Bayou (1957) User Reviews

"De bayou....eets not for you!!"

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 19 May 2017]

"Bayou" is a not particularly distinguished film that is, at times, slow-paced and is filled with questionable acting. Nevertheless, it became a notorious film a few years later when someone bought the movie rights and spliced in a few nude scenes...and made $10,000,000 in theaters! My review is for the original, non-nudie film. It's too bad...as the original picture is pretty slow.

Martin Davis (Peter Graves) has come to the Cajun country in Louisiana in search of a big project, as he's a young and enterprising architect. However, when he meets young Marie (Lita Milan), he forgets about the project and focuses all his attention on her. However, the Disney movie "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Quiet Man", there's a boorish jerk- face, Ulysses (Timothy Carey) who insists Marie is his...and he'll kick the butt of any man who tries to take her. While this all sounds interesting, most of the stuff in between is amazingly dull...and the film is filled with actors who seemed like amateurs...that is beside Graves and Carey. Overall, it's a very silly and only occasionally interesting movie.

A waste of time, money and advertising...

[Teenie · 29 July 2000]

I remember this film being shown in local theatres as "For Adults Only." I was 7 years old at the time. Thirty years later I found this film in the video store under the title, "Poor White Trash," as it was billed in the theatres along with "Shanty Tramp." There is no "adult" shock value to this piece of crap whatsoever.

What you have is a poor, grainy, mostly dark celluloid that contains scenes of what would be considered "PG" today: a scene of Lita Milan's character running through the woods naked (the camera shot the scene from so far away all you really see is a ghostlike figure running, pursued by a man in a white shirt (Tim Carey). The subsequent rape scene shows Lita Milan's screaming head going back and forth (you can imagine what's happening); the "sex" scene in the cabin involves a shot of Peter Graves' hand on Lita Milan's back between shots of pounding waves; the "violence" involves a quickie shot of an axe protuding from Tim Carey's back after the climactic fight with Peter Graves (no wonder Peter Graves would rather be remembered for "Mission: Impossible."). Tim Carey is at his slimy best, but the movie really sucks. Oh, and Jonathan Haze looking like he's on some drug...pass on this one.

PeeeeYew

[imlong54 · 1/10 · 13 July 2015]

This picture is terrible. I don't get all the hype about Timothy Carey with his lousy Cajun accent. He overacted in every film I ever saw him in. This one is no exception. The rest of the cast is okay but most of the Cajun accents sound phony. Slow pace, boring direction and an inane script all serve to make this film a total waste of time. One interesting footnote though: no one seems to have noticed that veteran character actor Douglas Fowley (Singin in the Rain) is playing two roles. Not only does he play the ingenues' toothless father but also Jim (with his teeth and dark hair), the guy cajoling Peter Graves to fight for his architect design. He is the best actor in this otherwise dismal film.

Yeah we should leave the swamp!

[midwesternhooligans · 3/10 · 9 August 2019]

I think your time would be better spent someplace else. This film isn't going to be the worst thing you've ever seen but even as a trash film its just got nothing going for it.

Lita Milan is somewhat charming but you can see that charm in much better films.

Cajun beauty meets city slicker

[crazyferret-03421 · 7/10 · 5 August 2023]

Why the bad reviews this 1957 hard to find movie poor white trash aka: bayou is like a Roger Corman movie but he wasn't involved but two actors were in it that were veterans of Corman moviesJonathan Haze and Ed Nelson, Peter Graves a NYC visiting architect meets Cajun beauty. Iris Menchell . A Cajun bully who also wants her Ulysses. Played by Timothy Carey . There's some fighting , a hurricane . And drama. This is a good old south drive in feature . I enjoyed it .and took me years to track it down. It was worth the wait . Again this is not a Roger Corman movie but really seems like one . .Peter graves went on to Star in several b movies like it conquered the world , beginning of the end , red planet mars , and mission impossible season 2 and beyond. Don't forget the movie airplane 1979.

The only fun thing's the music

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 25 February 2019]

POOR WHITE TRASH is one of those B-movies that MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE actor Peter Graves made back in the 1950s. It originated as the unknown BAYOU in 1957 before being repackaged as an exploitation flick with a new title in 1961. Either way it's a mundane, middling kind of movie with an interesting setting but a plot that's more reminiscent of a soap opera than anything else. Graves romances a Cajun girl but her sleazy boyfriend isn't too impressed; that's the plot. This is the kind of film I was dying to switch off and only the music is enjoyable.

Dual role

[rdboovy · 3/10 · 25 November 2019]

Regardless of the quality of the film...I'm surprised no one has commented on Douglas Fowleys double duty in the film!

...not a nickle in my jeans...

[haildevilman · 9/10 · 5 January 2006]

Classic cult drama. A young Peter Graves post-Stalag 17 pre-Mission:Impossible made a good naive hero. This film absolutely reeks of 1950's country living. (Or should that be livin')

It's your basic city boy comes to the boonies and wins over Miss young and pretty despite the reluctant father and jealous bloodthirsty boyfriend story.

Timothy Carey as Ulysses (said boyfriend) did an excellent job. Extremely polite to the older folks while giving Graves the laser beam eyes. He had a habit of playing intensity like it was pure gold. If you can find it...find it.

A combination of laughably bad and just boring makes this completely forgettable.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 7 January 2022]

If you like movies about Creoles, then this one is for you. Of course I'm paraphrasing a line that Peter Graves utilized in "Airplane!' 20 something years later, but it certainly fits. Just wait until you see the dance that Timothy Carey does, acting like he's covered in fleas, but it's certainly unforgettable if not a work of art. He's a bully from The Bayou (as opposed to "The Lady from the Bayou" that Ann Miller sang in "Hit the Deck" two years before this), obsessed with the very young Lita Milan whome we see Carey stalking in the film earlier and possibly raping, her screams as she crawls through the mud quite horrifying. Graves becomes the subject of his hatred when he arrives there for a job and wins Milan's affections, resulting in threats of violence that are only interrupted by the arrival of a tropical storm.

Early in the film, non Cajun natives of the area dismiss the people of the Bayou as practically barbaric and subhuman. But they are presented the same way you see Italians and Spanish and other races depicted, simply life loving and passionate, temperamental but basically decent. They may not have good manners and high society class, but outside of Carey, they are pretty decent folk.

There are two different prints available of this film, the original one and a re-edited version apparently with new footage, that version called "Poor White Trash", and packaged as an exploitation film. I don't see anything exploitive about it other than the fact that the heroine is underage and that Carey is basically an insane pervert who doesn't possess a heart, only lust. I found the setting interesting, but the pacing is slow, and not really much happens outside of a few melodramatic moments. Interesting as an early film for Graves, but not really quite realistic to the people it depicts.

This movie is really BAD!

[Bob-587 · 24 October 1999]

Just to show you how good IMDb really is, they have covered even this movie? It has been 42 years since I saw this much hyped, black and white joke. A group of us went to a drive-in thinking that we were going to see some nudity. After suffering through a movie that was shot almost entirely in the dark and in a swamp, nothing happened. What a loser! Has been the standard for 42 years for a bad movie.