Strangler of the Swamp

Starring:Rosemary La Planche, Robert Barrat, Blake Edwards, Charles Middleton, Effie Parnell, Nolan Leary, Frank Conlan, Therese Lyon, Virginia Farmer, Chris Drake
Director: Frank Wisbar
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

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Written and directed by Frank Wisbar, this hour-long B thriller from 1946 is so obscure that it doesn't even rank an entry in Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide, but it's a perfectly adequate example of the low-budget fare that was cranked out like sausages by Producer's Releasing Corporation (PRC) in post-World War II Hollywood. Of interest to trivia buffs is the youthful appearance of future Pink Panther director Blake Edwards as the movie's youthful would-be hero, while Rosemary La Planche plays his beloved, who would sacrifice herself to spare her lover from the title character--the shadowy ghost of a ferryman (played by Charles Middleton) who haunts the local swampland, avenging his wrongful hanging for murder. Steeped in rich, foggy atmosphere, the film copies the effective visual style of Wisbar's earlier German film Fährmann Maria, and although this shoestring spooker barely registers on the fright meter, it's still an interesting oddity for hardcore film buffs, who will appreciate the fact that a movie of such minimal consequence has somehow made its way to DVD. (Collectors, take note: Another Wisbar curio from 1946--The Devil Bat's Daughter--was also released on DVD in 1999.) --Jeff Shannon

Description

Don't go near the swamp! A ferryman who was wrongly hanged for a murder is now a ghost, and he's more than a little perturbed. He wants revenge, and he's inflicting strange, violent deaths on the townsfolk responsible for his execution. Steeped in gothic atmosphere, "Strangler of the Swamp" recreates director Frank Wisbar's extremely stylish classic fantasy film, "Fahrman Maria," made in Germany before Wisbar came to Hollywood. His inventive use of lighting, camera and sets makes "Strangler" a stand-out.

Customer Reviews:

"Only his legs was sticking out...we had a hard time getting him loose.".......2005-11-02

The life of a ferryman certainly doesn't seem like a glamorous one, living in a hovel on a muddy bank, endlessly schlepping people and their possessions back and forth, regardless of the weather, for a mere pittance. And it's not like you get to set your own hours, either...no, there's always people coming around all times of the day and night, looking to cross...the ones at the night are the worst. These are usually men who've stayed out late drinking, and they almost always get to heaving the contents of their stomachs once that ferryboat starts a rockin'...it wouldn't be so bad if they managed to spew forth over the side of the ferry rather than in the ferry...there are some benefits...lots of fresh air, great upper body strength, and the juicy gossip one hears when ferrying people back and forth, especially from the ladies. Co-written and directed by Frank Wisbar aka Franz Wysbar (Secrets of a Sorority Girl, Devil Bat's Daughter), the film features Rosemary La Planche (Devil Bat's Daughter, Betty Co-Ed), in her first starring. Who's Rosemary La Planche, you say? Well, she was only Miss California two years in a row (1940 and 1941), and crowned Miss America in 1941. Also appearing is Robert Barrat (The Last of the Mohicans, The Life of Emile Zola), Charles `Ming' Middleton (Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe), bit player Nolan Leary (The Abductors, Man of a Thousand Faces), Frank Conlan (The Devil and Daniel Webster), and Blake Edwards, who would later go on to become more famous behind the camera writing and directing such films like Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), The Pink Panther (1963), A Shot in the Dark (1964), and The Party (1968), to name a few.

As the movie begins we see four men, one unconscious clad only in a bathing suit, trucking across a foggy swamp in a ferry. On reaching the bank, the unconscious man is laid out, and one of the men puts his coat over the prone figure...okay, maybe he's not unconscious (who the heck goes swimming in the swamp?)...the old biddies gather and we hear about how `the curse' has taken another life. Apparently, in the not too distant past, the men of the town strung up the previous ferryman, whom they thought was a killer. Prior to his death, the accused man, who vehemently proclaimed his innocence, vowed to come back from the grave and take vengeance on all the men, including their male descendants, for their heinous act (turns out the evidence tying the hanged man to the crime was a bit thin). Since then, various male townspeople have suffered bizarre deaths attributed to some form of strangulation, and now the town is divided into two groups, the superstitious lot who believe the curse, and the `enlighten' few, including town leader Christian Sanders (Barrat), who see the deaths as nothing but a series of coincidences. Shortly after the current ferryman meets his untimely demise, one of his descendants arrives, a pretty woman named Maria (La Planche), and takes over the business (the townspeople neglect to mention the circumstances about the old man's death). Shortly after this Sanders son, Christian Jr. (Edwards), returns to take up the family farm, and he falls for Maria. As their love grows, so does the ominous presence in the swamp, as the prodigal son is now in apparition's sights...

Strangler of the Swamp, released by PRC studios, which went under around the time the film was released, is actually a remake of an earlier Wisbar film, a German feature titled Fährmann Maria (1936), and among a handful of films Wisbar did for the "Poverty Row" studios upon arriving in America from Germany. I have not seen the earlier film, but I thought this one was quite good. It wasn't very frightening, but it did have a whole mess of atmospheric flavor, as whoever was manning the fog machine surely earned his money. At first I thought this was going to be a straight up mystery, but that wasn't the case as there was a sense of the story existing in the ether of a thinly shrouded twilight realm, much like that of the film Carnival of Souls (1962). The two films are very different, this one featuring more of a linear storyline, but both exhibit a spooky ethereal quality, one that transcends their respective shoestring budget origins. This isn't a great movie, especially given the extremely `talkie' bits and penchant for the characters to spend an awful lot of time traipsing around the swamp, but those elements where it succeeds, it does so extremely well, rising above its meager budget. And having Rosemary La Planche in the film certainly didn't hurt...her acting here was decent enough, but her actual presence in the foggy mists, her physical beauty (and that long hair), kept me interested thoroughly. Oh mama...my favorite scene in the film featured Barrat as Christian Sanders, the staunch, well-to-do, grounded in reality community leader, and Leary as Pete Jeffers, the town ne'er-do-well, afraid of everything, including his own shadow. Both men had been involved in the nastiness of the past, and now Jeffers, fearing specifically for his life, tries to convince Saunders to do the altruistic by giving himself to the ghost (thereby breaking the curse) because Saunders has lived a full, rich life, and achieved about as much as a man could expect. He also prattles on about how Saunders will be fondly remembered by those he saves through his sacrifice...Saunders, seeing the cowardly ploy for what it is, makes a counter offer in that Jeffers should sacrifice himself if only because Jeffers has done so little for the community, contributing practically nothing towards the common good, and his sacrifice would be the pinnacle of a relatively pointless life. Another scene I enjoyed was when Maria was being accosted by a lecherous, drunken ferry customer, and Christian Jr. shows the man the errors of his way with a few, good smacks upside the head. All in all decent little obscurity, steeped in atmospheric goodness, one whose charms more than make up for its humble origins, in my opinion.

The fullscreen, original aspect ratio picture presented on this DVD looks decent, but does have a number of visible flaws, which I expected, given the age and relative obscurity of the film in general. They didn't distract overall, and were very acceptable, in my opinion. The Dolby Digital mono audio comes through fairly clean, but again, any imperfections are easily overlooked. There aren't any special features or extras, but there are chapter stops.

