The Great Alligator — The Great Alligator ( UHD & Blu Ray)
The Great Alligator ( aka Il Fiume Del Grande Caimano) is a late 70’s Italian exploitation film which blends together stalking killer creature fare, with light cannibal natives & disaster tropes. The film's wonderful shot, with a thrilling & pacing flow. Here from Severin is a new duel UHD & Blu-Ray release of the picture- taking in a 4k scan of the film, and over two hours’ worth of extras.
The Great Alligator is from the year 1979- it was filmed between the jungles of Sri Lanka, and Incir De Paolis Studios near Rome. It was directed by Rome-born Sergio Martino- who will of course be familiar to fans of Euro cult films. He has forty-two features taking in the likes of classic Giallo like The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh (1977) & All the Colors of the Dark (1972), and neat Giallo/ slasher blend Torso (1973). As well as a good selection of other cult genre fare like gut-munching adventure Slave of the Cannibal God (1978), post-nuke action fare 2019: After the Fall of New York (1983), crime thriller The Violent Professionals (1973).
The film opens in a small aeroplane that is flying over a vast jungle- inside is smug entrepreneur/greying-haired Josha ( Mel Ferrer). Sweating, stubble, and constantly snapping photographer Daniel (Claudio Cassinelli), and a stern/ untalkative Grace Jones-like model.
They land at Josha's recently built resort- that’s out in the middle of the jungle, to show obnoxious tourists the wildlife. But the problem is they are blowing up trees left right & centre, taking advantage of the natives, and keeping the crocodiles in the resort river by feeding them innocent baby piglets. We also meet Josha's assistant/ anthropologist Alice( Barbara Bach) who Daniel is clearly is attracted to.
For the first half an hour or so we find the characters settling in- with brooding/ stalking underwater shots, aggressive war-painted tribe people, and the final touches to get the resort ready for tourists. Just before they are due to open up two people disappear after on a late-night river rendezvous- their ruined boat wash up, so Daniel tries to convince Josha to stop the opening( hello Jaws)- but of course, he says this isn’t possible.
And from here on we get a nice feeling of building tension/ unease- as the giant Alligator hovers around the wired-off fishing waters, and of course starts attacking folk. We only see glances of the creature, and these are rapidly cut to great effect- sadly the gore is fairly low-key for this type of thing- getting only red spurting water, and a few impalements. Also as things rap up- the local tribes people start getting aggressive with arrow- both flamed & not, and there’s decidedly 70’s disaster tone as the tourists start to rather panic.
Castwise Cassinelli is fine as our ragged hero, Ferrer as always is good at being very smug/ condescending, and Bach works as the woman in peril/ love interest. The natives do look authentic, and as things progresses they do get quite threatening. Both the foreboding atmosphere and more tense/ thrilling elements build as the film unfolds- making for a gripping & entertaining ride. My only really disappointment is the lack of gore/ nasty kills here, because really you have to have this in killer creature fare.
Moving onto this recent UHD & ( region A) Blu-Ray release, and we find a 4k scan of the film- this is nice and bold, with a crisp/ well defined print though out.
On the extras side we get around two hours worth of new content. There’s Down By The River ( 10.42) which find director Sergio Martino talking about the film. He talks about how this was the second of his more trashy/jungle-focused exploitation films after Slave God Of The Cannibal Island( 1978). He was thirty-three when he made the film, and they had an Italian crew of 10-15. He chats about jumping in the river fully clothed, and the many letches in the river. On the whole he seems to have a largely positive memory of the filming, and he talks about how the film did well in the cinema. Next, we have Minou ( 16.34) Interview with Actress Silvia Collatina. Beware Of The Gator (16.26) Interview with Camera Operator Claudio Morabito. Later Alligator (16.48) Interview with Production Designer Antonello Geleng. Underwater (7.16) Interview with Underwater Camera Operator Gianlorenzo Battaglia. 3 Friends And An Alligator (16.32) A discussion with Cinematographer Giancarlo Ferrando, Production Designer Antonello Geleng and Special Effects Supervisor Paolo Ricci. Alligator Land ( 6.12) Antonello Geleng Shares Original Production Drawings. Paradise House: Christianity And The Natural World In THE GREAT ALLIGATOR ( 18.50)Video Essay By Lee Gambin, Author Of Massacred By Mother Nature. And a trailer- so a good selection of things.
I was very aware of Martino’s great Giallo's, but never realised he’d made a When-Creatures-attack film so The Great Alligator was somewhat of a revelation, being one of the better more skilfully made films in the genre. This new Severin release features a wonderful 4k scan, and a good selection of new extras.