Marie continue to embrace and extinguish the oil lamp, as the insane horn music persists. The additional torridness between the two sub- stitute lovers continues, as some good superim- position shots of violently rushing water appears as she unbuttons his shirt and they take their loving to the lonely corner mattress. This love scene ends at 1:15:10 with the two gripping each other in ecstasy. Pretty saucy stuff for 1961, when semi-naked people playing badminton was still reigning supreme. Cue up more newsreel type footage of the aftermaths of hurricanes while a dirge plays on about the “big black wind.” The storm has passed and Martin embraces Marie sweetly, ask- ing her to marry him. She never says yes or no, but hugs him and says “I love you too.” Seeing carrion outside, she then remembers about her dad and goes searching for him. They find him alright, surrounded by weeping family members since Emil did not survive the storm. At his funeral, a fight finally brews between Martin and Ulysses. If you guessed that such a scene would be almost begging for a more sensa- tionalistic ending, then you would be completely right! In BAYOU, the two men basically wrestle around for a few minutes before Martin busts out some karate moves, leaving Ulysses on the ground in a heap and yowling while everyone walks away in disgust or dismay. In PWT, the fight starts the same, but the recut takes advantage of a shot, shared with BAYOU, of Ulysses grabbing a hatchet. In the original, it’s just a quick scare that is quickly and literally tossed aside and forgotten about. However, in PWT, the
hatchet becomes the homegrown equivalent of Chekhov’s gun complete with an inserted close- up of the weapon at 1:22:08.
Twenty seconds later, there’s a rearranging of crowd reaction shots which is then followed at 1:22:57 by the faux Ulysses falling and rolling over the hatchet, planting its blade firmly in his back, leaving a nice little blood smear in its wake. Either way, Marie and Martin walk off in a field together, heading towards a future of having boring chil- dren and a cut-throat world full of pirogue races and harassing newlywed couples. BAYOU naturally ends with its theme repeat- ing itself and ends at 84m 19s. POOR WHITE TRASH ends with the singer from the main titles sequence returning to reprise the theme song. Despite its abundance of additional footage, the recut totals only 83m 32s. Considering its notoreity as an exploitation fran-
Gruesome shot added to the POOR WHITE TRASH finale.
chise, POOR WHITE TRASH has kept its head fairly low on the home video market. It was released on VHS by Continental Video in the 1980s, but there has not been an authorized home video release of the film since. After more than thirty years off the world’s radar, BAYOU surfaced on Turner Network Television (TNT) in the early 1990s, bearing the then-current United Artists logo; it has not reap- peared since that single playdate. In 2000, a new independent film bearing the title POOR WHITE TRASH was released, which remains widely avail- able on DVD (Xenon label), but it had nothing to do with the earlier film. Viewing the two versions back-to-back is inter- esting because neither one is conspicuously bet- ter than the other. BAYOU has some good character develop- ment that is missing from its bastard step-sibling; POOR WHITE TRASH, on the other hand, has some beautifully, if not downright lovingly, shot new footage and a more gut- level approach that works with the organic subject matter well. Neither is necessarily essential cinema and both drag a little at times. Having a milquetoast hero doesn’t help, but there is enough art- istry and good performances, courtesy of Milan and Fowley, and an absolutely volcanic turn by Timothy Carey. Now let’s all go crack hickory nuts and shimmy!
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