Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

First, I give you a warning (not for spoilers, don't worry, there's nothing to spoil) before you watch that particular film - wait the day with right mood for cheap entertaining exploitation. Don't force yourself to watch it because you're doing some Roger Corman retrospect or something. First time I saw 'Swamp Women' years ago, I hated it, I thought it was one of the worst film ever made (what it exactly is), second time I watched to see if I was correct about it, and I loved it.Early Roger Corman cheesy exploitation girl power flick definitely doesn't belong among his best works. In this adventure crime thriller, a police officer Lee Hampton (Carole Mathews) is sent to prison undercover to infiltrate into a gang of criminals who know where the stolen diamonds are hidden. She helps them escape from prison and four women start journey in their cut short jeans through swamps of Louisiana with loving couple (Mike Connors and Susan Cummings) as hostages. The trip is filled with girls nagging on each other and constantly falling into catfights.The film is cliché ridden and screenplay is thinner than the paper it was printed on. The prison break is as easy as climbing over the fence (practically that was all that it was in the movie) and infiltrating into a gang of women of hardened criminals is easier than gaining friends in school yard. Thanks to the real setting of bayou and passable acting (except the police captain who was more wooden than a log), the film is quite entertaining. The characters seemed interesting and motivated enough to keep the film alive.'Swamp Woman' is good testament to Roger Cormans directing abilities to churn out such (cheap) entertainment out of so dull script. Don't expect too much action or thrills or suspense. But B-movie and exploitation genre aficionados might find 'Swamp Women' quite fun (boat) ride (through swamp). At least, I did.

Roger Corman quickie, seemingly made specifically for the drive-in crowd, shot in Louisiana Bayou swamp country features statuesque Carole Mathews as Lt. Lee Hampton, undercover in a prison, hoping to secure hidden diamonds buried by con Marie Windsor's Josie Nardo. Josie's prison gang includes Vera (the sexy Beverly Garland as you've never seen her before, full of pent up rage and seething bitterness) and the sensual Marie (Susan Cummings). So Josie and her girls successfully escape prison forming a reluctant partnership with Hampton because she has a getaway car stashed nearby. The four confiscate a boat from someone who owes Josie a favor (this event is never shown) and ride into the swamp on a journey to locate the diamonds worth practically half a million dollars. Oil man Bob Matthews (Mike Connors; Mannix) and a potential fiancé (with a wealthy daddy)are also boat riding through the bayou as he is looking for land to rape (okay, maybe I'm a bit harsh), having the misfortune of coming across Josie and company when their flimsy boat takes water after a leak leaves them stranded. Taking Bob and his whimpering lady hostage, Josie and her gang decide to take them along until they find the diamonds. Corman's predecessor to the (in)famous WIP exploitation pictures Jack Hill and others would bring to life a decade later, is a hoot if you love watching tough-talking ladies who use their fists to pummel each other when the anger sets up in their bones. Seeing the girls ogle the very handsome Connors, particularly Cummings, is also a treat. But nothing compares to seeing Garland all bent out of shape her entire time on screen, often picking fights with everyone, especially Matthews, when they draw her ire. She's a spitfire, full of heated emotions and venom, and it takes very little to boil over her kettle. Windsor commands her troops, even when things get out of hand and her girls start catfighting, and remains in control until the diamonds begin to take root in the very greedy minds of Cummings and Garland who want the cache all to themselves. Meanwhile, Matthews and Connors fall in love while she tries to keep him alive as long as possible while keeping an eye on the con-women. I just love seeing sexy women, in daisy dukes (they cut their prison pants into short-shorts, obviously titillating for the more reserved 50s drive-in movie audience Corman was catering to), always at each others throats, talking trash and engaging in fisticuffs at the drop of a hat. Sure SWAMP WOMEN has its lulls (there's a hell of a lot of boat riding down the bayou, for sure and extensive footage of Mardi Gras at the beginning of the film) and relies on a ton of stock footage of Louisiana nature to give the film an authenticity, but I think fans of the aforementioned Jack Hill WIP films (and SWITCHBLADE SISTERS) will find it entertaining. And there's a lengthy fight between Matthews and Windsor at the conclusion that should be exciting if you enjoy that sort of thing (of course, I sop this up with a biscuit). You get pulling hair, Mannix fighting an alligator with only a knife, Garland up in a tree waiting to gun down the other girls, Windsor hurling a spear, and the girls taking to rolling around in the dirt when tempers flair--is this movie deserving of its poor reputation? I certainly had fun with it.

