Watch The Great Alligator For Free

One of my all time favorites.

Must See Movie...

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

I've seen a lot of Jaws rip-offs and killer crocodile/alligator films over the years, and can safely say that The Great Alligator is one of the lamest (even worse than Tobe Hooper's Crocodile). Not only is it wholly unoriginal, liberally pilfering ideas from Spielberg's film, but it's also extremely boring, a shame, because director Sergio Martino can usually be relied upon to deliver a reasonably entertaining time.Martino's film is set in an unspecified tropical country, which one might assume to be in Africa based on the tribes-people and hippos, although some of the wild-life—orangutans, king cobras—suggest further east. Of course, alligators are only indigenous to the U.S. and China, so your guess is as good as mine. Anyway, in the middle of an unspoilt area rich with fauna, businessman Joshua (Mel Ferrer) has set up a luxury tourist resort, Paradise House, which promises to bring its guests closer to nature. Unfortunately, with the titular killer reptile on the loose (be it crocodile or alligator… both species are mentioned), the guests get much closer to nature than they wish for.It takes a long time before we get to see the 'great alligator', which the locals believe to be a vengeful god come to punish the white folk, but when we do it's a massive disappointment (or in the case of some of the shots, a miniature disappointment), the models inanimate and totally unconvincing. Martino should have compensated for his crappy croc (or alligator) effects with loads of splatter, but the film is relatively gore free, with just a little blood in the water and a few of the guests impaled by flaming spears when the natives go on the rampage.As if a crap croc (or alligator) and almost zero gore wasn't bad enough, the film also suffers from annoying characters. The hero, top photographer Daniel Nessel (Claudio Cassinelli), is extremely irritating, continuously snapping away randomly at whatever he can, never once taking time to alter the settings on his camera, take light readings, or adjust the focus. Snap, snap, snap he goes, using up what must be a whole suitcase of film on nothing in particular. When he's not snapping away, he's putting the moves on hotel manager Alice (Barbara Bach), whose raison d'être is to be woman in peril, offered as a sacrifice to the river god by the natives. Bach is beautiful but wooden. Worst of all are the guests, a slutty mother and her annoying ginger daughter, a guy who thinks it's funny to pretend that he has drowned, and lots of people who dance badly to terrible music.Martino ends this train-wreck of a movie with what is one of the most unintentionally funny moments in Italian exploitation: having massacred most of the guests who haven't been eaten by the croc (or alligator), the savage natives see that their river god has been blown to smithereens by Daniel, and decide to call off the killing, smiling cheerily at the remaining visitors as though nothing has happened. It's enough to give Italian schlock a bad name.

It should be painfully obvious that nothing can beat "Jaws" at it's own game, but there were quite a few movies that tried to cash in on it's formula. "The Great Alligator" is no exception, although this one stands it's own just fine. Directed by Sergio Martino, it does lead one to have higher hopes however, as his gialli "Torso", "Your Vice..." and "Strange Vice..." are influential masterpieces of the genre.An angry god of a native tribe materializes himself as a giant alligator and starts picking off tourists that have angered him on his island. Simple, but effective. Martino does a good job of showcasing the locale, and with certain cuts and effects creates the hazy, slightly surreal and jovial tone that one would feel while vacationing in such an oasis. Barbara Bach is a welcome addition to feast the eyes on, but sadly does not get naked. Of course, you have your typical two faced character protecting his money, but he reaches a just demise. The scene with the natives on shore and the alligator in the water is awesome as the tourists are caught in between, many of them being killed (and I do mean MANY).I won't spoil the ending, but I will say it also takes quite a bit from "Jaws". Some people on here have mentioned how "cheesy" the gator looks, but if you are watching this you can't be expecting much, can you? I think he looks just fine, and the scenes where it shows just his eyeball are legitimately a little chilling. Overall, "The Great Alligator" is a fun watch, boasting a high body count, beautiful scenery and entertaining minor characters.

