Shanty Tramp

There was a big market for films with sex and violence at their center in the 1960s. One can't blame the filmmakers for taking advantage of that. One also can't blame the filmmakers for not having much money and using not totally professional actors and actresses. On the other hand, there's a lot to like about the film. It is surprisingly realistic, thoughtful, and competently shot and edited. It manages to capture a lot of the attitudes and morals of the 1960s, showing both the racism and hypocrisy that was common in the South of this time period. It isn't a great film, but certainly holds your attention and is worth seeing for its historical value. If you want to see what the pre-civil rights South in America was like, this will give you a good idea.

As a director Charles Laughton made only one film, "The Night of the Hunter" and it's one of the greatest films ever made. Just over 10 years later Jose G. Pietro directed his only film, "Shanty Tramp" and it's ... well, let's just say it's "Shanty Tramp", (the title really does say it all). It's a tale of sex, violence, race and religion but mostly sex and it will fit very nicely into any volume on trash movies. It is very cheaply made and very, very badly acted and yet you could say it was remarkably bold for its time. The hero is a young African-American, the villain, or at least one of them, a crooked preacher and it's 'heroine', the shanty tramp of its title and I loved every sordid, glorious minute of it. As a first feature it was hardly "Citizen Kane", (more like "Titties and Cane"), and as a piece of cheap exploitation it was hardly likely to bring Pietro to the attention of the major studios but neither is it negligible and it certainly deserves its cult status.

Shanty Tramp is often mentioned as one of the precursors to the exploitation tradition - and that would certainly seem to be true. While films like Psycho and Peeping Tom had already brought violence to the forefront, this film revels in pure SLEAZE - as while still comparatively tame compared to some later efforts, Shanty Tramp still contains a number of detestable characters including a drunken father, a sinful preacher and, of course, the central character - an insatiable young hussy who uses people for her own enjoyment. The plot focuses on said character as she sets out looking for adventure at other people's expense. She meets a man at a bar, but he ends up getting in a scrap with a black man and is shocked to find that she prefers him! After rounding up his mates, the men prepare for vengeance upon the black man; as does the girl's drunken father, who believes his daughter's lies that he raped her and gets 'every white man in town' looking for him. All this goes on while a shady preacher is busy shouting about the lord!

The film was obviously shot on a very limited budget as the whole thing looks very cheap. Shanty Tramp was shot in black and white, but it's not the fluid black and white picture that adorns many, bigger budgeted, films as this one looks like the filmmakers got a load of film stock on the cheap. The acting too is mostly terrible, and the dialogue is mostly trite; but all this is unlikely to put off the seasoned exploitation fan, who will no doubt be used to poor production values and non-talented performers. None of this stuff matters anyway, as the real focus of the film is on the shady characters and nasty situations that they find themselves in. The film doesn't feature much blood - and indeed, there is only one real shocking sequence in the entire film, but this is down to the time in which the film was made, and Shanty Tramp is still an excellent early taster of things to come. Overall, this might not be a great film in the classic sense - but I'm sure it had some influence on films that are classics, and it's well worth tracking down both for that reason and for the fact that it's a great deal of fun to watch!

The end credits reveal that the original print was burned in a fire and the film was digitally remastered in 2018. It is noticeable with the choppy editing quality and one hour and twelve minute running time.

In spite of those issues, this black and white curiosity is quite entertaining. Eleanor Vaill is Emily, the title character and she is very good here. Miss Vaill must be a ghost because an internet search reveals no biographical information on the actress other than a listing of two other roles in 1967.

A holy roller Joel Osteen type of BS preacher rolls into town and cons the locals into handing over their cash. He spots Emily in the crowd and arranges a hookup with the siren.

In the meantime, a Black man has the misfortune of running into the tramp and he and Emily do not live happily ever after in the deep South of the 1960's.

Do not expect Elmer Gantry but for a quickie low budget effort, Shanty Tramp is worth a viewing.

SHANTY TRAMP is one of those scuzzy, low budget, regional black-and-white exploitation features made in America during the late 1960s and pushing the censorial boundaries; hence this film's surprising amount of topless female nudity. I found it a surprisingly decent production that tells the story of a small town getting stirred up by the machinations of a 'loose' young woman who riles up a local drunk before seducing a black man in a barn. Chaos, unsurprisingly, erupts. It's a film with better characterisation and acting than I expected, quite hard-hitting and grim in its depiction of fallen human characters, and laced with sex and violence.