The Alligator People
The movie opens with title and credits shown over a scene of a mangrove swamp. A Chrysler Imperial with Louisiana MD license plates pulls into a parking lot. It is the Doctors Only lot of the Webley Sanitarium. Doctor Eric Lorimer (Bruce Bennett) exits his car and enters the office of Dr. Wayne MacGregor (Douglas Kennedy). MacGregor is a neuropathologist. Eric is joining Wayne as a consultant on an interesting case. The case involves a nurse, Jane Marvin. Wayne explains, "That's the name she's using." Wayne is conducting research in narco-hypnosis techniques. Wayne calls his nurse to come into the office. Wayne introduces his nurse, Jane Marvin, aka Joyce Webster (Beverly Garland) to Eric Lorimer. Jane rests on the couch and Wayne injects her with a mild sedative and asks her to count backwards. The Pentothal acts quickly. In addition to a tape recorder, Wayne has a polygraph, or lie detector, set up to record the session. Wayne asks her name, and she replies, "Joyce Hatten...Joyce Hatten Webster." When he asks her if she is married she admits, "I was. I was Mrs. Paul Webster." Then she admits she is not sure. Wayne asks her to tell them her story. She starts by saying, "I met Paul overseas. He was a lieutenant. I was nursing in a hospital. We made plans to be married after we were both discharged." The tale is told in flashback.On a moving train, Joyce and her new husband, Paul Webster (Richard Crane) are sitting in a sleeping car. A train Porter (an uncredited Dudley Dickerson) opens a bottle of champagne and pours it into two glasses. Paul tips the Porter before he leaves and the happy couple share a kiss. Paul admits he was in an aircraft accident, but dismisses stories of how serious it was. Joyce tells him, "You wouldn't believe what that hospital doctor told me when I called. Well, according to him, you were more dead than alive. Almost every bone broken: completely torn, mangled, smashed." She notes that he has no marks or scars, therefore it couldn't have been that serious. Paul admits it was serious. He screws up enough courage to tell her the truth about why he waited so long to tell her the story. The Porter returns with telegrams of congratulations. Paul reads one telegram and is visibly upset. He folds it up and then exits the cabin. He asks the conductor (an uncredited Hal K. Dawson), "When's the next stop?" The next stop is in 35 minutes, but a very short mail pickup stop is coming up right now. Paul needs a telephone, but the conductor advises against leaving the train. It is a 30 second stop. Paul refuses to tell Joyce what is bothering him. The train pulls away and Joyce is frantic.We are back in Dr. MacGregor's office and Joyce is still telling her story under hypnosis. She tells the doctors she got off at the next stop and went back to the platform, but there was no sign of Paul. She talked to his friends and checked prior addresses. She spoke to police, hired private detectives, and spoke to the Army. Since Paul had never mentioned family she had no clues. Months later she contacted his college, via his fraternity. It was Louisiana State University, and the only address, when he enrolled, was in Bayou Landing, a place called the Cypresses. She went on the train and was the only person at the station. There was a large crate on the platform addressed to the Cypresses that had a large label indicating the contents: Cobalt-60. She sat on the crate waiting for someone to pick it up. A scruffy gentleman with a hook hand drove up and told her he was driving out to the Cypresses. Manon (Lon Chaney, Jr.) had come for the crate and invited Joyce for a ride back to the plantation house. Manon stops to clear a fallen branch that is blocking their path. Joyce witnesses two men wrestling an alligator in the swamp. She is visibly disturbed by the sight. Manon hates gators, and tells Joyce, "Dirty, nasty, slimy gators." A large one crosses the road in their path and Manon deliberately runs over the creature. He shows her his hook hand and explains a gator took it off. She exits the truck at the front door and knocks. The butler, Toby (an uncredited Vince Townsend, Jr.) answers the door. Mrs. Lavinia 'Vinnie' Hawthorne (Frieda Inescort) descends the stairs with a cane in hand. Lavinia directs the butler to admit Joyce into the house. Joyce tells Vinnie her story of her search for her husband. When Joyce tells the older woman her name, Mrs. Paul Webster, Vinnie tries to stifle a surprised response. Vinnie then accuses Joyce of playing some game and making up a story. She introduces herself as Mrs. Henry Hawthorne, a widow, and then asks her to leave at once. Toby reminds his boss that the next train is tomorrow. Vinnie reluctantly agrees to put Joyce up for the night. She tells the maid, Louann (an uncredited Ruby Goodwin) to show the lady to the guest room upstairs. Vinnie insists Joyce not leave her room under any circumstances.That evening, Joyce hears shots being fired outside. Vinnie orders Toby to tell Manon to stop shooting at the gators. That is when Joyce realizes she has been locked in her room. Down in the swamp, a very drunk Manon screams and shoots at the alligators. Louann will not give Joyce any information, but warns her to leave as soon as possible. The phone rings and Vinnie answers. It is Dr. Mark Sinclair (George Macready) calling. He stands next to a very large alligator strapped down to a table. Vinnie tells Mark, "She's here, Mark. Paul's wife." She tells the doctor shell be right over and they can decide what to do about this complication. Joyce watches Lavinia drive off in the station wagon. Vinnie drives up to the house Sinclair is using as a lab and hospital. A figure in a bathrobe struggles with three male nurses (uncredited: John Frederick, Ken Kane and Lee Warren). Dr. Sinclair enters the room as the nurses manage to get the patient under control and back to bed. We see the doctor inject the patient in the arm. The skin is reptilian in texture. Vinnie enters the lab and calls out to Mark. He explains that he had an emergency with number six (an uncredited Bill Bradley). Apparently Sinclair