Cookieman108

Rising From the Cinematic Dead.......2004-09-05

German writer-director Frank Wisbar made one of the finest low-budget horror films of the 1940s, "Strangler of the Swamp." Produced by PRC, this little-known "B" movie was a 58-minute remake of Wisbar's 1936 classic "Fahrmann Maria." Wisbar duplicated the dark, misty atmosphere of his earlier film with a paltry $20,000 and a one-week shooting schedule. Though ignored upon its 1946 release, "Strangler of the Swamp" managed to rise from the cinematic dead -- thanks to a detailed chapter in historian William K. Everson's 1974 book, "Classics of the Horror Film." Rather than create a traditional horror movie, Wisbar emphasized mood and expressionistic style in this gothic tale. The plot centers on a ghostly ferryman (played by Charles Middleton) who swore his vengeance upon the swampland villagers responsible for his wrongful hanging -- including their descendants, one of whom must sacrifice their life to end the shadowy curse. PRC's shoddy production values actually work to Wisbar's advantage. Except for a few brief exterior shots, "Strangler of the Swamp" exists in a claustrophobic, studio-bound world. The performances are surprisingly restrained, with Middleton making the most of his limited spectral presence. "Strangler of the Swamp" is not the rediscovered masterpiece some have claimed, yet it remains a textbook example of Poverty Row filmmaking.

Nice little atmospheric ghost story.......2003-12-25

To appreciate this movie, we need to remember that, before the era of the Muliplex and cable TV, people expected to see two movies at most theaters, the "double feature." (You could also walk in on the middle of a film, but that's another issue.) As a result, there was a whole industry of B-movies, to give the moviegoers a bit more for their money, and every now and then, the B-movie gave you some interesting watching.

Such a movie is Strangler of the Swamp. It's not heavyweight, the story isn't classic, but it's carried out subtly and, as others have noted, with a great deal of atmosphere.

The movie takes place in a little town separated from the mainland by a swamp. The swamp can only be crossed by an old-fashioned rope ferry--the kind where a ferryman pulls the boat back and forth for a small fee. The town has a nasty secret--the old ferry operator, Ferryman Douglas, was wrongfully accused of murder and virtually lynched. His ghost haunts the swamp and quietly strangles those who killed him and their families in ways that seem accidental.

The gloomy atmospehere is so nicely done that when the pretty granddaughter of the most recent ferryman, killed by Douglas, shows up, she is like a bright light. She decides to remain in her home town as the new ferry operator, like a Lovecraft character drawn back to an ancestral horror.

This short piece lasts less than an hour, but the time is just about right. The oppressive atmosphere of the swamp and constant mist create a mood of corruption as certainly as a Tennessee Williams novel. The avenging ghost, played by Charles Middleton, is a spectral character, little seen but readily identified by his strong rich voice.

Ferryman Douglas' killings seem less a stalking horror than a rough justice on this secretive little town. In a poignent moment, Douglas pulls the boat across and tells his passenger, who now understands who he is, that "once this was my boat," a plain statement that tells us of a simple life ended by others' meanness.

For the price, worth a place in your library if you like the ghost story genre.

Great atmospheric film.......2002-10-16

I don't remember seeing ever seeing this one as a kid in the 1970's, but it's pretty cool if a bit simplistic. It's only about an hour long and it's almost like watching a play. The swamp is richly spooky, and the strangler delivers the goods.
If you like older, classic horror, this one's worth a look.

Twice Time Around.......2001-12-18

Strangler of the Swamp is a poverty-row remake of German-born director Frank Wisbar's more prestigious Fährmann Maria, filmed in 1936, during the rise of the Nazi regime. The original version is recognized today as a true landmark of German sound cinema. It's American counterpart, made for PRC, when Wisbar had emigrated to the United States in the early forties, necessarily pales by comparison. However, there's a certain dignity, even charm, in a film conceived as nothing more tan second feature fodder. The story is simple enough: the ghost of an unjustly executed ferryman preys on the men that accused him of murder, years before. Wisbar's production gets adequate performances from Rosemary LaPlanche (Miss America, 1941), future movie director Blake Edwards in a leading-man role, and perennial favorite Charles "Ming the Merciless" Middleton as the avenging specter, and boasts superior low-key photography, art direction (mainly two set pieces) and an original musical score. As such, it has little in common with PRC's standard fare and compares favorably with Edgar Ulmer's films for the same studio. While no masterpiece, this is a better-than-average companion piece to Wisbar's own Devil Bat's Daughter, also released in 1946.

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