Swamp Women

"Swamp Diamonds" is the absorbing new (well, new in 1955) thriller from Roger Corman concerning the often razor thin boundaries that separate feminism from, well, anything that makes sense. But hey, if you like chases, escapes, fencing, magic, giants, revenge, and true love, go watch "The Princess Bride". It's a great film! But right after that catch "Swamp Diamonds"... and only if you have nothing else to do. Why not, right?

Oh, and make sure it's the MST3K version.

Only Roger Corman could get the most out of a rented dinghy, access to a small area of swamp and New Orleans stock footage. Man...these cool chicks are very groovy as they put the "touch" on Conners. Not really a laugh-out-loud-so-bad-it's-good kinda film, but bad enough to keep you with it to the bad-girl end. The "action" is paced well enough and the cast is near-perfect B-movie/drive-in stuff. The 50's style denim hot-pants are "prison issue" and with the tied-shirt halter tops they're all ready to wrestle. Poor Touch (Mike) Conners...he has to spend half the film with his hands tied behind his back. But that only makes it necessary for the girls to do all the heavy lifting as they plod through the swamp and pull the boat through the shallows. It's "African Queen" meets "Gator Girls" complete with diamonds, booze, guns, a homemade spear and an alligator that can't float. Holy cow!

This film might be considered awful, but this film was very entertaining and Roger Corman created a very low budget film with some great stars like Mike Connors, (Bob Matthews) and Beverly Garland as Vera. This film takes place in Bayou Lacombe, Louisiana and New Orleans, and deals with a woman named Police Lt. Lee Hampton, (Carole Mathews) who is willing to enter a prison of women and obtain information about stolen diamonds. Vera and Josie, (Marie Windsor) are women prisoners and Lee Hampton is in the same jail cell and cons these two criminals into escaping from jail in order to obtain these diamonds and catch them in a very swampy area in which they are hidden. Bob Matthews has the misfortune of being held prisoner by these very sexy and hot young gals and he has to try and out smart these very cruel and dangerous women. Enjoy.

When I saw that the two queens of the B-movies, Marie Windsor and Beverly Garland were in one glorious, trashy flick togETHer -- I had to have it. I wasn't disappointed.

This movie is quite bad, but the highlights are so delightful there's no way it can be dismissed or forgotten. One reviewer dubbed it "Catfighting Floosies", and that clinched my purchase. I've called it this ever since, rather than it's actual title.

Honestly, someone should put out a heavily-edited version of it, stringing together all the squabbling women bits and deleting all the annoying paddling-through-the-bayou scenes. If it weren't for the latter, I'd have given this ... oh, at least a 6. Huzzah for the Fast Forward button.

Regardless of what anybody else has to say, I thought this movie was much better than what the critics have said about it. Yes, it has its faults. But people should remember that this was a low-budget film made in 1956. As such, it doesn't have the advantage of the modern special effects that are now available and I've certainly seen worse movies that were much more expensive to produce. In that regard, I thought the director (Roger Corman) did an excellent job with what he had. While the acting was slightly below average overall, I thought Marie Windsor played a decent role as "Josie Nardo" who was essentially the leader of the group of escaped female convicts. Likewise, Carole Matthews (Police Lt. Lee Hampton) and Mike Connors (Bob Matthews) played their parts pretty well too. I thought both Beverly Garland (Vera) and Susan Cummings (Marie) were nice-looking but their acting didn't really impress me. On the other hand, Jil Jarmyn (Billie) stood out as the sexiest of the five females (in my opinion) even if her acting was only average. As for some other faults, I thought the women wearing cutoffs in an insect-infested swamp was rather absurd. Another was the scene where the rattlesnake advanced to attack Bob Matthews. In real life the rattlesnake would slither as fast as it could to get away and only attacks a person when it feels cornered and has no choice. But that's Hollywood for you. All things considered though, while some critics might consider it among the "50 worst" films in history, I regard it as more deserving than that. While it's definitely a "B-Movie", I think it was entertaining enough to rate a solid score.