Shanty Tramp (1967)

A sleazy evangelist makes a play for a small town's local tramp, but is shocked to learn that she prefers a local black kid over him. Furious, he stirs up the town against the couple.

Director:

Joseph G. Prieto

Writers:

K. Gordon Murray (story), Reuben Guberman (screenplay)

Stars:

Eleanor Vaill, Otto Schlessinger, Lewis Galen

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Eleanor Vaill	...	Emily Stryker (as Lee Holland)
Otto Schlessinger	...	Stryker, Emily's Father (as Kenneth Douglas)
Lewis Galen	...	Daniel
Bill Rogers	...	Preacher Fallows
Lawrence Tobin	...	Biker Savage
Ed Anderson
Chris Mitchell
Charles Deilhi
Milt Robbins
George Henry Smith
Warren Day
Robert Brenner
Jean Hanna	...	Blonde Biker
Ben Burch
Kerry Reagan

Storyline

On a hot night in Dixie, the local shanty tramp heads out for adventure and leaves disaster in her wake. The lust she excites in the local men leads to fights, murders, lynch mobs, ruined reputations, and broken homes.

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Plot Keywords:

kiss | manhunt | man strips a woman | woman stabs a man | mother son relationship | 

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Taglines:

Born broke. Now she's worth a mint!

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 June 1967 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Davie, Florida, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

K. Gordon Murray Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

72 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film is apart of Nicolas Winding Refn's restoration project called byNWR.

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Soundtracks

When the Saints Go Marching In
Traditional song

User Reviews

Looks like it was made on a tramp's budget, but still a great precursor to the exploitation genre!

Shanty Tramp is often mentioned as one of the precursors to the exploitation tradition - and that would certainly seem to be true. While films like Psycho and Peeping Tom had already brought violence to the forefront, this film revels in pure SLEAZE - as while still comparatively tame compared to some later efforts, Shanty Tramp still contains a number of detestable characters including a drunken father, a sinful preacher and, of course, the central character - an insatiable young hussy who uses people for her own enjoyment. The plot focuses on said character as she sets out looking for adventure at other people's expense. She meets a man at a bar, but he ends up getting in a scrap with a black man and is shocked to find that she prefers him! After rounding up his mates, the men prepare for vengeance upon the black man; as does the girl's drunken father, who believes his daughter's lies that he raped her and gets 'every white man in town' looking for him. All this goes on while a shady preacher is busy shouting about the lord!

The film was obviously shot on a very limited budget as the whole thing looks very cheap. Shanty Tramp was shot in black and white, but it's not the fluid black and white picture that adorns many, bigger budgeted, films as this one looks like the filmmakers got a load of film stock on the cheap. The acting too is mostly terrible, and the dialogue is mostly trite; but all this is unlikely to put off the seasoned exploitation fan, who will no doubt be used to poor production values and non-talented performers. None of this stuff matters anyway, as the real focus of the film is on the shady characters and nasty situations that they find themselves in. The film doesn't feature much blood - and indeed, there is only one real shocking sequence in the entire film, but this is down to the time in which the film was made, and Shanty Tramp is still an excellent early taster of things to come. Overall, this might not be a great film in the classic sense - but I'm sure it had some influence on films that are classics, and it's well worth tracking down both for that reason and for the fact that it's a great deal of fun to watch!