Movie Review: Gator (1976)

 

DIRECTOR: Burt Reynolds. CAST: Burt Reynolds, Jack Weston, Lauren Hutton, Jerry Reed, Alice Ghostley, Dub Taylor, Mike Douglas, Burton Gilliam, William Engesser, John Steadman, Stephanie Burchfield, Dudley Remus, Alex Hawkins, Don Ferguson.
Burt Reynolds makes his directorial debut with this sequel to 1973’s WHITE LIGHTNING, which means that Bobby “Gator” McKluskey is back! This time, a federal agent has roped Gator into going undercover by threatening to imprison his elderly father and turn his daughter over to foster care. Gator is to help take down a good ol’ boy mob boss who has his greedy paws in everything from extortion to drugs, underage sex trafficking, and corruption on all levels. He also meets the potential woman of his dreams along the way, but that is a given when Burt is involved. GATOR benefits from a bigger budget than its predecessor; the rather nice camera work and set designs do a decent job at almost distracting the viewer from it being a rather uneven story. Lauren Hutton’s involvement is mostly inconsequential filler while Alice Ghostley’s comic-relief role seems random and out of place. Burton Gilliam is interesting as a perversely sleazy, always-smiling creep of a gangster. However, Jerry Reed pretty much steals the show as evil small-town mob boss Bama McCall from the moment he first steps onto the screen. He digs deep into his role and plays it with gusto, enjoying every slimy second that he has onscreen. Hard to believe that he wasn’t an experienced actor. GATOR isn’t bad, it just has a hard time with what it wants to do with certain characters and deciding what kind of movie it wants to be—a slicker version of WHITE LIGHTNING or a goofy, lighthearted action comedy like the following year’s SMOKEY & THE BANDIT.