The Great Alligator

The Great Alligator (Il Fiume Del Grande Caimano) (1979)

Runtime: 89 minutes

Directed by: Sergio Martino

Starring: Barbara Bach, Claudio Cassinelli, Mel Ferrer, Romano Puppo, Fabrizia Castagnoli

From: Dania Film/Medusa Distribuzione

I expect to see a few movies for Spooky Season (starting in just a few weeks!) from the Eternal Family platform; there’s no harm in seeing one or more horror film on EF until then. This was Italian trash from Sergio Martino w/ a Stelvio Cipriani score starring Barbara Bach featuring other recognizable actors like Mel Ferrer, Richard Johnson-he is only in one scene, albeit one where he portrays a wacky character-familiar Italian face Romano Puppo and the dude who was TONY THE PIMP in Demons… yes I was interested.

The film is not a must-see and from what I’ve checked out, his giallos are better. That doesn’t mean there was not fun to be had w/ this nonsense. Mel Ferrer is the A-hole who owns a new resort in a tropical location-this was filmed in Sri Lanka. The local tribe capitulated and allowed these dumb white people to arrive… this angers a local god, who becomes a huge alligator & starts chomping on fools.

Alligator takes a long while to get going, some of the effects are rather quaint (I’m not talking of the fine miniatures; rather, the title creature sometimes has the “incredibly phony” appearance) and the ending made it clear for the viewer what film this was “inspired” by if they somehow didn’t know by that point. There’s unintentional comedy that included dialogue you’d only get in old Italian genre efforts… someone tells their pal in the water that they can go ahead and have a bowel movement, as no one would be able to tell!

Many (me included) won’t complain about seeing Bach in a film, the unexpected absurd moments, a memorable finale-even if it did not include the gore that some would desire-or the random 6-year-old girl who provided comic relief by delivering blunt comments… she actually was funny. However, the highlight wasn’t Bach or the Sri Lankan scenery; it was the Cipriani score. Sometimes funky, sometimes disco, always awesome. That was greatly appealing to my tastes & elevated the material.

I haven’t viewed many killer crocodilia films and there likely are better examples… thankfully The Great Alligator isn’t a CROC…