I really do fail to see the actual surplus value of this movie. It's not bad enough to be hilarious. There's no sleaze or gratuitous nudity (although there was plenty of opportunity). There's no gore. There's no suspense in the first hour of the movie 'cause there's way to much scenes of tourist having a party and natives playing funky tribal music. That last part was actually funny on many occasions: You see these natives hitting congas and 'jembés' and that's indeed what you hear (badly synchronized) on the soundtrack. But they also added this funky bass-line on the soundtrack. So, where was the bass-player? At one point the natives get angry and start killing the tourists. Why all of the sudden? It's supposed to be because the evil white men build this tourist complex, which according to their myth awakened the wrath of the river-alligator-god (I actually missed the explanation for that one). But the natives did help for several months to build the tourist complex, so why the sudden angriness? And how in the hell did they manage to push the helicopter in the water??? It's all silly and pointless. This movie also features the skinniest Afro-American model I've ever seen.At one point our heroic leading couple visits this cave where a weird, crazy old man lives. The only point to that scene is that they make the "shocking" discovery that the killer-crocodile is actually an alligator. Crocodile or alligator, what's the difference? It's big, it's made out of plastic and it eats people. All the same to me. The alligator is a rather silly creation. It's very stiff & motionless and doesn't even flap its feet when it swims. The eyes don't even move when they're shot in close-up. I guess they didn't know 'animatronics' back then in Italy during 1979. There's also a lot of pointless inter-cut shots of the local wildlife. I suspect it's stock footage.Like, I said, the first hour was pretty lame and the only reason I didn't switch off the movie was because my cat was asleep on my lap and I didn't want to wake the sweet thing. But the last half hour of the movie did get better. We finally get to see some action when the alligator swims through a horde of panicking people snapping its teeth and munching on them. The most entertaining (and at the same time funny) scene is when Alice and Daniel drive a van over a bridge and it collapses. We're looking at a matchbox-version of the van falling in the river here. Funny. But nicely shot. In fact there are several other nice traveling camera-moves. Surprisingly for this type of flick. I was gonna point out some stupid details concerning the end of the movie, but I don't wanna spoil it completely, in case you do decide to watch this movie. My advice is to stay away from it. If you wanna see a decent alligator movie, then see Lewis Teague's ALLIGATOR. I admit, that one isn't Italian and isn't a JAWS rip-off, but it certainly is more fun. And if you're interested in other movies made by director Sergio Martino, then I strongly recommend the highly entertaining 2019: AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK. That one's an over-the-top rip-off of every possible existing post-apocalyptic-future-of-doom-movie. "Italians" and "rip-offs", two words that go together very well.

Obviously a stylized foreign film like this would fly right over the heads of American audiences.The late Claudio Cassinelli stars as a photographer who (with his girlfriend Barbara Bach - wife of Ringo Starr) helps to combat a giant alligator god "Kruna" from destroying a multi-million dollar tourist trap (in more ways than one) in Africa somewhere. Of course their exploits are further complicated when the local tribesmen decide to go on a violent killing spree and slaughter nearly all the annoying tourists. (yay!) Mel Ferrer (Audrey Hepburn's hubby) also stars as the greedy landlord of the resort, who lives just long enough to see his dreams of wealth and high society burning to the ground.I really loved this movie; excellent Stelvio Cipriani 70's jungle music and some cutting-edge Giancarlo Ferrando camerawork gave this a uniquely cruel and menacing atmosphere. The alligator is great looking and the death scenes are done with great skill and panache. Great cast too, with small parts played by Bobby Rhodes, Richard Johnson, and Romano Puppo. Would have been Sergio Martino's best film if not for 2019 - After the Fall of New York. Not to mention an extremely high bodycount and a slick script co-written by George Eastman (!), Ernesto Gastaldi, Cesare Frugoni, and several others.Martino went on to ruin his career with such turkeys as Mani di Pietra (HANDS OF STEEL) and CASABLANCA EXPRESS.BTW - at one point the characters do express surprise that Kruna is an alligator, not a crocodile thank you very much.Highly recommended.