Swamp Girl

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!

SWAMP GIRL begins with a blonde-haired girl of the swamp paddling her way through the swampland. She deposits something of interest on the swamp bank, while nearby, the swamp ranger (Ferlin Husky) strums his guitar, crooning the ballad of the SWAMP GIRL. Her name is Janeen (Simone Griffeth).

The great thing about swamp country is that you don't need a car. Just hop in your air-boat and woosh! You're bouncing over gators in no time flat!

Swamp ranger and girl meet. We are shown that she lives in a dilapidated shack with her swamp dad, who appears to be about five years her senior

Uh oh!

A pair of hardened criminals find the shack, and abduct Janeen. Things get a bit complicated from here.

If you're in the mood for a swamp romp, then this movie should satisfy. It's ridiculous, yet absolutely mesmerizing!

SWAMP GIRL CONTAINS: #1- Illegal abortions! #2- Human trafficking! #3- Snake farming! #4- Catfish angling swamp-billies! #5- More Ferlin Husky than one could ever dream of!

Yes, the ballad of SWAMP GIRL is played again during the end credits!...

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.

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.

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".