Rant #2,059: What You See Is What You Get

This weekend was a pretty drab one for my family and I.

Our son was just getting over his illness, so on Saturday, we made sure that he had one last day to completely relax, which meant we didn't do much of anything on that day, and when he went back to work on Sunday, well, my wife and I didn't do too much on Sunday, either.

With absolutely nothing to watch on TV, I again decided to watch a couple of off-the-deep-end movies, films that I had never heard of, and probably few have heard of, mostly for good reason.

I watched films that really were on the far side of reason, but somehow got made.

One of these that I discovered on YouTube is called "Shanty Tramp," and let me tell you, the only reason that I watched this film was that the title itself was intriguing.

What I got in return was something a bit more.

This 1967 black and white film, which looks like it was actually shot three or four years prior to that date, stars Eleanor Vaill as the title character, a young girl named Emilie who grew up in a broken home ruled by her alcoholic father who uses what God has given her to get around.

The very first segment sets the tone for the film, as a la "The Girl Can't Help It"--where Jayne Mansfield struts her stuff, leading to a milk container exploding--the Shanty Tramp does much the same, walking through town in a form-fitting outfit and turning her deep-South town on its ear while we hear "The Saints Come Marching In" in the background.

She happens upon a traveling revival show, where the crooked preacher talks about fear of God to ignorant disciples, and takes their cash willingly.

The Shanty Tramp makes a date with the preacher for some private, personal healing, and just a short time later, after visiting a local watering hole, she is sexually attacked by another man, but the situation is short circuited when a young black man--who had been at the revival meeting with his mother--breaks up the attempted rape, and with her clothes tattered, he gives her his shirt to cover herself up.

The Shanty Tramp chooses her conquests, and the attempted rapist was not one of those "lucky" people. But to pay back the young black man for helping her, he becomes her latest conquest.

But word gets around pretty quickly that this young black man had sex with this young white woman, and all hell breaks loose in the town, where it is assumed that since she is white and he is black--her well known reputation be damned--that he raped her, and her father, who has repented for his sins at the revival meeting, recruits every man he can find to hunt down the young black man.

Catching wind of what was brewing, the young black man runs into the thick underbrush to escape the growing gang looking for him.

Two things are not known to him as he runs away--the first thing is that in the wave to get him, his mother has been murdered by a biker gang, and the second thing is that the Shanty Tramp, who agreed to back him up and tell the authorities that she was not raped, and that their encounter was consensual, has decided to plead just the opposite, and say she was attacked by this guy.

I won't spoil the ending for you, but just let's say that the Shanty Tramp continues to get her way, in a strange sort of way.

Yes, this is a sexual exploitation film if there ever was one, using as many stereotypes as possible to get whatever message it has across to viewers.

What I liked about it is that it is deep, dark and pushes the envelope, once again, for what was allowed in a film during that time period.

Vaill has an excellent figure, and it is shown off mainly clothed in the film, although after her encounter with the young black man, there is some nudity, including showing off her charms with him next to her, a pretty risky move for a film that looks like it was made several years before nudity was deemed acceptable in films.

There are also some other scenes showing off her unclothed figure, and even by today's standards, the film is pretty raunchy.

But this is not a mainstream movie by any stretch of the imagination. Although the acting is pretty bad and the film is poorly made--written by K. Gordon Murray and directed by Joseph Mawra--it shows a place and time that is light years from 2018.

These types of films usually have something to tick off just about everybody, and with one stereotype piled on top of another, well, you have plenty to get angry about here, but somehow, the film works, because it is so bad that it forces you to stick with it until the bitter end to see what happens to the Shanty Tramp.

On a day where you need to kill less than 90 minutes, I guess I would recommend this film, which you can see at this YouTube address: https://youtu.be/6Ra_FtPXCIs

If nothing else, you will find out exactly what a Shanty Tramp is, and although Vaill is a nice looking lady, the definition of Shanty Tramp ain't too pretty.