This is a film you'll either love or hate, depending on your tolerance for low budgets and passable acting. It doesn't have any ambitions other to entertain on the cheap, and it does that fine.A couple decide, during a stock footage Mardis-Gras, to head into the bayou for reasons I've already forgotten. At the same time, a female cop goes undercover and heads into jail to meet a gang of three women who know the location of some diamonds (also in the bayou). Luckily for the cop, all three women are in the same cell. Also luckily for the cop, they believe her story and volunteer almost immediately to escape, promising her a share of the diamonds. No wonder they got caught in the first place! As you could predict, our gang of convicts and our romantic couple meet in the bayou, and that's when the trouble starts. After killing the couple's guide, the girls kidnap the couple and the cop finds it difficult to stay under cover and protect the couple. Much flirting, drinking, and cat fighting ensues.Also, the couple don't turn out to be so in love either. When one of them gets eating by an alligator, the other is seemingly non-chalant about it. True love.Like most early Roger Corman films, everything's cheap, the film is short, but it's lots of fun too. All the girls run around in cut off shorts while cat fighting or moaning about stuff, and the story zips along quickly enough. What else do you want from Roger Corman?

Mystery Science Theater, oh how I miss thee. The bane of this film's existence to wipe away one's sense of glee. OK, forget the typical rhyme and get one with the review.Never being familiar with Roger Corman's films, this is the first time I seen one of them and that is "Swamp Women". A cheesy name for a cheesy film in it's own right; I actually thought it was Swamp Thing's female counterpart but upon further viewing I discovered that that was not the case as "Swamp Women" has noting to do at all with the titular hero of the bayou of middle America(though I don't now precisely where Swamp Thing dwells).What could've made this film more compelling, despite being on a very low budget, is a more better story, better production values and better characters, but since this is a 1950's release that's not saying much when there were more quality films of the decades that spawned them. Be that as it may, ultimately the film is a waste of time and you're better off watching To Kill A Mockingbird or other better made films of the time. Nothing in this film is even remotely engaging and it should stay in the bowels of cinematography forever.

Roger Corman started off in the B-movie arena and never left, for better and for worse. This, one of his first films, gives the false impression that this will be some weird sci-fi movie with actual swamp creatures or something. Instead we get one of the early girl-prison type flicks that would later be popular in the 70s to a degree. Here an undercover cop goes incognito in a women's prison with three girls (including Marie Windsor and Beverly Garland), and their plot to escape from prison and get some stashed diamonds in the bayou swamps. Then, as they are making their escape, they kidnap a man and woman (including 3rd rate James Cagney knock-off Mike Connors) to lead them along in their boat. But they need to watch out for their flaring tempers- and a few alligators here and there.It's all, of course, pretty cheesy and at best acted with a little estrogen-laden grit. It's fun to watch some of these girls going at each other in big ham-bone performances, and all by a first-timer Corman who can direct just about to not have us leaving down the aisles (or our homes) in droves. It does make it more worthwhile, of course, to seek out the Mystery Science Theater cut, as the boys rip into it where appropriate (which is, indeed, quite often and with a relish, like with the alligator attack scene as they dub over completely). What is surprising, despite the obvious shortcomings, is that Swamp Women isn't a total loss. I actually enjoyed some of those scenes in the swamp, with the prisoners acting all bad-ass with their prisoners. Only when actual plot needs to be developed early on is it incredibly stagy. And, luckily, Corman (or the "Cor-Man" that is to be lived by as comes up with his director title card), provides some substantial humor without the MST3K track.

A tiny bit of stock footage was used to create the awesome feeling of actually being in a swamp. Professionally trained wrestling alligators were imported from Canada to enhance the action with carefully choreographed water ballet scenes of a knife fight. The opening title credits were punctuated with orchestral tones that bring cheers from the audience. I doubt if any of you will be able to stay in your seats when Mike Connors or Touch Connors deftly fights for his manhood in a canoe being attacked by prison girl escapees. The dialog is smoothly delivered as we hear memorable quotes like "Alright, break it up." and "She can't swim." Only Roger Corman could raise the budget needed for this epic of the soggy South. There is a nice 1949 Cadillac that is seen a couple of times. The escape scene from the barred window of what looks like any house in Los Angeles is worth the price of admission if you watch it for free.If you like swamp films I do recommend Southern Comfort.I must seriously admit Mike Connors rose above expectations in this. His voice is excellent and he has a look that is not that far from Clark Gable or Cary Grant. He could have made some good movies.Swamp Women. Diamonds, Dames, Guns, short shorts... and swamp love. If you don't watch this film over and over, you are made of steel.