Alligator (1980) Horror Alligator

Alligator (1980)  This film really does not waste a lot of time. It opens introducing the audience to the animals in question. A little girl and her family are part of the crowd watching some men doing alligator wrestling. We here some exposition about alligators but then things go horribly wrong and one of the wrestlers is maimed. After the show the little girl convinces her parents to buy one of the alligator babies sold at the store. Back home her father in what seem like an overly angry tirade flushes the creature down the toilet. We follow the little guy through the pipes into the sewers still alive and kicking.  Twelve years later body parts start appearing in the water treatment plant. Human and dog and the police are called in. We meet David (Robert Forster) a cop with a storied past who recently joined this force after losing a partner in the line of duty in another city. He is a guilt ridden man who obsesses about hair loss. Yea! hair loss it is a weird quirk in this film where the cop worries about his thinning hair. It is mentioned by several people through the film and ends up being a bit amusing. David is on the case and although his standing is not great in his new job, he seems to have the freedom to investigate unimpeded.   The rest of the plot is special a pharmaceutical company is experimenting with growth hormone and is killing puppies at an amazing rate. They are getting the animals they need by enlisting a local pet shop owner (Sydney Lassick) who goes around catching strays for them. He also gets rid of the dead dogs by dumping the hormone filled carcasses into the sewers. Can you say giant hormone filled alligator since he gets to eat all those dogs. As cop David closes in on the drug company the head honcho Slade (Dean Jagger) puts a call into the corrupt mayor (Jack Carter) to get David fired. This naturally won't stop the cop from getting the job done.
  The bodies pile up and we get city action once they know there is a giant gator living in the sewers. The script is pretty tight written by John Sayles who has written some great movies like Piranha (1978), The Howling (1981), The Brother from Another Planet (1984), Eight Men Out (1988), The Secret of Roan Inish (1994), and Sunshine State (2002). He is a professional and even in this early film he shows his chops. He has a creature feature where he has the beast running around the streets of Chicago. He has the conflicted cop who won't give up. A love interest (Robin Riker) for him and a plan to beat the corrupt city political structure and kill the alligator. He even writes in a great white hunter who comes at the Mayor's behest to hunt the creature down. Mix in some decent acting by real veterans and a musical score that is reminiscent of Jaws (1975) makes for a very wonderful little film. Director Lewis Teague makes the script works and keeps the pacing up. There are some great scenes once the monster breaks through the sidewalks and begins roaming around the city. The most wonderful having to be the scene at the wedding. I recommend this film, it is not great cinema but a fun little monster movie.