Boxcar Bertha (1972)

Director:

Martin Scorsese

Writers:

Ben L. Reitman (book)
Joyce Hooper Corrington (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

14 June 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Life made her an outcast. Love made her an outlaw.

Plot:

During the depression, a union leader and a young woman become criminals to exact revenge on the management of a railroad.

Plot Keywords:

Arkansas | Boxcar | Radical | Fight | Eating Glass

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Barbara Hershey	...	'Boxcar' Bertha Thompson
David Carradine	...	'Big' Bill Shelly
Barry Primus	...	Rake Brown
Bernie Casey	...	Von Morton
John Carradine	...	H. Buckram Sartoris
Victor Argo	...	McIver #1
David Osterhout	...	McIver #2 (as David R. Osterhout)
Grahame Pratt	...	Emeric Pressburger
'Chicken' Holleman	...	M. Powell
Harry Northup	...	Deputy Sheriff Harvey Hall (as Harry Northrup)
Ann Morell	...	Tillie Parr
Marianne Dole	...	Mrs. Mailler
Joe Reynolds	...	Joe Cox

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:R | UK:X | South Korea:18 | West Germany:18 (cut) | UK:18 (video rating) | Brazil:14 | Finland:K-16 | France:-16 (re-release) | Sweden:15 | USA:R | France:-16 | Norway:18 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Camden, Arkansas, USA

Company:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Trivia:

The song 'Big' Bill Shelley and his guys are singing when Bertha rescues them is an A Capella by Vera Hall, called "Trouble So Hard".

Goofs:

Continuity: Bertha frees Bill Shelley from the prison gang by faking a punctured tire. The wheel with the flat is left at the side of the road. In the following car chase, the wheel is initially missing from the car. Later the tire is clearly seen fixed to the rear of the car. When the car is being destroyed, the spare tire is gone again.

Quotes:

'Big' Bill Shelly: Hey, Bertha!

Movie Connections:

References The Wife of General Ling (1937)

Corman gangster mama movie done by Scorcese in a different mode

Early, solid film from Scorcese with Hershey as the heroine, who along with Carradine leads a pack of hoods who begin as communists and progress to bigger and bigger crimes -- something of a variation on Corman's "Machine Gun Kelly." Carradine and Hershey give good, but not outstanding, performances. The direction is somewhat showy and involves a lot of movement, typical of Scorcese's more evolved style as well. Roughly follows the mold set by previous AIP gangster mama flicks, with the step up on the violence meter each succeeding film seemed to demand.

Interesting also that this is the only Corman/AIP collaboration I can remember seeing from this period of time (72) when Corman's independent operations were becoming more successful all the time (w/ the nurse movies and stewardess epics cleaning up at the box office). I can only think that they saw it as a continuation of such a successful collaboration that it was impossible to resist getting together again one more time (though Corman claims to have been so absolutely disgusted by their treatment of his epic "Gasssssss" that he would no longer work with them after 1970). Anyone with information on how this collaboration took place will make me very grateful by forwarding this information to me.