Cortechba Overrated

ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

kapelusznik18 ***SPOIERS*** German director Frank Wisbar's re-make of his classic 1936 German ghost story "Death of a Meiden" does the best of the meager budget it had making one of the best of the bargain basement studio PRC's releases. It was after ferryman Douglas, Charles Middleton, was falsely convicted of murder of local yokel Mr. Berkeley and hanged for the crime that his ghost started to appear in the swamp strangling those and their family members responsible for his death. It's when Maria Hart, Rosermary La Planche, the granddaughter of the man who murdered Berkeley Joseph Hart, Frank Conlan,and framed Douglas for it shown up looking for a job as the local ferry skipper. It's then that she fell in love with the judge Christian Sanders-Robert Barratt's-who sentenced Douglas to death-son Chris Jr, Blake Edwards,who like herself were on Douglas's hit-list.Spooky and atmospheric film a lot like the Val Lawton movies classics like "Cat People" & "The Leopard Man" made around the same time that shocked their audience with off the screen and imaginary horrors that leave them to those that are watching imagination. Even though he already strangled the person responsible for him being executed, Joseph Hart, Douglas would only be satisfied if everyone's, Hart the judge & jury, family members innocent or not got the same treatment from him. It's when Chris Jr was near death from pneumonia, in almost drowning in the swamp, that Maria in an effort to save his life offered herself up to the vengeful Douglas as a human sacrifice in order to save his life.****SPOILERS**** This unselfish act by Maria knocked some sense and humanity into Douglas' heart who came to realize that his acts of vengeance have gone a wee bit too far and ended up killing many innocent people who had really nothing to do with his untimely death.It was Maria in proving her love for Chris Jr. and willing to die for it that saved both his as well as, in being targeted by Douglas, her lives as well as proving the saying that "Love conquers all" even in the case when certain death comes knocking at one's door.

Robert J. Maxwell This spooky horror story comes to us courtesy of PRC studios, so we know right off the bat we're in for a classic of its kind. A ferryman was hastily hanged by a village years ago. Now he seems to haunt the villagers, particularly the man whose testimony falsely convicted him -- Old Ferryman Douglas. The ferry is a small boat that must be pulled by hand across a steamy creek. Its isolated location has everyone frightened of the neighborhood. Old Douglas, though, despite feeling a little guilty at his perjured testimony, pooh poohs the story of the swamp strangler as just so much superstition.He shouldn't have been so off handed about the whole thing because one night he runs into a shadowy figure in the murk and is found dead -- choked to death by a noose.At first, watching this inexpensive tale unfold, I figured it for one of those stories, something like "Sherlock Holmes and the Scarlet Claw," in which someone is imitating a ghost in order to kill people for prosaic reasons. But then it gets complicated. Old Douglas may have been dealing with an hallucination but this figure keeps on killing or assaulting people even when everyone in the film seems to be elsewhere. Every once in a while, the spector came whiffling through the tulgey wood, and burbled as it came!Old Douglas's pretty granddaughter, Rosemary La Planche, shows up and takes over the operation of the ferry and she falls in love with -- are you ready for this? -- Blake Edwards. Yes, THE Blake Edwards, who was wise to switch to direction later on because he had a good sense of humor and, if nothing else, it gave him access into the kind of inner circle in which you get to marry Julie Andrews. Edwards is attacked by the strangler too, for reasons I couldn't figure out because, after all, he was a young man recently returned to the village and who had had nothing to do with the mistaken hanging of the strangler.The plot is confusing and boring. The stage set was the size of a walk-in closet. But the dialog has one or two memorable lines. "Chris ran away when he was at the age when boys think that being a man means being alone." Something like that. I also give the story bonus points for making good use of elderly people, especially old ladies. The characters fit, because they provide a nifty contrast with the joie de vivre of the youngsters when they begin to show up.I understand that this film is one of the few to emerge from PRC with something like a respectable reputation. I don't know why. It's gloomy and most unimaginative.

dougdoepke A Curse hangs over a swamp and its ferryman for executing an innocent man.It's always pleasing to come across a low-budget gem like this, sort of like getting a minor bargain in a 99-cent store. What this production does so effectively is create a self-enclosed world, and one about as spooky as they come. Sure, the fog machine works over-time, probably to disguise the skimpy two or three sets—this is, after all, a PRC production. Nonetheless, director Wisbar and crew get the most from the limitations in creating the dark stuff of nightmares. And had they been able to resist the conventionally reassuring ending, a real sleeper would have emerged.A big thanks is owed whoever got that incomparable Voice of Doom, Charles Middleton, to appear (well, sort of appear) as the ghostly apparition. His skeletal look and graveyard sound could send shudders through the devil himself. On the other hand, there's the fetching twice over Miss America (1940 & 1941) as the line-pulling ingénue, along with future Pink Panther impresario Blake Edwards as her handsome swain. But, I especially like the underrated Robert Barrat, always a strong, persuasive presence in movies of the period. Anyway, the movie amounts to a bargain basement production worth catching up with, despite the absence of big names.

Michael_Elliott Strangler of the Swamp (1946) ** 1/2 (out of 4) PRC film, which is actually very well made and also received quite a bit of critical praise. The film tells the story of a small village out in the middle of a swamp that seems to be haunted by the ghost of an innocent man they hung years earlier. There's a lot of great things about this extremely low budget film but there's one big flaw and that's that the film runs 59-minutes and even that seems a tad bit long. There are several segments of the film where it becomes too talky while the most interesting aspects are forgotten about. What really makes this film stand out and makes it worth watching are the wonderful sets and the terrific atmosphere brought by the director. This thing is very thick in atmosphere so much so that at times you can feel the heat of the swamp all over your body. The mystery of the film is pretty well written and the ending is a major winner considering how most of these type films end.