The South has an undeniable allure. It’s the humidity, it’s the heat and, much like its spiritual kin Australia, it was once used as a dumping ground for prisoners and other such un- desirables. A lot of people view the South like it’s another country, a fact not much helped by things like the Civil War and Toby Keith. The swamps and bayous of the South still hold a unique inter- est, with the French/Acadian ancestry of a good chunk of the population throwing some exotica into the mix. It is this appeal that is delved into by the 1957 film BAYOU.


Directed by Harold Daniels (TERROR IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE), this swamp melodrama cen- ters around the budding relationship between Mar- tin (Peter Graves), an ambitious but highly moral/ boring architect from the North, and Marie (Lita Milan), an exotic and strong-willed Cajun beauty who has been caring for her alcoholic and often incomprehensible father, Emil (Douglas Fowley, father of debauched genius record producer Kim Fowley). Martin is charmed by the realness of the local Cajuns, in stark contrast to the cutthroat world of building development, where rubbing elbows and boasting make more of an impression than solid, hard work. Marie is a young woman who doesn’t feel the need to instantly wed some jack-in-the-box and start breeding. Instead, she focuses on reading and


educating herself, when she is not catching and selling soft shell crabs to support her and her Dad. The real conflict, however, comes in the form of a Southern Fried übermensch named Ulysses (the eternally awe-inspiring Timothy Carey), local business owner and oil slick brute who has the screaming hots for Marie. The feeling is less than mutual with Marie prefering “dirt” over Ulysses, but he’s a man with an epic case of bullheadedness. Things get more heated until the climactic battle between him and New World wimp Martin goes down. “Swampsploitation” began in 1955 when Roger Corman directed SWAMP WOMEN, a made-to-or- der quickie starring Beverly Garland, Mike Connors and Marie Windsor, which was produced and dis- tributed by Woolner Brothers Pictures Inc., a new company founded by Southern-based drive-in chain owners Lawrence and Bernard Woolner. It is possible that Corman himself invested person- ally in BAYOU, as it features a number of actors in lead and supporting roles who had worked for him previously: Peter Graves (IT CONQUERED THE WORLD), Ed Nelson (ATTACK OF THE CRAB MON- STERS) and Jonathan Haze (MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR and, of course, the later cult classic THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS), and Corman subsequently cast female lead Lita Milan in I, MOBSTER (1958).


When BAYOU was first re- leased by United Artists, as a B- picture on double-bills with self-produced features like TAMMY AND THE BACHELOR, it did not do that well—despite a young and attractive cast, hand- some monochrome photography by Alabama-born brothers Vincent and Ted Saizis, some nicely au- thentic Southern Louisiana lo- cales and a heart-stopping dance sequence by Timothy Carey, who makes Elvis Presley at his most manic seem like a Carmelite nun. It died a quiet box office death. More than likely, BAYOU would have shuffled off into total obscu- rity had it not been for the fore- sight of the film’s executive producer, M.A. Ripps, whose deal with United Artists allowed them


The vague but immensely successful ad campaign for POOR WHITE TRASH, the revised reissue of BAYOU.


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