My Grandmothers Cousin, Maurice Johnson, looked after the alligator 'Daisy' at his home in Parkstone (near Bournemouth). The alligator was really male. I believe he was a theatrical agent. He was also a friend of naturalist Gerald Durrell. The alligator grew bigger and eventually went to Jersey Zoo. I know that many of the animals that eventually went to Jersey Zoo in the late fifties were kept at the boarding house of Gerald's sister, Margaret Durrell, in Bournemouth. I too have always wondered about the safety issues and how many real alligators were used, especially during the pool scene. The film is a quirky mix of slapstick comedy and odd musical numbers. However it is brimming over with famous faces which adds to it's quaint charm to make it just about a success.
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imdb-1865927 June 2007
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sol-13 October 2005With a good supporting cast that includes Margaret Rutherford and James Robertson Justice, this relatively pleasant and light-hearted affair certainly has at least something worth watching for. It becomes more and more silly as it progresses, at certain times Carson is simply annoying, and all the time the plot is fairly predictable. The musical numbers are also a bit flat, and do not fit in very well, but at least the choreography does not lack spirit, and there are some interesting art direction bits throughout. While not a terribly good film, this is not a terrible one either, and it is arguably sort of enjoyable too, despite its shortcomings.
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crossbow010626 December 2009A sometimes amusing but ultimately not very essential comedy about Peter, a songwriter, who is left with an alligator. He meets Moira (the fiery red haired Jeannie Carson), who works at a zoo but is engaged to marry Vanessa (platinum blonde Marilyn Monroe like Diana Dors). Basically, Peter takes care of Daisy, who sometimes does not even look real. You get the very obvious reactions to the alligator, but this is a pretty bland comedy. It could have benefited from an increase in slapstick and more face time with Donald Sinden (who plays Peter) and Jeannie Carson. Not horrible, not unwatchable but not as good as many British comedies of the 50's. For lovers of the main actors only, otherwise you can skip it.
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bob the moo13 May 2003Peter Weston is engaged to Vanessa Colebrook, the daughter of a wealthy businessman. On a journey home on a steamer he meets an old sea hand who shares with him how his wife won't let him keep his pet Daisy anymore. Weston offers him a kind ear and the sailor takes him for a kind man. When Weston wakes up later in the journey he finds that the sailor has left Daisy in his care. The problem is that Daisy is a middle sized alligator. Whilst trying to throw the beast overboard, he meets Moira who helps him out. He is desperate to see her again and uses the alligator as an excuse however keeping a girlfriend, an alligator and a fiancée are not all easy tasks to carry out simultaneously.
I was attracted to this film by the title as much as anything else. The film is amiable enough but doesn't seem to know what it wants to be is it a musical or is it a comedy or is it a romance? The musical section has some nice moments but really lacks a push in terms of choreography. Also some of the songs are a little lacklustre. One of the better songs is sung in a garage and 6 red oil drums seem to sit immobile in the foreground not used in any meaningful way, but just sitting there, seemed rather pointless to me. The comedy aspect is OK but it is rarely laugh out loud funny. It is good enough to keep you with a weird half-smile on your face for half the time but not much more than that. There are some nice touches but nothing that'll have you rolling most of it involves an alligator being where you don't expect it to be.
The romance aspect didn't work for me because of the fact Weston was making woo at someone else while he was engaged to someone else. While Moira did her bit, I found Weston himself to be a bit stale and certainly not likeable enough to get past the whole cheating issue.
In that regard, the very young looking Donald Sinden was maybe not the best choice for the lead although he does alright in some bits he just needed more charisma. Carson is a bubbly redhead and brings her bits to life, by comparison Dors is very beautiful but a lot less fun to have onscreen. The support cast are all quite amusing and there are some (very brief) cameos near the end from Nicholas Parsons and Frankie Howerd. Daisy herself is quite wooden or rather rubbery for the whole film. For longer scenes where she is needed in the shot it is laughably evident that this thing has just been placed in position and left there!
Overall this is an average film that is worth seeing because it is quite charming in a very dated way. The main problem will be that it doesn't totally deliver on any one of the three genres that it tries to cover and ends up falling short of them all. -
Mike-68920 September 2009With a cast of stalwart British character actors and pleasing photography of 1950s Britain, I had hoped and expected to be more entertained by this film. Unfortunately I found myself glued to it for the wrong reasons - I couldn't quite believe how awful it was. I must have watched thousands of old films and am always ready to make allowances for them being products of their time, but this was really hard going.
As others have noted, a major problem is that it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be: a gentle romantic comedy, a slapstick comedy or a musical. I was a bit gobsmacked when Jeannie Carson suddenly broke into song about 15 minutes in! It's not believable on any level, either the storyline itself or the fact that Daisy never appears to have an ounce of menace in her at any time. Other aspects which defied credibility included the casting of suave Donald Sinden as a songwriter (a songwriter for God's sake!), the fact he has Diana Dors for a fiancée and doesn't appear to have the slightest interest in her (I mean, Diana Dors! Come on!) and a ludicrous scene in a song publisher's office. The whole thing's silly in the worst possible way.
If I had to pick a favourite scene it would be the one at the very beginning with that wonderful actor Wilfred Lawson - after that everything went downhill in a big way. -
Paularoc7 May 2012I liked this movie a lot more than most reviewers seem to have done. I do agree with the reviewer who noted that the introduction – out of nowhere – of a musical number was very jarring. And, of course, the whole premise of having a friendly pet alligator is silly. But that's okay because it's supposed to be a silly, whimsical movie. I don't recall ever seeing Jeannie Crain in a movie before but it is a name I knew. For some odd reason, I remember the Hey Jeannie television show from the mid-fifties when I would have been about eight. I vividly remember Jeannie singing, "You take the high road " So it was a treat to be reminded of this memory. The movie was a showcase for so many well-known British character actors. While I didn't recognize them all, many I did and especially enjoyed seeing Holloway, Lawson, Hickson, and Rutherford. Hmmm. Two Miss Marples (and quite different portrayals at that!) in one movie. That's cool. I thought the movie was highly entertaining and certainly worthy of a second watching.
