Do You Remember When..,

.., Crappy Aligator Man wrestles an actual Alligator in ‘The Alligator People’ (1959)?

Man fights drugged up gator

‘The Alligator People‘ is a pretty solid 50′s sci-fi, creature flick. Ok there’s some pretty racist characterization in places (which you see coming from a 1959 film that has the tag-line “Terror In The Bayou”) and some very unexpected woman slapping and near rape. These moments of exploitation cinema sit rather uneasily In a film which, otherwise, is a fairly standard example of 50s B-movie sci-fi. So as you can imagine there are many-a-memorable moment to be found in ‘The Alligator People‘. But one moment sticks out in particular. After the titular Alligator-person goes from guy with bad skin condition (actually very good makeup effects) to full on man-gator (not so good), he takes off into the darkness of the bayou in his flimsy alligator rubber mask. Apparently man-gator is so pissed off by his ludicrous costume that he takes his frustration out on a real alligator (which is either dead or drugged). Cue fabulous scene of stuntman in crap rubber outfit wrestling catatonic reptile.