen...lol, October 6, 2004

By	Deborah MacGillivray "Author," (US & UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Alligator People (DVD)

The Alligator People is more of a mild hoot, than a horror film. One of the grade C-flicks, not good enough to be a B-Drive In film! Still, it's a delight to people who love old B&W horror films. This film must be loaded with more phobias and prejudices per square inch than any other horror film of the period, yet instead of insulting people (too much, lol) it all gels into one great time.

Two doctors are talking at the start of the film, and one is telling he has just heard a story under hypnosis that he can scarcely credit. Jane (Beverly Garland), his receptionist, recounts the tale, which the doctor plays for his colleague. Jane had married a man from the Southern US, and while on their honeymoon, they were sitting on a train. He receives a frantic telegram, gets off at the station to place a telephone call, only to have the train pull off with his waiting Bride. The Bride gets off at the next stop and tries to find her groom, but he has vanished.

After years of searching, she finally tracks down the ancestral home of his family. His domineering mother does not welcome Jane, but Jane won't go away without answers to her questions. At times, as Jane prowls the bayous the movie is quite hauntingly lensed. However, dialog is stilted, frustrating, rushed, the acting is OTT or so understated it borders on laconic, and the special effects, well, as I said are grade C. Toss in the great Lon Chaney as a drunken lecherous redneck swamp-rat, a perfect bizarre touch to one strange film that seems to succeed in spite of itself!

Great fun for a cold rainy autumn night.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars BRIDE OF RE-ALLIGATOR...., July 4, 2004

By	Mark Norvell (HOUSTON) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Alligator People (DVD)

A doctor uses a serum on his nurse, Jane (Beverly Garland) to get her to re-live a trauma she has no memory of. A very strange tale emerges: When her husband Paul disappears on their honeymoon, Jane traces him to a Louisiana plantation deep in the swamps where no one will tell her what happened to him. She insists on staying and discovers Paul is around but can't find him. Why? Because mad doctor George Macready is performing bizarre experiments with alligators (and people) and Paul is turning into an alligator! Lon Chaney Jr. co-stars as a hook-handed assistant with a hatred for "gaters" because one bit off his hand and Frieda Inescourt ("Return of the Vampire") is the mistress of the plantation trying to cover up the awful horrors as Garland gets more and more inquisitive. There's Deep South atmosphere to spare and creepy crawlies in the swamp as Garland runs around screaming. She's good as Jane and really put through the mill here. Obviously, this is no classic but it's a fun 50's creature feature for collectors with laughable make-up effects and a fun turn by Chaney Jr. with that hook-hand. No wonder Jane developed amnesia after this experience...when you see the "alligator-man" you'll know why. Gotta love it.