The Great Alligator – Severin Films (4k UHD/Blu-ray Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1979
Director: Sergio Martino
Writers: Cesare Frugoni, Ernesto Gastaldi, Sergio Martino, Luigi Montefiore, Maria Chianetta
Cast: Barbara Bach, Claudio Cassinelli, Mel Ferrer, Romano Puppo, Richard Johnson 

Release Date: May 28th, 2024
Approximate Running Time: 89 Minutes 10 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / HDR10
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free (4K UHD), Region A (Blu-ray)
Retail Price: $44.95

"At the opening of a tropical resort, a photographer (Claudio Cassinelli of Slave of the Cannibal God), an anthropologist (Barbara Bach of The Spy Who Loved Me) and an arrogant hotelier (Mel Ferrer of Eaten Alive!) are besieged by hostile natives, obnoxious tourists and a gargantuan river beast that intends to devour them all." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5 (4K UHD, Blu-ray)

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, “newly scanned in 4K from the original negative.”

The Great Alligator comes on a 66 GB dual layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 65.7 GB

Feature: 64.5 GB

Though the source looks excellent, there are still some very minor instances of print debris. Flesh tones look healthy; color saturation and black levels are solid. That said, image clarity is generally solid, with some moments, notably the underwater scenes, not being as strong as the bulk of this transfer. Also, compression is very good, and the image always looks organic.

The Great Alligator comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 42.4 GB

Feature: 26.9 GB

The Blu-ray uses the same source as the 4K UHD does for its transfer.

Audio: 4/5 (DTS-HD Mono Italian), 3.75/5 (DTS-HD Mono English)

This release comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD mono mix in Italian and a DTS-HD mono mix in English. Both audio tracks are in great shape; dialog comes through clearly, and everything sounds balanced. Range-wise, both tracks sound good, with the Italian-language track sounding more robust than the English-language track. Included are removable English subtitles for the Italian language track and removable English SDH for the English language track.

Extras:

Extras on the 4K UHD disc include a theatrical trailer (2 minutes 56 seconds, DTS-HD mono with text in English).

Extras on the Blu-ray disc include a theatrical trailer (2 minutes 56 seconds, DTS-HD mono with text in English), a Video essay titled Paradise House: Christianity and the Natural World in The Great Alligator by Lee Gambin, author of Massacred by Mother Nature (18 minutes 50 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with production designer Antonello Geleng titled Alligator Land (6 minutes 12 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with cinematographer Giancarlo Ferrando, Antonello Geleng and special effects supervisor Paolo Ricci titled 3 Friends and an Alligator (16 minutes 32 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with underwater camera operator Gianlorenzo Battaglia titled Underwater (7 minutes 16 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with Antonello Geleng titled Later Alligator (16 minutes 48 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with camera operator Claudio Morabito titled Beware of the Gator (16 minutes 28 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with actress Silvia Collatina titled Minou (16 minutes 34 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), and an interview with director Sergio Martino titled Down by the River (10 minutes 42 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles).

Other extras include reversible cover art.

Summary:

The Great Alligator was directed by the versatile Italian filmmaker Sergio Martino, who worked in whatever genre was popular at the time. Having said that, he was best known for his work in the Giallo and Commedia sexy all'italiana genres. Notable films he directed include The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, Case of the Scorpion’s Tail, All the Colors of the Dark, The Violent Professionals, Torso, and The Suspicious Death of a Minor.

The narrative revolves around a wealthy businessman who creates a resort in a tropical paradise, and when things start to go awry, he does everything in his power to keep things quiet, not wanting to start a panic.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, whenever something was successful in Hollywood, the Italian film industry never wasted an opportunity to cash in with their cheap knock-off films. Few of these Italian knock-offs made it to North American audiences, despite many of them being released to global audiences. Sergio Martino, more than any other director working at the time in Italy, shifted effortlessly from genre to genre, crafting several genre classics.

Steven Spielberg’s Jaws is the obvious influence that inspired Sergio Martino’s The Great Alligator. Both films, to great effect, feature a predator that mostly remains in the water. Also, The Great Alligator does a great job of not showing too much, making the alligator more menacing. Another area where The Great Alligator draws inspiration from Jaws is when it comes to the fate of the alligator.

Out of the various genres that Sergio Martino has worked in, the action-adventure genre is the one that holds the least interest for me. Sergio Martino, a director who prefers to work rather than pursue a personal project, consistently delivers solid direction. The Great Alligator's exotic locations, beautifully photographed, are its most durable assets. Also, the underwater sequences are surprisingly strong.

The performances get the job done. That said, no one performance stands out. The cast has several recognizable faces, many of whom have worked with Sergio Martino on other films: Barbara Bach (The Island of the Fishmen), Claudio Cassinelli (The Scorpion with Two Tails), Mel Ferrer (The Suspicious Death of a Minor), Romano Puppo (2019: After the Fall of New York), and Richard Johnson (The Island of the Fishmen).

Content-wise, The Great Alligator is a cross between the Man vs. Nature films of the 1970s and the action adventure stories written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. That said, The Great Alligator is a textbook example of a B movie, and yet it often exceeds the sum of its parts. Ultimately, The Great Alligator is not one of Sergio Martino’s strongest efforts; still, it offers plenty of action and adventure that is distinctively Italian.

The Great Alligator gets a solid release from Severin Films that comes with a strong audio/video presentation and a wealth of informative extras, highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a VLC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer