Shanty Tramp (1967)

Director:  Joseph G. Prieto

Writers: K. Gordon Murray, Reuben, Guberman, Joseph G. Prieto

Composer:  Frank Linales

Starring:  Eleanor Vaill, Otto Schlessinger, Lewis Galen, Bill Rogers, Lawrence Tobin

More info:  IMDb

Tagline:  She loved rebels on wheels!
Whata Bad Girl!
GUYS AND CHOPPERS ... Rich, Raw, Dirty Shanty Girls!
They Battle ... They Love ... They Seduce.
Emilie is her name ... She's the one girl no man can tame!
Born broke. Now she's worth a mint!
A Teen-Age Story for Mature Adults

Plot:  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.

My rating:   6/10

Will I watch it again?  Maybe.

This is one of my favorite exploitation titles.  It screams, "Watch me!"  I started to many years ago, fell asleep drunk and never finished it.  It's a fun little low budget Florida shot picture that has some bad acting and filler.  The beginning scenes in the bar go on and on playing songs all the way through.   Bill Rogers hits a home run with his enthusiastic and sleazy performance of a crooked tent revival evangelical preacher (are there any other kind?).  He's only got 7 movie credits but based on this performance, I'm going to have to see what else he contributed to the world of cinema.

 Eleanor Vaill does a good job for a non-actor.  She got the two things it took to play the title role:

And those two things are, of course, #1 on the left (your left, not hers) and #2 on the right (naturally, they're both right, all day, every day).

While her boobs may be completely innocent, Emily is bad news.  The way she manipulates men is epic, like in a Russ Meyer fashion.  What she does to poor love struck Daniel, a black man whose father was lynched years earlier by the townsfolk which included Emily's father, is just awful.  You hear the N-word tossed about a little but not nearly as much as Emily's cans are tossed about (thankfully).  Sorry, I get distracted easily.  Where was I?  Oh yeah, co-writer/director Prieto, does some fun stuff like edit unrelated scenes with connecting dialogue.  It's out of left field and gimmicky but, in the context of a sleazy, dare I say comedy, like this, it's fun.  He does it just enough so as not to wear out its welcome.  Usually exploitation pictures like this can be dreadfully dull with the only attraction being naked women but at least he went for something different.  The ending is a little bonkers but it works well within the confines of the picture.  It subverted my expectations and that's a good thing.  These types of pictures are highly predictable but not so much this one.  Clocking in at one hour nine minutes, this is worth diving into and I'd even say watch it with friends on a movie night double feature.  Throw in some liquor sauce and make the party pants optional.  It's as entertaining as the title suggests, which is rarity.