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Desperately trying to find her husband Paul (Richard Crane) who has
left her on their wedding day after receiving a mysterious telegram, Joyce
(Beverly Garland) has tracked his trail down to a mansion in the middle of
the Louisiana swamps, where she's welcomed with open dismay by the
mansion's owner Mrs Hawthorne (Frieda Inescort) who assures her she's
never heard of Paul and wants to get rid of her in a hurry ... however
eventually sees herself forced to shelter Joyce for the night. Joyce grows
suspicious before too long because Mrs Hawthorne was much to insistant
when it came to not knowing Paul, and she has tried to lock Joyce into her
room for the night. After much to and fro, Joyce runs across Paul ...
only now his face is all scaly like a reptilian. She finds out that Paul
has been turned into an alligator man in a crazy experiment, and now Mrs
Hawthorne, who actually is his mother, and the local swamp doctor (George
Macready) try to turn him back to normal in a nuclear experiment ... but
that experiment is sabotaged by local alligator hater Manon (Lon Chaney
jr), Paul is turned into a two-feeted alligator, and pretty much everyone
but Joyce dies - Paul surprisingly by drowning in the swamps what I
figured to be the natural habitat of alligators - but then again what do I
know ... A bit of an uneven film: There are very atmospheric
scenes, some great scenery, and a creepy performance by Lon Chaney jr at
his (intentionally) sleaziest. On the other hand, there's the entirely
stupid alligator mask Richard Crane wears in the finale, Lon Chaney's
entirely unconvincing amputation stump cum hook, and so many similar
details. And on the third hand of course, there's this great trashy story
full of pulp elements, weird science and loveable genre absurdities. To
sum it up, there are certainly trashier films than this one, but it sure
is miles away from being a masterpiece ... but perfect drive-in fun, and
pretty much exactly what you'd expect a film called The Alligator
People from the 1950's to be.
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