Review: Gator


State governor Mike Douglas gets New York federal agent Jack Weston to find the title moonshiner (Burt Reynolds) out on parole, and get him to track down and help bring down nasty Bama McCall (singer Jerry Reed, doing fine Charles Napier-like work and even crooning the cool title tune), Gator’s former buddy. Behemoth William Engesser and the ever-smiling Burton Gilliam (surprisingly menacing) are McCall’s henchmen Bones and Smiley.

 

One of Burt’s better (and more underrated) films, this 1976 swamp actioner, a sequel to “White Lightening”, also marked his directorial debut. The action is quite enjoyable, and hell even Burt lightens up for once (he’s not as misogynistic and thuggish here as in other films like “The Longest Yard”), but it’s the supporting cast that sell this one. Weston, Gilliam (one of his best-ever parts, you might remember him as one of the Flying Elvis’ in “Honeymoon in Vegas” or his side-splitting work as the Chain Gang boss in “Blazing Saddles”), Alice Ghostley, and Reed constantly steal scenes from the two leads, especially from Lauren Hutton who isn’t much of an actress either. It helps if you like TV’s “The Dukes of Hazzard”, which I most certainly do. The screenplay is by William Norton (“Big Bad Mama”, “The Scalphunters”).

 

Rating: B-

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