zee Shockingly well-acted hillbilly noir ghost story. Plot: a wrongfully hanged man is out for vengeance.The poor filmmakers had a postage-stamp-sized stage to work with, and a smoke machine that doesn't quite disguise how small it is. About half of the action takes place on a cable ferry. The opening scene is a bit of a puzzler, in which three grizzled hill women take the ferry out, and back, for no reason other than to deliver some exposition to someone who already knows what they're telling him.But part of its charm is how much respect the film shows for the people, including two young people who have tried the city, lost their accents, got some extra education, and yet realize they belong back home. Some of the details are well-realized, like the inventorying of a poor man's clothing and the prayer scene at the open-air chapel.There's a Christian story, here, too. I'm not Christian but was not offended by it. People who are might like that part of it a good deal.

MARIO GAUCI I believe I first heard of this one after reading Michael Elliott's more or less favorable appraisal of it and, by and large, I find myself agreeing with his assessment. The title pretty much explains both the film's theme (horror/thriller) and style (foggy atmosphere). For a PRC effort, I guess it is slightly above-par quality-wise but this does not in any way make it some lost genre classic: this reminds me of Leslie Halliwell's comment about Edgar G. Ulmer's rather splendid 1944 BLUEBEARD: "possibly the most interesting film ever to come from PRC (which isn't saying very much)".The strangler (played, in ghostly form, by Charles Middleton) is a ferry-man who was hung for a crime he did not commit. It transpires that the person to succeed him in that job (which is vital for locals to travel across the swamp to the other side of town) was actually the one whose testimony proved decisive in the eventual conviction – and it is later suggested that he was merely after the post! However, before dying, Middleton curses not only the people who sent him to his death but their descendants as well...and, to be sure, a number of accidental stranglings have been occurring, which the superstitious community obviously blames on this blood-curdling warning! Soon, it is the turn of the new ferry-man to get his just desserts: a trio of intrepid elderly women cross over to cut down the hangman's noose left in place after Middleton's execution and, left alone in the boat to dispose of the rope, the old man throws it up in the air – with the noose then falling squarely around his neck and, as the other end is caught in some brushes, he ends up choking like the others! This latest victim had actually intended retiring since he was getting on in years and, soon after, his replacement – a girl, and his own niece – arrives, as does the son (played by future director Blake Edwards!) of an eminent member there. Naturally, the two youngsters fall for one another and, given that they are related to two of Middleton's 'murderers', he adds them to his list of proposed victims. The elders of the town are convinced that only if one of those involved gives himself willingly to the strangler can the curse be lifted but, needless to say, nobody has the courage for it. When Edwards himself is almost done in, it is up to either his father or his girl to save him – having already been made to take up what is normally a man's task, it is no surprise to find that it is she who comes through for the leading man as well...but rather than giving herself to the former ferry-man, she pleads with him to give up his revenge quest and rest in peace (yes, people in this film can actually converse with the ghost!).In the long run, this emerges as middling but not displeasing fare: the narrative may hardly be original yet it is reasonably engaging and, while the approach comes across as somewhat pedestrian, it nonetheless manages to convey the appropriate mood throughout.

docdespicable It's really a pity more people haven't seen this little number from PRC - it has a tight story, good acting, amazing atmosphere, just everything so many of their features lack. The joke was, and in some cases remains, that PRC stood for Pretty Rank Crap (actually Producers Releasing Corporation). They kept Bela Lugosi from going hungry and delivered quite a list of entertainingly awful crud - I mean, they made Monogram look like MGM! Generally considered the studio where name actors went to pick up enough cash to pay off their bar tabs (which explains the presence of otherwise outstanding actors like J. Carroll Naish, John Carradine and George Zucco), by the law of averages, they were bound to hit the mark, once in a great while.And here, they do. Despite, or perhaps because of the obvious sound-stage set, the film has an atmosphere of unreality, a similar effect attained in "City of the Dead" (1960) by the same means. Both films have an almost Lovecraftian sense of foreboding. The core of the film's success can be attributed to the "Strangler" himself, character actor Charles Middleton, perhaps most known for his turns as Ming the Merciless in the "Flash Gordon" serials and his menace of Laurel & Hardy in several of their shorts and features.Please understand - "Strangler from the Swamp" is never going to give Hitchcock or the Val Lewton horror pictures a run for their money, but all in all, it is still a very satisfying film.And yes, that Blake Edwards is THAT Blake Edwards!

metaphor-2 Although I have not seen this film for many years, I remember it's rich atmosphere quite well. I saw it in a class taught by an eminent film historian and collector, the late William K. Everson, who showed it as an example of movies made with only one set.It's also got a richer-than-usual part for Charles Middleton, a character-actor (mostly remembered as Ming the Merciless in FLASH GORDON) with a wonderful presence.