Strangler of the Swamp (1946)

Director: Frank Wisbar

Starring: Rosemary La Planche, Robert Barrat, Blake Edwards, Charles Middleton, Effie Laird, Nolan Leary, Frank Conlan, Therese Lyon, Virginia Farmer, Chris Drake

More info: IMDb

Tagline: He was hanged for a crime he didn't commit, and now he's the... Strangler of the Swamp

Plot: A number of swamp land men have died by strangulation and the inhabitants believe that an innocent man they hanged is seeking revenge on all of the male descendants of those responsible for his death. Maria, granddaughter of the innocent ferryman, decides to operate the ferry service. Chris Sanders, a son of one of the men who did the hanging, and Maria fall in love. The "strangler" seizes Chris and Maria offers her life if Chris is spared.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

After sitting here for five minutes starring at the screen I can't think of anything to say except Blake Edwards made a much better director than he was an actor. Woof. He's pretty bad. I liked the atmosphere of the swamp (even though it's obviously a set). I'm such a huge fan of Charles Middleton (Ming from the Flash Gordon serials) that it was a gas seeing him as the ghost. His character got fucked over big time and I would've done the same thing, coming back and killing folks.


Had then ending been different I would have given this at least a 7 but, as a movie of its time, it was too easy and happy.

SPOILERS (highlight the following text:) As the ghost of Ferryman Douglas is about to kill Christian, Maria offers herself to him in exchange for Christian's (her lover's) life. Ferryman Douglas has a change of heart and disappears, never to return or kill again. Really? She should have died. They'd only been talking about how that was the only way to end the curse throughout the entire picture. I felt cheated.

END OF SPOILERS...YARRRRR!

Watch the entire film here.

Swamp Country (1966)

Director: Robert Patrick

Starring: Rex Allen, Sue Casey, Lyle Waggoner and Baker Knight

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: SEE MAN ATTACKED BY A FEROCIOUS KILLER BEAR! SEE MOONSHINERS WHO PLAY FOR KEEPS AND ONLY THE LUCKY SURVIVE! SEE DEATH STRUGGLE IN QUICKSAND THAT SWALLOWS A MAN ALIVE!

Plot: In a small southern swamp town, a local girl is found murdered. A young California man passing through town is blamed, and in fleeing the local lynch mob he escapes into the Okeefeenokee Swamp, where he runs into even more dangers.

My Rating: 7/10

Would I watch it again? Bank on it.


This is part of a double bill with SWAMP GIRL as part of a Something Weird DVD box set called Drive-In Classics Collection. It's a steal at Amazon and Wal-Mart for $8.99 for the set.

Ahhhh, the memories...

I like this film for a lot of the same reasons as I liked SWAMP GIRL (1971). The beautiful Southern locales near the Georgia/Florida line, not too far from where I grew up. The use of local actors and their charming nature. SWAMP COUNTRY was more fun to watch even though it's not as technically good as SWAMP GIRL (acting-wise and whatnot). Part of the reason is because the print is widescreen and full of those wonderful pops and scratches. I thoroughly enjoyed this picture and I would gladly watch it again.

Won't somebody please send me a man?

You won't understand a word this man says but, whatever it is, it's hysterical!

There's a lot more to the story here than in SWAMP GIRL. The man accused of killing the girl in the hotel is a big, overweight, middle-aged fella that escapes custody and flees into the swamp. There, he goes into survival mode. A few locals, with the sheriff, go into the swamp to get him. One is mauled by a bear (you can't go wrong with a bear fight in your picture) and another drowns in quicksand, and not that thick-takes-forever-to-sink-quicksand either. The accused takes the mauled man back to the edge of the swamp where he'll be rescued. Surely he couldn't have been the killer, could he?



It turns out this guy was a war hero or something and a hardcore survivalist. Once the sheriff discovers that, he suspects they're looking for the wrong man but it's too late. He's out there in the swamp and they don't know where. Parts of this are sounding like FIRST BLOOD (1982).

Hey, kids! It's Bigfoot!

SWAMP COUNTRY has a couple of neat things. It's Lyle Waggoner's first film. Don't know him? He was a regular on THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW and TV's WONDER WOMAN. Or perhaps you know him from his Playgirl layout (he was Playgirl's first centerfold):


The best thing about this picture is definitely Baker Knight. He's a country/rock-a-billy song writer/performer. He's definitely not an actor but that doesn't really matter much 'cause his songs and performances are absolutely outstanding, fun and VERY contageous. I challenge you to watch this film and not come out the other side singing, "Swaaaaaaamp country. I'm talkin' 'bout swaaaaaaaaaaa-a-aamp country..." Great stuff. It turns out Knight wrote a shitload of hits including "Lonesome Town", a HUGE hit for Ricky Nelson, and of his nearly ONE THOUSAND SONGS, many were performed by Elvis, Dean Martin, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Mickey Gilley, Jerry Lee Lewis and more. He was born and died in Birmingham, Alabama and if I had seen this film a few years ago (he died in 2005), I would have driven up there to meet the man. This guy had some serious talent. Watch it for him if that's all you need.


