The Great Alligator

source: The Great Alligator

Il fiume del grande caimano

This movie simply rips off the classic shark movie, using and alligator as the star. What we get are a series of scenes of stupid people tempting the title monster and getting eaten. Of course, there are blood and body parts, ripped apart for us to see. The editing is jerky and hard to focus on. The actors could have been turnips, used for their food value. Of course, we have Barbara Bach who is quite a looker. Must have had a few minutes off on her Italian vacation. Can't think of any other reason.

Big Alligator River, The (1979) * (out of 4) Another Jaws rip-off from Italy has a rich man building a resort in the jungles of Southern Asia only to have the locals call in a huge alligator to eat everyone. This is from director Sergio Martino who is best known for his giallo and cannibal films but this thing here is quite bad and easily the worst of any Jaws rips I've seen. The film is incredibly slow moving and the first hour is nothing but talk, talk, talk. The alligator attacks go into high gear at the end but by then it's way too late. The cinematography and music score are the only saving grace.

For many people this is one of the worst by Sergio Martino, but I really love it. First I gotta say that I love Sergio Martino and for me he is maybe the best exploitation Italian director, better than Di Leo and Lenzi too. Big Caimano River is a real b-movie, and I say that as a compliment: a real b-movie as today nobody do anymore. It's a sort of "Jaws" rip-off, with a big alligator which scares a small village in the forest. The movie is sometime stupid, but is so funny. You can easily see that the alligator is fake, but this doesn't disturb me. Instead, I think it's almost touching: that time is over, the time of the house made fx-effects. The underwater ending sequence is fantastic. Also the truck is fake but, you know, that's b-movie. And that's what I like.