Most people wouldn't consider this a good movie. You've probably noticed by now that the ol' Geekboy isn't most people. I know 'The Alligator People' left an impression on me when I first saw it, but I forgot just how much I liked it until I re-watched it for review purposes.
What's so great about this movie? Firstly, it's set in the swamps of Louisiana, and you can't go wrong with the spooky and exotic atmosphere that come with setting your movie in the swamps of Louisiana. Secondly, for the first half of the movie, the story is equal parts Mystery and Horror. Thirdly, the one doing all the detective work is our Heroine who has a lot of actual purpose and stake in the story in a genre that usually reduces the female lead to someone who trips, screams, and gets carried off by the monster.
The story starts with a frame story. The frame beginning and ending is actually my least favorite part, as it strains credibility and doesn't serve much purpose other that to give our heroine some occasional first person detective narration. We start in a Psychologist's office who has been experimenting with hypnosis and accidentally uncovers repressed memories while performing an experiment with his assistant, Jane Marvin (played by Beverly Garland). Under hypnosis she reveals that she lived a tragic past life under the name Joyce Webster.
Now that we have that cheesy (and pointless?) intro out of the way, we get to the cool stuff. Joyce is a newlywed ex-army nurse on her honeymoon. Her husband, Paul, had been horrifically disfigured in a plane crash, but is now mysteriously as good as new. However Paul gets an urgent telegram and leaves the train at the next stop is a state of panic, and the train leaves without him. Paul has disappeared, and Joyce discovers that she doesn't know that much about her new husband. She does some detective work and follows his trail to a desolate train-station in the middle of the swamps.
She talks a hook-handed local - played by the one and only Lon Chaney Jr. - into driving her to the nearby Plantation house which is also the last know address of her husband. Chaney is the town drunk with a vendetta against alligators because one took his hand. He seems like a harmless eccentric at first, but he proves himself dangerous later on.
So she arrives at the Plantation which is owned by the secretive and disagreeable Mrs. Hawthorne. Mrs. Hawthorne claims to have never heard of Paul and wants Joyce out of her house as soon a possible, but as there won't be another train until the next day, she allows Joyce to stay the night so long as she doesn't leave her room under any circumstances. After hearing spooky night noises Joyce discovers that she is LOCKED in her room (Southern Hospitality, am-I-right?) but manages to snitch the skeleton key from under the maid's nose.
In the middle of the night she hears the sound of a lonely piano downstairs, and she can't help but investigate. She discovers a figure in shadows hunched over the keys. He flees into the night at the sight of her and she is left with just a glimpse of his scale-covered face.
Mrs. Hawthorne is not to happy that Joyce was out of her room that night, and she's even less happy when she discovers that Joyce has no intention of leaving by the morning train. Joyce needs answers and she's willing to out-stubborn Mrs. Hawthorn to get them.
Mrs. Hawthorn reveals that the piano player was in fact Paul, and that she is secretly his mother. That's a great way to meat you in-laws. So, Joyce waits up to see Paul again that night, and once again he flees at the sight of her. This time she chases him out into the swamps. It's raining buckets, and she's menaced by alligators and snakes, and she loses her way. But she's 'rescued' by Lon Chaney's character. He's drunk, and starts hitting on her. She is rescued by Paul who barges into the little cabin and attacks Chaney. Paul carries her off after she is knocked unconscious - so we can have that shot of the monster carrying the pretty girl that all these movies have to have - and Chaney drunkenly swears revenge on the 'two legged alligator'.
It is revealed that Paul is turning into a reptile due to an experimental medical procedure that involves combining human DNA with that of a regenerating reptile. This is what had saved his life after the plane crash, but an unfortunate side effect is that all the test subjects are turning into - wait for it - ALLIGATOR PEOPLE! The telegram on the train was from the doctor who did the procedure warning Paul of the side effect, and he left because he didn't want Joyce to see him like this.
The doctor has been working on some sort of death-ray type device that's supposed to reverse the side effects. Paul insists that they try it out on him so that he and Joyce can be together again. The doctor warns that they have no way of knowing what will happen if there is an overdose of the radiation. So they start the procedure, and of course, our hook-handed villain bursts in just then to get his revenge on Paul. Because of the distraction Paul gets an overdose of the ray, and is transformed into an Alligator person. Meaning the actor had the pleasure of wearing what looks like an alligator puppet on his head. Prior to this, we just had the scale makeup on the face and hands, which isn't great, but it's a passable monster movie costume. The alligator puppet? Not so much.
Lon Chaney's character is electrocuted when he gets his hook tangled in some wires, Joyce screams at the sight of Paul, and he once again runs off into the swamp. Joyce runs after him, but after seeing his reflection in the water and realizing how monstrous (or silly) he has become, he wanders into the quicksand and is never seen again.
We cut back to the psychologists' office, and Jane/Joyce has no memory of her past now that she's out of the hypnotic trance. The doctor decides that this is for the best as she happier this way. So I guess they tacked on the frame story to make the ending less of a downer? Still seems a bit silly to me.
If the story of scientists using reptilian DNA to regenerate human tissue and inadvertently creating a monster sounds familiar, you may be thinking of the Spiderman villain Dr. Kurt Connors AKA 'The Lizard'. The Lizard first appeared in 1963, four years after the release of 'The Alligator People'. I don't think it's too big of a stretch to say this movie may have influenced the creation of the Spiderman villain.
Most people probably haven't heard of this monster movie, but it's worth watching in my opinion. The swamp scenes have great atmosphere, Beverly Garland is compelling as the female lead and Lon Chaney Jr. is always fun to watch. Only things I hold against 'The Alligator People' is the repressed memory plot device and a couple of less than stunning effects, like the alligator costume. First and foremost I like the way the story unfolds like a mystery.
-Geekboy
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