and Vinnie were not successful in covering all references to Paul. Sinclair explains he needs more time to test before he can proceed. Mark promises to stop in the morning and talk to Joyce.Paul, dressed in a trench coat, enters the plantation house. Joyce is upstairs in her room. She managed to steal the key from Louann earlier. She hears the piano being played downstairs and goes to investigate. She quietly enters the darkened room and sees the face of the man playing the piano. His face has a reptilian texture. Paul runs from the room leaving very strange footprints. Vinnie drives back to the house and Paul stops her on the path and demands, "What's she doing here?" They both agree she must leave the next morning.The next morning Dr. Sinclair drives his swamp buggy to the plantation house. Joyce is pacing outside on the porch. He introduces himself and waxes philosophical about the swamp. Joyce introduces herself as Mrs. Paul Webster, then carefully examines the doctor's face for any sign of surprise or recognition. He feigns ignorance, but Joyce calls him on it. Mark Sinclair departs. One of the nurses unpacks the Cobalt-60 and loads it into the X-Ray machine. At the house, Joyce looks through Vinnie's desk. Vinnie catches her and demands to know why Joyce abuses her hospitality. Joyce tells Vinnie, "I'm not leaving here until I get the answers to the questions that brought me here." Joyce bluntly accuses her hostess of lying to her. Vinnie finally admits that she is Paul's mother.Paul returns to the house. He enters and goes to the parlor to talk to his mother. He asks his mother if Joyce has gone, but Joyce gets up from the chair that hid her face, and responds, "No, Paul, she hasn't. Paul what is it? What happened?" Paul runs from the house, and Joyce chases him into the swamp. She calls to her husband, and Manon hears her calls and goes out after her. Manon rescues her and takes her to his cabin. He gets her a glass of moonshine, and then tries to take advantage of her. She screams and he slugs her, knocking her out. Paul enters the cabin and sees Manon starting to undress his wife. He attacks the drunk. Paul carries his unconscious wife back to the plantation house. Manon comes to and vows, "I'll kill you, alligator man! Just like I'd kill any four-legged gator!"Toby and Louann take Joyce upstairs to the guest room. Vinnie tells Paul they can't keep the secret any longer. Paul is becoming despondent over his condition but his mother is hopeful. Paul goes back to the lab and talks to Mark. Mark confirms the Cobalt-60 arrived, but any treatment using the radioactive element is months away. Paul insists the treatment begin immediately. X-ray combined with Gamma radiation has the chance of a complete recovery, but Mark argues, "And it might kill you!" Mark relents, and agrees he will proceed the next night. Mark informs Paul he will tell Joyce the whole story in the morning.Joyce goes to see Dr. Sinclair the next morning. An alligator is strapped down on the X-Ray machine and Mark exposes it to the treatment. The gator hisses during the exposure. Joyce tells Dr. Sinclair she is a nurse. Mark explains his research on hormones, specifically with hydrocortisone. He notes that some lizards can grow a new tail, or replace an entire limb if lost. His research was financed by Vinnie and alligator extracts were used on dying men and women. The recovery was remarkable, but there was a side effect. Patient number six presents with an emergency, so Mark invites Joyce to witness the side effect first hand. She sees Patient Number Six with the skin texture of an alligator. The man is suffering brain damage and responds to a sun lamp, "As a depressant on reptiles, it makes them lethargic, dormant." Joyce finally realizes what her husband is becoming: an alligator. Mark tells Joyce that Paul will be treated tonight. Joyce insists on seeing Paul and witnessing the treatment. That evening Paul arrives at the lab, and Joyce confronts him. He reluctantly agrees to discuss his condition. Vinnie and Mark arrive and preparation for the treatment begins. Joyce begins to cry and Vinnie comforts her. Vinnie admits, "I'm sorry for the way I treated you. Paul was so desperate to keep you from knowing. We did everything we could."A drunk Manon enters the main house with a gun. He demands to know where Paul is located. Toby convinces him Paul is not in the house. Manon concludes he must be in the lab and leaves the plantation house. In the lab, Paul is strapped to the X-Ray table. The exposure interval is 30 seconds, no more or it could be lethal. Mark tells Paul to relax and keep his eyes closed. Treatment begins and Mark times it with a stop watch. Manon breaks into the lab demanding to see Paul. One of the male nurses and Vinnie demand he leave. Manon enters the shielded area and knocks Dr. Mark Sinclair out while the treatment is under way. The machinery begins to overheat and the exposure lasts too long. Manon sees a man on the table with the head of an alligator. Manon is disappointed his quarry is not there, "No, you ain't him." Paul hops off the table and growls at Manon. Manon snags his hook in the X-Ray machine cables and is electrocuted. Paul exits the X-Ray room and faces his wife and mother. Joyce screams and Vinnie faints. Paul runs out of the lab and into the swamp. Joyce chases after her husband calling his name. Mark comes to just as the lab explodes. Paul sees his reflection in the water of the swamp. He wades into the water and attacks an alligator. Joyce follows and witnesses the struggle. Paul falls into quicksand and is pulled under to his death. She screams and we return to MacGregor's office.Wayne turns off the tape recorder and asks Eric what he thinks of the story. Aspects of her story check out. The problem the doctor faces is that Jane has suppressed the story and lives a happy life. So, what to do? Let her listen to the painful story or just leave well enough alone? Jane enters the office and tells her boss she is going off duty. Wayne and Eric decide not to tell Jane/Joyce. We close with a shot of the tape recorder running.
flashback