STRANGLER OF THE SWAMP in Poverty Row Forum

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STRANGLER OF THE SWAMP

Author	Comment
The Mighty Bongo		#61	[-]
May 4 12 3:54 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Wich2 wrote: That shot leaves little to the imagination, if you know what I mean... Yeah....it's great aint it ! Chris Want to hang out with the ultimate party animals ? Come see us at; http://www.hollywoodgorillamen.com/
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Lawrence Fechtenberger		#62	[-]
Jul 3 12 8:26 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	FAHRMANN MARIA is on YouTube now, with English subtitles. It is very interesting--but it did have the effect for me of ruining STRANGLER OF THE SWAMP, which now seems a thoroughly compromised thing, cheapened (in multiple senses of the word) at every level. One minor point: The original shows the advantages of location shooting, as it features a river wide enough to actually warrant a ferryman. The studio-bound river in STRANGLER is so narrow that the locals could easily have built a bridge across it.
TomWeaver999		#63	[-]
Jul 3 12 11:47 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Heck, they could have walked across it. You never see any water, and (if memory serves) the moviemakers do nothing to create the impression that there IS any!
The Mighty Bongo		#64	[-]
Jul 4 12 12:00 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tom's right, there are several shots of people getting in and out of the little boat, and it doesn't even rock. It was on a cart that rolled over the set floor. A real boat sways all over, even if you have a rope on it like the little ferry. Weirdly enough, the atmosphere is so " dream like" if you will, that the lack of movement kind of works. The boat seams to glide, rather than float, through the fog. If the fog had been less dense, the effect would have looked horrible. Chris Want to hang out with the ultimate party animals ? Come see us at; http://www.hollywoodgorillamen.com/
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PriceMH		#65	[-]
Jul 4 12 1:48 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	FAHRMANN MARIA is the better (more cinematic) piece, no doubt. STRANGLER OF THE SWAMP has another type of dreamlike quality that owes more to stagecraft than to special effects. Somber business, more eerie than creepy... Mood over momentum.
robertg		#66	[-]
Oct 18 12 1:26 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I just rewatched this last night, for only the second time. This detail went by me the first time I saw this, but I just noticed that the conclusion of the film takes place on Halloween. (There are several references in the dialogue to the Halloween Dance being held later that evening.) Besides being an effectively eerie film, this might be a good reason to put Strangler of the Swamp on your Halloween viewing list. William Everson was wise to include this in his first Classics of the Horror Film book. It really is a minor classic and a perfect example of how to create atmosphere with almost no resources at all.
TomWeaver999		#67	[-]
Oct 18 12 2:23 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Everson included it in CLASSICS OF THE HORROR FILM and yet, funnily enough, he makes a point of saying it's "FAR from a classic." I guess he just wanted to write about it.
PhantomXCI		#68	[-]
Oct 18 12 2:42 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	TomWeaver999 wrote: Everson included it in CLASSICS OF THE HORROR FILM and yet, funnily enough, he makes a point of saying it's "FAR from a classic." I guess he just wanted to write about it. Everson was trying to make a case for the rediscovery of Frank Wisbar. He also talked about DEVIL BAT'S DAUGHTER, which is even less of a classic than STRANGLER. The one Wisbar film nobody ever talks about anymore is ANNA UND ELISABETH (1933) a very serious fantasy about a young woman with Christ-like healing powers. Apparently, all 35mm elements are long gone, and it seems the only existing print is an extremely battered 16mm copy, subtitled in English.
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