As if to validate the film industry adage that half of good directing is good casting, Alligator offers up a winning ensemble of veteran performers and fresh-faced newcomers led by Robert Forster. Like Michael Parks, Forster had been groomed during the twilight of the studio system as a successor to Marlon Brando but his career fizzled out with the ascendancy of authentically ethnic performers like Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. Forster had acted in Roger Corman's Avalanche (1978), on which Lewis Teague shot second unit. Teague hired Forster for a small role in his directing debut, the Depression era crime story The Lady in Red (1979) and the actor was at the top of his list to headline Alligator. Recovering from a bout of spinal meningitis at the time, an emaciated Forster brings his trademark self deprecating machismo to the role and is the film's true capital asset, never playing above the material but spitting out sidereal wisecracks that elevate rather than undermine the silly goings-on. Supporting Forster is the appealing Robin Riker (a herpetologist love interest in the Faith Domergue mode), Michael V. Gazzo (a playwright who made a late life transition to character parts, mostly as gangsters), comic Jack Carter and Academy Award® winner Dean Jagger. Adding an extra layer of Psychotronica is the casting of cult performers Sue Lyon (Lolita), Angel Tompkins (Prime Cut) and Henry Silva, whose assignments in those days were mostly in other countries (the Canadian Shoot, the Australian Thirst and the Italo-cop films The Boss and Almost Human), who seems to be having a lot of fun poking fun at his tough guy image, especially in a scene in which he stumbles upon a pile of alligator spore.
Shot for around $150,000, Alligator occasionally looks ruinously cheap (the big city SWAT team is clad in mechanic's overalls) but otherwise is a model of economy and misdirection. Teague and Sayles dispatch a couple of characters (Silva's big game hunter and Bart Braverman's tabloid snoop) who seem etched to become major players in the drama, while showing a refreshing disregard for sentimentality by having the title creature chow down on children and French maids as readily as it does politicians and lawbreakers. Small living alligators photographed on miniature sets were alternated with an oversized mechanical gator head with the effects ultimately being respectable if not entirely believable. More important than verisimilitude, however, is the abiding sense of fun, with the comedy invigorating the suspense rather than diluting it. The winning combination of satire and salable exploitation elements struck a nerve with critics (Vincent Canby was a fan) and fans ABC scored when it broadcast Alligator on network television in the early 80s. In a roundtable interview conducted in support of the release of Grindhouse (2007), Quentin Tarantino admitted to Lewis Teague that he chose Robert Forster to star in his 1997 film Jackie Brown on the strength of his lead performance in Alligator.
Never before available on DVD in America, Alligator has been given a deluxe digital debut by Lionsgate. Although the remastered transfer has not been tagged for progressive scan, the letterboxed image (1.78:1) is anamorphically enhanced. While mild grain is appreciable, the feature looks quite good and appropriate for its vintage. The film's soundtrack has been given a 5.1 Dolby upgrade, although the original monaural mix is also available. English and Spanish subtitles are optional. An audio commentary featuring Lewis Teague and Robert Forster dates back to an earlier Region 2 disc. As on the recent Cujo (1983) DVD, Teague proves himself to be a somewhat dull historian, although Forster's reflections and reactions are appropriately wry and commentary moderator Del Howison (actor and proprietor of Burbank, California's Dark Delicacies bookstore) keeps the conversation flowing.
It's a special treat to hear from John Sayles, now an acclaimed filmmaker of Serious Cinema, who is the subject of the 17-minute featurette Animal Author, in which he recounts how he came to the project and altered the original scenario by Frank Ray Perilli. The film's original theatrical trailer is also included (too bad alternate scenes filmed for Alligator's ABC broadcast are not available as bonuses). Lionsgate's packaging is first rate (if a bit too similar to too many DTV stinkers) and the disc offers previews of the aforementioned Komodo vs. Cobra as well as Man-Thing (2005) and George Miller's Attack of the Sabretooth (2005).
For more information about Alligator, visit Lionsgate. To order Alligator, go to TCM Shopping.
by Richard Harland Smith