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aberlour3610 April 2007A 1957 (yes, that's the correct date) J. Arthur Rank production with James Robertson Justice, Margaret Rutherford, Wilfred Hyde White; it has to be a smash comedy, right? Oh, it's just awful. It's a one gag film: watching people be shocked at the sight of a little alligator. Music is thrown in, most inappropriately and forgettably. Jeannie Carson is a lively dancer and competent singer. But what was she doing in this film? Diana Dors is here too, providing oh-so-daring shots for use in the previews. Her acting level is not bad, but she's in the film to provide someone to leer at. Well, one must do something beside groan during this film. The movie is being sold on VHS now by people on e-Bay. Spare yourself the expense and the waste of time. A comedy without a laugh. A musical without a memorable song or dance.
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bkoganbing21 August 2020I suppose my viewing pleasure of this film is spoiled by the fact I had a neighbor who had all kinds of exotic pets. He called it Albert and occasionakky took it for an outside airing. I kepy at least 3 feet from Albert when I saw him outside.
In An Alligator Named Daisy aspiring songwriter Donald Sinden gets stuck with a female alligator named Daisy who's as tame as a dog providing it's not a Doberman. The alligator causes a lot of trouble between Sinden and his intended Diana Dors, but she does bring Sinden together with animal lover and zoo employee Jeanie Carson.
A lot of familiar British character players are in the spporting cast in roles that are suited to them. The cimax isa bit unreal. In real life a lot of the British uppercrust would have been fine dining for the reptiles.
One thing more. As Daisy is identified as being from Brazil originally she would be properly referred to as a caiman. But why quibble.
Amusing British comedy. -
mark.waltz10 May 2020What promises to be a colorful, light comedy about a friendly alligator causing panic wherever it goes turns out to be a one-joke film that shows various people, single or in large groups come out reacting to the presence of the beastly looking creature. Adding songs was a mistake as they really do not move the plot along and truly seemed out of place. In fact, the songs are really mediocre, and when musical comedy star Jeannie Carson breaks out into a musical number outside of a barn, it is far from Judy Garland in "Summer Stock" as movie musicals can be.
The basic storyline has music store Clark Donald Sinden sailing across the channel and finding that a crocodile has been left in his small room the roommate who left shortly before this ship sailed. Forced to stick with it, he tries desperately to get rid of it whether letting it go in a local lake or trying to find an exotic pet store owner that will take it in, in spite of the fact that he is engaged to the uppity Diana Dors, he begins to have feelings for Carson, an expert on dealing with wild animals abandoned as pets, And instantly fund of Daisy.
There's also Margaret Rutherford as one of the pet shop owners claims to have the ability to communicate with all creatures great and small, James Robertson Justice as Dor's father, and "My Fair Lady's" Stanley Holloway. The film concludes with an alligator race that simply proves that the writers were trying to stretch this plot out as much as possible, and it really goes nowhere. The most embarrassing moment is a British crooner over-emoting as he performs a song at an elaborate party where Daisy makes an unwanted appearance. It is filmed in beautiful color that is very detailed, and Dors gets to display her voluptuous looks in a series of dancing outfits, but some of her hairstyles are inconsistent through the right of the film. Ultimately, the film strives to be enjoyable but really is a crock. -
malcolmgsw28 November 2017Ranks output in the 1950s was aimed at the fast disappearing family audience so films like this were the result.There are only two moments of note.Wilfred Lawson getting 6 syllables. out of the word animals.Then Henry Kendall,as the butler,holding Daisy the wrong way and getting snapped at.The only joke is that anyone would choose Jeannie Crain over Diana Dors.
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didi-510 May 2003Rank International made some pretty odd films in their time, and in this semi-comedy, semi-musical, they don't quite seem to know where this one is going. Donald Sinden plays a music shop assistant, Peter, who gets lumbered with Daisy the alligator on his trip home from holiday, during which time he has met Irish zoo employee Moira. Moira has a few musical numbers which seem a little misplaced. Back home is Peter's girlfriend, Vanessa (Diana Dors), obviously from a rich family (her overbearing father has a huge house), and his parents and grandfather (Stanley Holloway). There's also a dotty pet shop owner who 'talks' to animals by breathing down their noses, and several small or cameo parts for the likes of Frankie Howerd, Jimmy Edwards, Joan Hickson, and Gilbert Harding, plus an early showy role for Stephen Boyd in the last bit of the film. Daisy is sometimes a real alligator, and sometimes clearly not ... when she is real she does the usual things that animals do to disrupt people, before everything is fixed to everyone's advantage at the end.
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Alph-224 February 1999Highly amusing! Daisy the alligator steals the show, and is forever popping up when least expected. A light, entertaining, good hearted romp with Diana Dors in typical form. Perhaps my favourite film featuring an alligator even though in some scenes it's obvious the leading lady is rubber ! But this only adds to the film's appeal.
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brigitta23 July 2006I was wondering about the alligators... how did they get so many to be around people and were they really as friendly as they looked? I thought all reptiles, alligators and crocodiles, were a dangerous species and are harmful to humans! Did all those people and alligators swim safely together in the pool towards the end of the movie? Back in the 1950's ,was the film industry careful about harming animals or in this case hurting people? Did "Daisy" really have a lead on a get walked around? They were rather decent sized alligators, one snap and you are seriously bitten... was anyone actually hurt during the filing with these creatures?