Swamp Girl

This is another "hicksploitation" movie, a genre largely pioneered by Russ Meyer and Roger Corman but really stretching all the way back to roadshow classics like "Poor White Trash" and "Child Bride". As these films go this is a rather tame, PG-rated version, but this does give it some of the charm of my much beloved 1970's bigfoot movies, except that instead of bigfoot we have a wee bit of blonde jailbait named "Janeen" who is the titutlar "swamp girl". As you might imagine "Janeen" is a girl who lives a swamp, but like bigfoot she is enough of a local legend to have a country/bluegrass song written about. She is white, but lives with an African-American "Pa". In the exposition-heavy beginning, "Pa" relates her origins to her for the benefit of the viewer. They basically involve "Pa's" former employer, a swamp rat abortionist who ran a side business selling "girl childs" to Arab sheiks and such on the white slavery market (which would be a pretty sick idea for a PG movie if it weren't so ludicrous).

"Janean's" idyllic existence in the swamp is threatened, first by a nice-guy "swamp warden" who is pressured to charge her with the death of a poacher she in fact rescued, then by a vicious Bonnie and Clyde-type couple lamming it in the swamp, and finally by her birth parents, who upon discovering her existence want to bring her back to civilization.

The swamp girl is played by Simone Griffeth, who's actually pretty good in her first role. She was only about sixteen at the time, which kind of precluded the full-frontal nude scenes she did in later films like "The Young Prey" and "Death Race 2000". Disappointing as that may be to many, the bigger problem is that she is a little miscast here--she is simply not the the feisty, tomboy type like say Claudia Jennings who played a similar role in the later and more well-known "Gator Bait". Griffith is very pretty, but looks more like an underage and underfed fashion model slumming in the backwoods than anything (you have to wonder for instance where she gets her hair care products in a swamp).I'd still maybe recommend this to those who don't mind PG-rated "hicksploitation" or are big fans of Griffeth. But for most people though I'd recommend something more like "Gator Bait" or a good Southern-fried bigfoot flick like "Legend of Boggy Creek", or, if you just want to see a lot "more" of an older and more voluptuous Griffeth, "Death Race 2000".

This GP-rated Southern meller is milder and pokier than the best (or at least more luridly enjoyable) of its type. The titular figure is a Marcia Brady-looking blonde who runs around the swamp in a spotless pink dress, living with her "paw"--the African-American man who raised her after she was abandoned by her mother to an abortionist/child trafficker who died not much later). Despite this lurid backstory, plus some deaths by alligator, snake and violent thug, it's pretty mild stuff. Country Star Ferlin Husky plays the local ranger--the whole swamp area is a protected wildlife refuge--who discovers the seemingly mythical "Swamp Girl" really exists. Things are complicated by some loutish local poachers, a criminal couple on the lam (the escaped-con woman is the really mean one), and a couple looking for their "little girl lost" in the swamp. (But said girl is the vicious jailbird.) There's an outrageously contrived revelation at the very end, but nothing else here is special enough to provide major camp or other entertainment value. Still, despite its lack of sufficient energy, exploitative aspects and outrageousness, it holds the attention--just adequately--for fans of old drive-in fare.

The only reason one might see "Swamp Girl" today is in pursuit of its feature on the Something Weird DVD, "Swamp Country" (1966), which is the kind of forgotten oddball gem Z-movie fans love to discover. "Girl" isn't a total waste of time, but "Woman" is the reason you'll want to keep the DVD.

Seemingly without effort, director Don Davis and lead actress Simone Griffeth reach out and lay hands on that flawless sincerity that overrated hacks like Goddard can only pretend to. Griffeth's Janeen is laid bare before us -- emotionally naked -- as the young actress gives herself to the audience completely, rawly, almost desperately.

Also notable is country singer Ferlin Husky, cast here as a good hearted swamp ranger. Husky lends his character an earthy honesty, a sun-wrinkled gentility that only just covers his own scars. He seems to help Janeen in a thinly disguised effort to purge away the acid pain that eats him from the inside every day.

This film has taken an unflinching grip on something living, something grand.

Swamp Girl is one of those rare cinematic masterpieces that dares to explore and plunge into the toxic spirit that lies deep within disturbed and corrupt souls who try in vain to lay claim to the fruits of an Eden-like swampland in Georgia. Simone Griffeth brilliantly pulls off a complex character study, bridging the gap between an innocent doe-like teen free from the binds of society, yet possessing a believable drive to "deliver the goods" when outside pressure invades her turf. If you are an NRA member, you might be turned off by Simone's anti-firearm declaration (taunting a foe who is powerless without their gun,etc.), but open your mind, and the payoff is worth it! So open up and find a copy of Swamp Girl!

Never a dull scene in this one. There is always something exciting happening. I love the local guys and their accents. You can tell they cast real swamp rats for this movie!

A girl has never really talked to anyone her whole life besides one man who she calls her pa. She is White, he is Black. She comes to learn about her entrance into this protected swamp life in a hasty, roundabout way. Her life is a tragic story, but she has managed to live happily thanks to Nat, her "pa". When outsiders invade their secret territory, she makes a lot of good moves. You're rooting for her.

I got a kind of excitement from how happy she was once she realized her home is a nationally protected wildlife refuge. She realizes she is allowed to throw all the hunting traps into the deepest waters of the swamp if she wishes because they are illegally set there. It satisfies you knowing that the sheriff respects her and even mentioned making her a deputy because she knows the swamp so well and doesn't like those poacher's traps any more than he does.

I recommend this film. It's a good story and it never gets boring.