Knight plays a lazy no-account who hangs around wherever there's people (the general store, the local greasy spoon, on the hoods of cars) playing his guitar and singing all kinds of fun, folksy songs, seemingly making them up as he goes.

Look out! It's the swamp mafia!

Feets don't fail me now!

Throw in a love triangle between a redhead, Knight and the sheriff, moonshiners, some mafia types who threaten Knight with cutting his fingers off, a bear attack, aligators, GREAT location shooting, some local talent, and toss in a ho-down at the end and you've got yourself a real hum-dinger of a good time.




I would love to have seen this in a drive-in theater forty years ago. Oh, the stories I'd have...but then they wouldn't have been about the movie. I bet with all the goings-on in the back seat I'd've had a great time, not seeing more than the first five minutes of the film and comin' out the other end singing that infectuously catchy title song...and she would, too.

Swamp Girl (1971)

Director: Donald A Davis

Starring: Ferlin Husky, Simone Griffeth and a bunch of locals.

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: Filmed on location in the strangely beautiful Okefenokee swamps of Georgia.

Plot: A little blonde girl who was abandoned by her mother in the Florida swamps is rescued and raised by a man she calls her "Pa". She takes it upon herself to protect all the creatures in her swamp from poachers and other dangers, and wins the respect of the local sheriff. One day an escaped convict and her boyfriend take the girl prisoner and try to force her to guide them through the swamp in their escape from the law. However, the girl has other ideas.

My Rating: 6.5

Would I watch it again? SHIT, YEAH!


Growing up in Florida in the 70s, this brought back a lot of memories. Living in a swamp, wearing a red cocktail dress, prancing around barefoot attacking poachers, living off the land and so forth. But, seriously. Watching this flick did feel like home at times. The grain of the film and the beautiful shots of the swamp felt just like those 8mm home movies my family had of us as kids going to the Everglades, Sea World, Busch Gardens and the Jungle Cruise ride at Walt Disney World. Then, a few years later as a Boy Scout, there was that 75-mile canoe trip down the Suwanee River that began in the Okefenokee Swamp. Swamp Girl was a nice little trip back in time.

The film starts with some groovy backwoods tune that is soon-to-be-sung by the film's star, country & western singer Ferlin Husky. This guy kicks fucking ass! He's got that down-home, Southern, laid back style about him and he's just a blast to watch. He seems like a natural.


In one HILARIOUS instance, Husky's getting close to the end of his song and one of the boys comes over and grabs him, ending the song. Watch the trailer above. You'll see it. It's a hoot when you get the context in the picture.

Now the actress of the film's titular character, Simone Griffeth (who later played Annie Smith in DEATHRACE 2000), is absolutely horrible! Imagine, and it's REAL easy, the girl that played Marsha Brady in THE BRADY BUNCH and she used the money her mother gave her for acting lessons and spent it on heroin instead. THAT'S Griffeth. O...M...F...G! She's terrible.


So the movie's going along...some dude washes ashore in the swamp reserve...the local good 'ole boys doing some illegal fishing at night find it...the ranger (Husky) and the sheriff ask them questions and the boys blame it on Swamp Girl. She's just a legend the some believe lives in the swamp. She's a legend 'cause Husky's singing a song about her, see?

Husky takes a ride on his air boat, finds an article of clothing or something and he's hot on the trail of SG. He gets hurt in a trap and she shows up to help and they get to know each other a little better. She starts yappin' about her Pa and whatnot. Goddamn, she's bad. Anyway, she...wait. You know how when you're watching someone who's supposed to have grown up somewhat isolated so their vocabulary isn't supposed to be that good but it actually is until someone utters one particular word that isolated person hadn't heard and then they put on that dumb fuck face and try to articulate the said word slowly like they are 5 fucking years old? It's here and the secret word is "deputy". "day-pew-tai"? Yep, "deputy."


Husky's look says it all for me.


After cooking some chicken or something, SG goes back to her shack and starts talking to Pa in the next room who then puts some cut wood by the stove and sits down for a talkin' to.

HOLD THE FUCKING PHONE! IS HE BLACK? (ayayayayaya - double take) YEP, HE'S BLACK! Didn't see that comin'.


