In a scene from the 1950s horror flick “The Alligator People,” a newly married husband has disappeared. His heartbroken wife has tracked him down to the bayous of south Louisiana.
Then, in a scene that would have shocked movie audiences of the time, a horrible monster staggers out to face her — a mad scientist injected the husband with a serum that turned him into half-man, half-alligator.
It’s one of Nicholls State University archive staff member Emilie Pitre’s favorite YouTube videos.
“To people back then, that would have been just terribly scary,” Pitre said. “But to us, the way movies are now, it’s just hilarious. You can see the zipper on the monster suit.”
Pitre and the rest of the Nicholls archivists have movies on the mind at the moment. The school just opened a new exhibit, “Hollywood on the Bayou: An Exhibit of Louisiana Film History.”
The exhibit shepherds visitors from the first movie theater in New Orleans to modern titles, all through the lens of Louisiana.
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