Swamp Women (1955)

Director:

Roger Corman

Writer:

David Stern (screenplay)

Release Date:

16 November 1956 (Denmark)

Genre:

Adventure | Crime | Horror | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Flaming passions against a background of weird adventure!

Plot:

An undercover policewoman helps three female convicts escape from prison so that they can lead her to a stash of stolen diamonds hidden in a swamp.

Plot Keywords:

Diamond | Police | Prison | Swamp | Convict

Cast

Marie Windsor	...	Josie Nardo
Carole Mathews	...	Police Lt. Lee Hampton (as Carole Matthews)
Beverly Garland	...	Vera
Mike Connors	...	Bob Matthews (as Touch Connors)
Susan Cummings	...	Marie
Lou Place	...	Police Captain J. R. Goodrich
Jonathan Haze	...	Charlie the Pickpocket
Ed Nelson	...	Police Sergeant (as Edward Nelson)
Jil Jarmyn	...	Billie

Also Known As:

Cruel Swamp (USA) (reissue title)
Swamp Diamonds (USA) (TV title)

Runtime:

USA:67 min | USA:84 min (unrated version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Unrated | Portugal:17 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Bayou Lacombe, Louisiana, USA

Company:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Trivia:

Roger Corman's directorial debut.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During the alligator fight, the side of the swimming pool can be clearly seen, as can the bare feet of one of the crew.

Quotes:

Lt. Lee Hampton: Look, if I bother you, go somewhere else.
Josie: Oh, cut it. Cut it, I said!
Vera: Look, nobody talks to me like that. I'll kill that dame!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Directors: The Films of Roger Corman (#1.5)" (1999)

Fun exploitation movie

Swamp women rocks!!! It has a fun cheesy story about fugitive women, some bad acting mixed with some `ok' acting, lots of funny dialogue and of-course, many scenes of attractive women rolling around on the ground trying to kill each other while wearing skimpy clothing.

Corman does a nice job with a limited budget (as is his trademark.) squeezing the most entertainment he can out of limited material. We have some nice visuals (I love the moving shots in the swamp) and the style of the film is much more polished than most movies in this budget range. The pacing is quick with very few wasted scenes. Something is always happening in this film and it's never boring for a moment. Even though the story is pretty bad, I still got interested in it and I was excited to see what happened next which is a testament to Corman's technical skill in handling material. For the most part Corman is able to keep the production values from standing out in such a way that they would hurt the films entertainment value. It comes across as a cheap film, but not in a bad way.

The acting is mostly ok with a few really bad performances here and there, but the dialogue is so bad it makes the acting seem horrible. Some of the characters in this film are so over the top that you can't help but laugh at the hilarious things they do and say. They're all Caricatures, but they're funny and it works.

Overall, This is one of the most enjoyable exploitation movies about fugitive women of all time. Of-course that's a pretty limited sub-genre of films, but this one stands out compared to most others. Don't miss it if you're a fan of this type of cinema.