For me, B-movie fan that I am, a film starring cult actresses Beverly Garland AND Marie Windsor, and directed by the legendary Roger Corman, was too great a lure to resist. And "Swamp Women" (1955) does indeed live up to its potential, at least in part. It tells the story of a trio of tough dames who bust out of jail and hightail it to the Louisiana bayou to recover their cache of stolen diamonds. They are abetted in their jailbreak by an undercover lady cop, who is trying to find the gems, too. In the wild, they bump into Mike Connors and his fiancée, which only leads to more trouble. Anyway, this little B features lots of female fistfights, knife fights and tough talk, with Beverly perhaps being the "baddest" of the bunch. Viewers will enjoy counting how many times she says "shut up" during the course of this short film. And at a mere 73 minutes, the film IS short, but somehow still feels padded with endless Mardi Gras and nature shots. Still, "Swamp Women" is a reasonably fun entertainment. The bad news that I have to report, however, concerns the state of this DVD itself. I have never seen a worse-looking DVD in my life. Not only have all the colors of its source print turned pink, but the image itself is fuzzy and blurry. The promise of crystal-clear DVD images has certainly not been met here, to put it mildly! The folks at Brentwood Communications should hang their heads in shame. If I wanted to see sickening off colors and blurry images, I'd be doing drugs and shots of Southern Comfort and prune juice! This film deserves so much better!

This film practically screams "cheap" from start to finish. The dialog is lousy, the acting amateurish and the music pure "cheese". Although the film cost more than PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE to produce, it probably didn't cost much more! The film opens with some Mardi Gras footage and you are introduced to Mike Connors (TV's "Mannix") and his "dame". Then, abruptly, the footage switches to a women's prison were some more tough dames are discussing some stolen diamonds--unaware that their new bunkmate is a cop in disguise! When these evil dames escape, they make a bee-line for the stolen loot. Too bad for Connors and his hot tomato that they stumble upon these tough broads! What follows is a rather dull boat trip through the bayou punctuated by silly dialog (featuring lots of "cat fighting", frequent use of words such as "dame", "broad" and "loot" as well as frequent whining by Connor's girlfriend) and stock footage that is rather randomly inserted. Well, at least it seemed dull until some of the women noticed that young and studly Connors was too much man to leave alone--and they began slobbering and fighting to get into his pants.All this slobbering is punctuated when the undercover cop falls into the swamp and she can't swim. Connors springs to the rescue and quickly dispatches an alligator with just a pocketknife AND he saves her from drowning---what a guy! Inexplicably, just moments later, the ladies take a break and a couple of them take off their clothes to take a swim--including the one who couldn't swim in the previous scene! Oh, well,...I guess they figured the movie needed a cheesecake scene regardless of whether or not it made any sense.Later, when they find the diamonds the ladies do the most logical thing--have a long and pointless cat fight--complete with everything but jello!! Then, even more stock footage in a long and meaningless montage follows. Then, in the end, the women all turn on each other and by this point, rather inexplicably, the cop and Connors have fallen in love and the film ends with the surviving broads being arrested. Hurrah for justice! This movie made the list of 50 worst films (from Harry Medved's book "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time and How They Got That Way") and whether it should or shouldn't have made this list is debatable. I'd put it on a list of maybe 200 worst films, but either way the movie stinks. As a result, the film is best seen only by bad film lovers (like myself)--not sane or "normal" people.