Swamp Women (USA, 1956) 67 min color DIR: Roger Corman. PROD: Bernard Woolner. SCR: David Stern. MUSIC: Willis Holman. DOP: Frederick E. West. CAST: Marie Windsor, Carole Mathews, Beverly Garland, Mike Connors, Susan Cummings, Lou Place, Jonathan Haze, Ed Nelson, Jil Jarmyn. (Woolner Brothers)
A husband and wife are taken hostage by a group of mean gals who have recently escaped prison, and are forced to navigate them to safety through the big bad swamp. Shot in a blotchy colour scheme that resembles Larry Buchanan’s potboilers of the 1960s, this Grade-Z melodrama benefits greatly from its surprising fast pace, and the amusing notion that every few minutes these girls find some reason to slap each other around– usually, they’re fighting like Grade 4 schoolgirls over the guy… in this case, Mike “Touch” Connors. This bargain basement curio is actually a good showcase for B-movie favourite Marie Windsor, who left an impression with many a cult film fanatic over her portrayals as tough dames (The Narrow Margin, The Killing, and -uh- Cat Women On The Moon, to name a few). To her credit, she actually takes this thing seriously as she tries to hold the group of bratty girls together during their journey through the swamp which is full of unknown (and often offscreen) danger– like stock footage of alligators, for example. Don’t miss the immortal scene where Mike fights a fake-looking alligator in the water– and you can actually see swimming pool tiles in the background!! This is also one of those movies where someone is killed and completely forgotten about, roughly two minutes later. Even though this quickie was thrown together for consumption at the drive-in, it is a pity that all of the game energy seems wasted in such a tawdry little production. Shooting it in gauzy black-and-white would have disguised some of the the poverty-row budget. But still, it is not for nothing that Swamp Women remains a minor favourite in his canon.
I first viewed this film way back in 2002 on Off Beat Cinema, WKBW’s late night TV program, in which beatniks hosted movies, usually public domain titles such as this. As you might expect, the movie is readily available on VHS and DVD. I’ve also seen it issued by Dollar DVD, and featured on numerous movie sets, including a BCI 20-movie pack about monsters, and on the Mill Creek 50-movie pack Horror Classics! This was also shown theatrically in the 2000 edition of The B Fest. From the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, B-Fest would be an annual week-long festival at The Bloor Cinema. Then in 2000, they attempted to bring it back, however the majority of that week’s programming consisted of public domain titles, often projecting Sinister Cinema videos!