I got a couple of e-mails alerting me to this movie's appearance on TCM last night, so I couldn't resist taking a look. It's pretty bad, but no movie that features Technicolor, an alligator, and a Diana Dors bubble bath scene can be all bad.Donald Sniden plays a musician who gets his suitcase mixed up with one containing the titular gator. Complications ensue, but they aren't particularly amusing in spite of all the famous faces (Stanley Holloway, Stephen Boyd, Margaret Rutherford, etc.) involved. The musical numbers are uninspired, and there's really no question of whether Sniden will wind up with the blonde Dors or the redheaded Jeannie Carson.
Still, if you're a gator fan, you have to watch. Daisy is a fine (and amazingly docile) performer, though the occasional rubber substitute is one of the worst fakes in movie history.
6 comments:
Was last night's TCM theme "really bad/shoddy/cheap movies with some poorly-sung incidental musical numbers"? I didn't see this one, but I caught a few minutes of something called (I think) "As Long As You Love Them," which appeared to be a British attempt at a light-hearted romantic-musical. Blech!
Well, I guess they can't show "Citizen Cane," "The Big Sleep," and "The Postman Always Rings Twice" every night.
I love having access to the obscure stuff. Who doesn't already have the movies Deb mentions already?
Anyway, ALLIGATOR has Frankie Howerd in it, which I add to Bill's it-can-be-all-bad-list, right under Diana Dors' bubble bath.
By the way...wasn't CITIZEN CANE written by James M. Kane?
Oooops! I was thinking of that Simpsons episode where a movie museum (?) had "The cane from Citizen Cane" in a display case.
But I agree about Frankie Howerd. I used to love "Up Pompeii."
Yeah, well, Deb I said, it-can-be-all-bad-list when I meant it-can't-be-all-bad list....
Frankie Howerd is great. But I recently saw THE COOL MIKADO directed by Michael Winner (!) and was so very glad it wasn't the first thing I saw Frankie in.
UP POMPEII, the TV series, is a classic, and the movie is funny, too.
I was one of those who alerted Bill to the film's airing, and expect to pay dearly for it in future. Still, DAISY does make for a great trivia question: Name an alligator musical with two Miss Marples and Messala from Ben-Hur in the cast.
My favorite bit was with Wilfred Lawson as Daisy's original owner, warming up for his later brilliant turn as the butler in The Wrong Box.
Art Scott
Saw the last 10 minutes or so last night and...
Well, I thought it looked pretty good! Sorry I missed it.
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