Shanty Tramp

This film is so sleazy that you'll want to take a shower after watching it--and that's exactly what makes it so much fun. There's something here to offend and repulse everyone. It's the story of a southern white trash party girl looking for thrills, who lures a virtuous young black guy into destruction, along the way having some unforgettable sexual encounters with (a) a crooked tent-revival preacher, (b) a sadistic motorcycle gang leader, and (c) her own alcoholic father. Cheap production values and obvious first-timer acting only add to the sleazy atmosphere. Crack open a beer and enjoy!

Set in some random town in the south, Emily the Shanty Tramp prowls from bar to barn looking for any kind of action she can get. Shanty Tramp is filled with the broadest spectrum of unsavory characters I've seen anywhere: a corrupt preacher, a drunk and abusive father, bumbling racist police officers, and a caricatured black mamma straight from the old Aunt Jemima bottle label. The only even slightly savory character in the film is a passion-addled black man who... well, better not spoil it, but let's just say what the only even slightly virtuous character meets a tragic end. Shanty Tramp was a marvelously controversial movie from all angles, serving the same purient, voyeuristic "other people's disasters" interests that Jerry Springer shows have today. Pink Flamingoes lacks the genuine, heartfelt sleaze that this film has in spades. I give this movie a 10 for unbelievably, shamelessly trashy cinematic excellence.

Shanty Tramp (1967)

* (out of 4)

Emily (Eleanor Vaill) is the town slut who constantly flaunts her body to anyone willing to look. This film takes a look at one night when a preacher is doing a tent revival and Emily is out doing her thing. She comes onto a black man but when her racist father catches them she screams rape.

SHANTY TRAMP gets a lot of credit from some for being one of the first movies to really look at such issues as rape, sexuality, the town slut and even racism but c'mon. It really isn't all that original and especially since it seems to have taken certain elements of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and centered the entire film around that.

Director Joseph P. Mawra made several sexploitation pictures in his day including the infamous OLGA trilogy. This film here was obviously shot on a very low-budget and it's also very poorly made. The performances are beyond bad, the cinematography is even worse and I'd argue that the entire thing was quite predictable. In fact, the movie is a real chore to sit through even though it clocks in at just 72-minutes.

The film certainly wants to take on some serious issues but they all come across quite laughable but I will say that the somewhat twist ending did work extremely well and especially how everything played out. I guess you can give the director and producer K. Gordon Murray credit for trying something bold and daring but sadly the production values just aren't there to make it work. It is worth noting that assistiant director was Bob Clark, the man who would go onto make such films as PORKY'S, A CHRISTMAS STORY and CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS.

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.

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.