Alligator - O Jacaré Gigante

The best Corman monster flick Roger never made.

This great B-movie unspools like a Sergio Leone revenge tale. Big mean Daddy flushes daughter's baby gator, Ramon, down the toilet. Sixteen years later, Ramon has grown up to be a 36-foot mutated maneater stalking the mean sewers of the Windy City. Daughter has grown up to become a 5'-4" herpetologist for the Chicago Zoo. You can just hear the haunting whistle of an Ennio Morricone soundtrack as the showdown looms.

This monster flick's pedigree is a purebred B, written by Corman alumnus John Sayles (fresh from 1978's 'Piranha', on his way to 1981's 'The Howling') and directed by veteran Lewis Teague, who cut his directing and editing teeth on such Corman classics as 'The Lady In Red', 'Cockfighter', 'Crazy Mama', and the immortal 'Death Race 2000'.

Casting for 'Alligator' was made in Cult Heaven, with Tarantino-fave Robert Forster as the bad-luck cop who gets between the girl and her gator. Future 'Stepmonster' Robin Riker makes her movie debut as the reptile expert. '50s sci-fi veteran Dean Jagger (looking, swear-to-God, like the dancing octogenarian in the Six Flags commercials) plays the dastardly industrialist who kills puppies and inadvertently creates the monster. Henry Silva seems to have fun skewering his cinema psycho persona. Even Hollywood tough-guy Mike Mazurki makes a cameo as the villain's gatekeeper.

Injokes abound, with winks and nudges to infamous sewer rats Harry Lime and Ed Norton. Romantic foreplay includes heartfelt talks about male pattern baldness. The gator seems to have a Jones for men in blue. And Chicago can only be saved by the time-honored, foolproof solution of trapping oneself in an enclosed space with the monster and a timebomb.

After 24 years, we rabid fans are still waiting for the obvious sewer creature clash, 'Ramon vs. C.H.U.D.' Keep dreaming ...

John Sayles brings as another memorable horror effort that mixes horror and comedy rather effectively. Giant alligator is flushed down the toilet as a baby and grows to giant size in the sewers of Chicago. Not finding much food down in the sewer, gator brings his act to the street and begins to make lunch meat of the city's population. Violent flick has a killer pace and never has a dull moment. Beware of the awful sequel though. Rated R.

I wasn't expecting much of a movie when I sat down to watch this one. I was very pleasantly surprised. With a script by John Sayles, committed performances by leads Robert Forster and Robin Riker, and a happy company of interesting performers, including Michael Gazzo, Dean Jagger, Henry Silva, Sue Lyon, and Mike Mazurki, it wasn't just a cheap JAWS rip-off about trying to stop an alligator flushed down the toilet eighteen years earlier, grown huge on medical wastes and dogs, but something of a screwball comedy, with dialogue at once witty and natural.

It also has an emotional journey. When we first meet police detective Forster, he's depressed because he had lost a partner in a shootout, and his hairline is receding. By the end, he has accomplished his goal, and if his hairline is going, Miss Riker content to be with him.

John Sayles seems to have used his fee from writing this to fund his directorial debut, THE RETURN OF THE SECAUCUS SEVEN. That's a win-win, so far as I am concerned.

Alligator is one of those films that people will either love or hate. I doubt it was supposed to be very 'A-grade' when it was released back in 1980. Now, well over thirty years old, I was hesitant to see how well it's stood up to the test of time.

I was pleased to say the answer is: pretty well.

If you can excuse the seventies haircuts (in an eighties movie!) then you'll find quite a tight little monster-munching movie. Lake Placid may have better effects, but Alligator still has its own special charm - think 'Jaws,' but with an alligator instead of a shark (oh, and in Chicago, rather than the sea, obviously).

Basically, what little plot there is revolves around a little girl having her per alligator flushed down the toilet when it was still young. Once in the sewers, over a period of twelve years, it mutates, getting much, much bigger and basically comes back for revenge. Yes, revenge. It seems to have a natural instinct as to whose fault it was, but, hey, just suspend your disbelief and enjoy it.

Alligator is played out on that fine line between 'tongue in cheek' and 'straight.' It has a foot in both camps and somehow it manages to pull both off.

If you're a fan of general animatronics monsters eating man, woman and child (yes, child - you wait and see!) then give Alligator a go. It's just a shame that with a solid movie like this, the alligator himself didn't move on to better things. He was certainly the star and I was hoping to find him in a nice indie flick or even a romantic comedy. Well... maybe.

Continuing the trend of the killer animal genre made popular by "Jaws", "Alligator" is thoroughly enjoyable all the way. We can thank screenwriter John Sayles, then a writer for hire (his other genre credits during the period being "Piranha" and "The Howling") for its wit and ambition, and Lewis Teague ("Cujo", "Cat's Eye") for the efficient, right-to-the-point direction and genuine thrills.

It exploits the old urban legend of "alligators in the sewers" for maximum entertainment, telling the tale of a gator named Ramon flushed down the drain as an infant and making its home in the Chicago sewer. It grows to mammoth proportions after having feasted on dead dogs that had been injected with a growth hormone by a dubious pharmaceutical company. It's up to dedicated police detective, David Madison (the likable Robert Forster, in a perfect Everyman role) to find and destroy the out-of-control beast when other attempts by the police prove to be unsuccessful.

Sayles shows here that the trend of referencing bits of pop culture most assuredly did not begin with "Scream", as here he makes jokes referring to Ed Norton, the character on 'The Honeymooners' who worked for the sewer department, and Orson Welles's character from the classic "The Third Man". He gets some great chuckles from some of his lines, and also adding to the humour is the performance of Henry Silva, as an egomaniacal big game hunter. Adding sex appeal is husky voiced redhead Robin Riker as the movies' reptile expert. A wonderful supporting cast includes swaggering Dean Jagger as the corporate creep, Bart Braverman as the pesky reporter, Perry Lang as an eager beaver young cop, original "Lolita" Sue Lyon as a TV reporter, Sydney Lassick as a pet store owner, Jack Carter as the sleazy mayor, and the hilarious, raspy voiced Michael Gazzo as Madisons' boss on the police force. Other familiar faces in small roles include Angel Tompkins, Royce D. Applegate, Simmy Bow, Stan Haze, Micole Mercurio, John Goff, and Mike Mazurki.

Among the touches Sayles and Teague bring to the material are the idea of the gator eating its way up the socio-economic ladder, heading for the man who created it in the first place, and a willingness to treat many characters as fair game, even children. The sequence where the gator (brought to life by more convincing special effects than usual) first emerges into the outside world is a corker, as is the big set piece where it runs amok at a wedding; there are some amazing stunts during this sequence. The pacing never flags and Forster and Riker are an endearing main couple; he plays exactly the kind of hero for whom WANTS to root.

Any monster movie fan tired of the routine cheese fests, featuring animated creatures, that come out nowadays, is strongly encouraged to check out this solidly entertaining little flick. They won't be disappointed.

Followed 11 years later by a sequel.

Eight out of 10.