But here's the coolest part of that whole situation. NOT ONCE does race play a factor. Hell, it's not even brought up. FUCKING AWESOME! We soon get some back story about how this came to be. The short story is, he saved her from an evil swamp abortion doctor and his nefarious business colleagues when she was a child. Since then he raised her on his own as if she were his all along. Too bad she turned out to be one helluva shitty actress. Can't blame it on Pa. She didn't come from his seed. This guy's a good actor so it must not be the environment but the genes.

A-Ha! She runs like a swamp girl!

Next thing you know we've got us a Bonnie & Clyde situation when a couple of lovebird criminals on the lam show up and have to get over the state line to keep from getting caught. Where's the state line? On the other side of the swamp. Think they're going to make it out alive? Think they're going to fuck with the wrong Swamp Girl by killing her Pa? Think Husky's a-comin' to the rescue with the good 'ole boys from the beginning of the picture and save the day? Think tha real mother of SG, who was going to abort SG all those years ago but didn't because she was too far along and the doctor kept her to sell to a white slavery outfit but didn't because Pa did the right thing, shows up and takes back her now fatherless baby girl and they live happily ever after? If you answered NO, YES, YES and YES, you are correct. Now go drink some hooch, have some crazy moonshine sex and yell out my name during each and every hee-haw orgasm!


Growing up around people like this I can really appreciate this film and the obvious local actors used. It does bring back wonderful memories of growing up in the South around colorful characters and the beautiful locales. Hell, I've even known some girls like Swamp Girl to some degree. This is a pretty good, made with some degree of passion and tenderness, hicksploitation flick that is a strong entry into the genre due to the cast and the little twists and turns the story takes. And I'm most impressed with how it handles race. Pa is not looked upon as being anyone but a caring human being and he's treated with respect. SWAMP GIRL is colorblind where this region of the country and the time it was filmed wasn't.


All I know is I can't wait for the sequel to the video game, LEFT 4 Dead, coming out later this year which includes a level where you get to kill fuckloads of zombies in a swamp! I'm already there, brother. I'm already there.

Swamp Virgin (1947)

Director: Ewing Scott

Starring: nobodys trying and failing to be Rednecks

More Info: IMDB

Plot: A native son returns to the isolated, backwards village in the Okefenokee Swamp where he was raised, with ideas of bringing modern-day progress in terms of schools, canals, new roads, running-water and other needed changes, but is met with resistance by nearly all of the residents, some out of ignorance and some with selfish vested-interests in seeing that no changes be made.

My Rating: 6/10

Would I watch it again? Only if I should come across the full version - just out of curiosity.


This is a VERY cut version originally titled, UNTAMED FURY. Originally it ran an hour. The version I saw (as SWAMP VIRGIN and why it's called that is beyond me) was 25 minutes. I didn't know I watched a cut version until afterwards when I looked it up. Knowing that now it makes a little more sense with how this one plays out.


It starts with a writer from the city sitting on a dock in the Okefenokee Swamp with an old man who starts on about the story of these two young competitive boys. Flashback time and the boys are friends who are always showing off on who's the fastest swimmer and so forth. Years later, after his father had saved up and sent him to school (which the other kids didn't get) Jeff comes back to the swamp to visit and he's the object of affection by the ever-so-cute-and-now-HOT Judy.

"I'm not kiddin', Judy, you're going to be a very attractive young lady someday."

Is that this guy's idea of a compliment? Gee whiz, man, is that the best you can do?

Jeff's childhood rival, 'Gator Bait' Blair, wants him gone and tries to kill him in the deep marsh. As good as Blair is in the swamp he's clouded by his hate and he falls into quicksand. Jeff saves him despite Blair shooting at him and Jeff's no longer pissed and accepts Jeff as his friend. Here's why he's called 'Gator Bait':







Now, apparently there's 35 minutes more movie in there somewhere. What I saw wasn't bad. It was OK and it seemed to work for what it was. I would be curious to see the entire thing now just to see how it plays out. The music is wall-to-wall which gives you very little opportunity to lose interest. Surprisingly, the accents are pretty decent. They're better than a lot of what I've seen from Hollywood.


There's also some nifty underwater photography at play here and some really neat live alligator work that sells it.


This came as an extra (along with a bunch of like-themed trailers) in a Something Weird Video box set of Drive-In Classics. This particular disc features two Okefenokee Swamp classics, SWAMP GIRL (1971) and SWAMP COUNTRY (1966). The set (found at Sam's Club) also includes 3 other DVDs (5 more films, each LOADED with extras) and was a steal for $15. I love this company's product because they usually slap a shitload of trailers and other extras on each of their discs. I didn't expect to like either of the two swamp movies on the disc but I did and that's coming up next.