Rent An Alligator Named Daisy (1955)

Oh gosh, what to say? Acceptable. - An Alligator Named Daisy review by LN

1955. Colour. 84 mins.

Part filmed at Osterley House.

BEWARE SPOILERS - -

I love looking at 50s films but this was t.b.h. a bit weird. I got it out of CP for the early Diana Dors and Donald Sinden. Diana was actually very young, thin, and less buxom then and less obvious than she got known for later but was still a great actress.

Thought this would be a nice Ealing type comedy from the period but it couldn't really make up its mind between a musical, a comedy, a farce or a ...I dunno what!

The wonderful gritty voiced Wilfred Lawson whose last film (I think) was the delightful The Wrong Box, makes a brief appearance in the ferry. He has a pet alligator named Daisy on board and in order to return to his estranged wife he leaves it in the care of the amiable Donald Sinden who has no idea what to do with the animal.

Donald meets Moira the Irish redhead (actress Jeannie Carson) on board, quite fancies her, only ultimately it turns out Donald is already engaged to a very young & beautiful Diana, daughter of James Robertson Justice, who's very rich.

Thereby starts the slightly unbelievable chain of events: Moira suddenly breaks into song and dance a few minutes in. What the.. ?? Music and lyrics by the estimable Paddy Roberts but it all seems rather disjointed. There are also the odd reactions (or lack of) by all the people who encounter "Daisy", plus tycoon JRJs strange acceptance of Donald, a mere record shop assistant. Moira is a brash opinionated London zoo keeper and JRJ (who only ever plays classic JRJ!) goes on to organise a strange Alligator Festival in the grounds of his home...huh?? The brilliant Margaret Rutherford appears as a pet whisperer/pet shop owner when Donald tries to rid himself of Daisy - it's brief but very Margaret Rutherford!

Then there's the entrance of American actor Stephen Boyd as ostensibly Moira's fiancé returned from South America. [SPOILER: Turns out he's not. Talk about confusing.]

Curiously "Daisy" the alligator (in reality I believe a He) is quite chilled around people but all the time I got rather worried the poor animal might have been a bit chemically subdued or something. Clearly at times it's been replaced by a well made rubber model for some scenes, but quite obviously Donald et al. are interacting, touching, handling and carrying a living reptile in other scenes where it moves or swims off into water. I had no idea alligators could be quite so restrained. Quite a revelation.

3 out of 5 I think. Nicely filmed but don't think I'll rush to see it again.