Shanty Tramp: An Exploitation Film at its Purest

This is your standard exploitation feature, filmed with zero budget and mainly with amateurs. Like all of its kind, the film proclaims to want to discuss some hard hitting question, in this case hypocrisy of power and interracial affairs, but its real purpose is to show some sleaze and violence, wrapped around a  paper-thin morality play.

Here we have a bit of trash from the late sixties. In a sleazier version of Too Kill a Mockingbird, this is the rigorous story of a young whore caught up in a backwards love triangle. As a tramp, she catches the eye of local colored boy (to use the parlance of the time) who saves from being raped and not-paid by a biker tough, who's supposed to be twenty, but looks fifty. He offers her his shirt and she offers him some lovin’, which he cannot resist. Unfortunately, right after he finishes his carnal exploration of some white meat, her alcoholic father, having recently found the Lord, stumbles in and sees his beloved tramp daughter nekkid with the black man.

What’s a poor whore to do? She cries rape and the father runs off to stir up the town. The black man runs off, steals a car full of bootleg whiskey, and gets into a fatal car accident. The father then figures out his daughter was lying, smacks her around, and tries to rape her. She stabs him to death with some bad acting. Then runs off with the preacher with the law on her heels.

As you can see Shanty Tramp has a weak story, filmed badly and cheaply, with lots of boring scenes of people drinking and dancing at bars, lousy action, and gratuitous (and not very attractive) breast shots. The music is always bought by the yard or local people doing generic rock (including the mid-west single “Shanty Tramp”). The people can’t dance and the scenes always go on for too long, but the whore is pretty hot. I’d bang her for five bucks, her going rate.

Very minor actor- Bill Rodgers

I feel a special shout-out is deserved for Bill Rodgers here who plays Preacher Fallows. He is the lone star of the production, taking on his role with verve and energy. I believed his role as the preacher. He spoke to me. Rodgers doesn’t have too many acting credits, mostly appearing in grade-z flicks like Flesh Feast, Santo vs. The Vampire Women, Adam Lost his Apple (A nudie cutie) and this masterpiece. This was the low end of his career. He began as an announcer in the 50s for the original $64,000 Question- probably one of the most influential game shows ever.

Actually a cop

An interesting little side note here. All of the bikers, the ones with unconvincing dialogue like “Crazy like man. Me and my chick wanna find a dark corner anyway, daddio,” were played by member of the Davie County Sheriff's Department in Florida, most of whom lost their jobs due to their participation in the film.

The film preview is below. Enjoy and Caveat Emptor.

For more sleazy fun try The Foot Doctor Letters: A Serial Killer Speaks Out by Rex Hurst. Available in paperback and on kindle.