'Gator Bait (1974)

Very best movie i ever watch

Absolutely amazing

A lot of fun.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Of all the films that the late Claudia Jennings made in the 70s, Gator Bait is the trashiest. It's about a gorgeous Cajun alligator poacher named Desire(Jennings), and her quest for vengeance on the redneck scum, who killed her younger sister. Desire lives in a backwoods swamp area, presumably in Louisiana or thereabouts. She poaches alligators as a living, and takes care of her two younger siblings. The three are orphans, with no other family to depend on for sustenance. One day when Desire is out poaching 'gators, she's ambushed by the local Sheriff's son, and his accomplice. The two attempt to rape Desire, and so she leads them on a merry boat chase through the swamp. They corner Desire, and she throws snakes that she caught into their boat. This allows Desire to escape their clutches. But the Sheriff's son accidentally kills his companion with a shotgun, when trying to shoot at the snakes in their boat. The Sheriff's son blames Desire for the killing of his companion. So then his father, along with the father of the dead guy, launch an all-out hunt for Desire in the swamp. Along the way, another of the rednecks hunting for Desire, goes to her cabin to look for her. Desire's little sister is there, and she's brutally murdered by the redneck. From then on, Desire becomes the hunter rather than the hunted, as she's determined to make the rednecks pay for killing her sister. Claudia Jennings is her usual voluptuous self in this film. Her hair and and make-up though, are too perfect for her role as a swamp-dwelling alligator poacher. Claudia did have the grace and athleticism, to handle the physically demanding role of Desire. The other actors, except for Janit Baldwin as Desire's sister, are dull and lifeless in their roles. The scenery in this film is decent, and realistically conveys the oppressive atmosphere, of a backwoods swamp.Gator Bait is a cult drive-in classic, no doubt due mainly to Claudia Jennings being in the starring role. Overall, this movie comes off as being ham-fisted and brutal, in its portrayal of the vicious redneck characters. For Claudia Jennings fans, the film is worth watching. But otherwise, Gator Bait has no other redeeming qualities about it at all.

The answer to that riddle would be at least more than five, as the male lead characters are clearly too retarded to accomplish anything... Ah, 70's exploitation of the trashiest kind; you hate to love it and 'Gator Bait is unquestionably one of the most rancid, gratuitous and shameless examples available on film. The basic concept of this movie shows a lot of potential and ingenuity, yet the makers didn't seem to care the least bit about that and exclusively contemplated about ways to make the movie even more sleazy and exploitative. Obviously inspired by the success of "Deliverance", judging by the outback setting, the character drawings and the massive overload of banjo-music, 'Gator Bait is a simplistic story about murder & retribution starring the luscious former Playmate-of-the-year Claudia Jennings as a poaching wildcat versus a sleazy bunch of Cajun rednecks. When the cowardly son of Sheriff Joe Bob Thomas frames Desiree for a murder he accidentally committed, a quintet of sniveling weirdies goes into the swamp to arrest her. But when the sexually frustrated hicks then also barbarically kill her younger sister, Desiree prepares from some old-fashioned Cajun justice. The directors' duo Beverly and Ferd Sebastian clearly enjoyed filming Claudia Jennings whilst she bend over in her boat during her poaching activities, but they totally neglected the swamp's potential as a moody setting full of death traps and dangerous animal threats. Despite the exhilarating title, I only saw two alligators and, moreover, not even in action! Desiree's killing spree is monotonous, uninspired and even quite boring and – naturally – every move of her opponents is incredibly predictable. They're typical hillbillies, with names like Billy Boy and Leroy, with incestuous tendencies and trigger-happy gunshot fingers. 'Gator Bait is irredeemably bad, but at the same time charming and a must for feminists. Yeeeeeeeeee Haaaw!

With its violent revenge theme, backwater setting, and Playboy playmate Claudia Jennings in the lead role, one might expect Gator Bait to be an unmissable 70s exploitation classic. However, with dreadful direction from Beverly and Ferd Sebastian, awful acting from just about everyone, and not nearly enough graphic violence, the movie stinks like a rotting armadillo in a stagnant pool.Jennings plays Desiree Thibodeau, a 'purty' Cajun wildcat who hunts down the dumb hicks responsible for the violent murder of her sister Julie (Janit Baldwin). Dressed in the shortest of shorts and a loosely buttoned top, the feisty beauty first traps the men in the swamp (by destroying their boats), and then proceeds to exact bloody revenge. Whilst this sounds like perfect trash entertainment, in reality Gator Bait is a tedious, drawn-out series of dull fights, (mostly) bloodless deaths, and unexciting chases.Admittedly, there are a couple of scenes which occasionally show promise (an early moment of incestuous fun between a brother and sister, the shotgun blast to Julie's cooch, and an occasional bit of welcome nudity from Jennings and Baldwin), but Gator Bait needed a far grittier approach from its makers and a willingness to get real nasty when necessary in order for it to succeed.

OK, here's the deal, I got sick to death of reading lame reviews of exploitation and Eurotrash films from people who simply don't get it. These films are NOT meant to be compared to the sanitized crap Hollywood sells us. 'Gator Bait is a cult classic for a number of reasons, first of all, Claudia Jenning is hot, secondly, the Sebastians make quality low-budget dark sleaze. Most importantly, though there is little sex and violence in the film (as compared to many exploitation films) this film does not hold back. It rolls along at a good pace and is full of unlikable characters with secrets that are slowly revealed as the film plays out.The plot is fairly simple, Desiree (Claudia Jennings) is out to avenge the death of her sister... who was killed at the hands of an angry family who were led to believe that she killed a member of their family while all along it was the son of the Sheriff who had committed the crime. It's pretty much a cat and mouse story, with gorgeous and barefoot Claudia Jennings (the cat) hunting down and systematically killing the men (the mice) responsible. In many ways (as was the case with many exploitation films) the film has a strangely feminist theme to it. It turns out that Desiree is the most clever, likable, and capable character in the film. That is the frequently missed point of many exploitation films... the women (the victims of some pretty dumb and unpleasant men) are the most sympathetic and frequently brightest and strongest characters. The whole film has a deep and dark sexual undertone to it, and like most exploitation, it is not for the squeamish or the Hollywood-fed public. This is a film for people who are willing to look into darker corners. It is well acted, beautifully-shot, with a really cool Cajun theme song ("Jole Blon" rewritten), and plenty of action and outright weirdness.