Swamp Women

Corman and his production partner Jim Nicholson were completing a long road trip searching for backers for their movies, often from drive-in theater owners, when they met the Woolner brothers—Lawrence, Bernard and David—who had opened New Orleans' first drive-in theaters. Looking to get into the production business, Corman said, the brothers agreed to help finance Swamp Women for Corman, who returned to Louisiana with his cast and crew for the production.[3][1]

Larry Woolner's wife Betty said her husband "was crazy about" Corman. Woolner's son Jurt said “A big part of my father’s decision process was whether he could visualize the poster. So you can just imagine a movie called Swamp Women. That laid a very clear exploitation track to follow.” [4]

A former Louisian governor owned a large plantation, and invited the filmmakers to make a movie there.[4] (The end credits thanks Mayor De Lesseps Morrison and Police Chief John Dayries of New Orleans and Governor Robert Kennon of Louisiana.)

Filming started in October 1955.[5] The film was shot on location in Louisiana near the town of Lacombe,[6] and was shot in either 10 or 22 days, depending on the source.[1]

Jonathan Haze, who worked with Corman a number of times, had a small role in the movie and also worked as a fight co ordinator for the women. He says the Woolner brothers had him arrested and put in prison as a joke, but called them "really good people. They played hard-guy, but deep down they were nice. Barney was always in a hurry, while Larry was much more cool and quiet, and not so much of a character.”[1]

Beverly Garland, who would go on to make several films with Corman, called the movie:

A terrible thing! Roger put us up in this old, abandoned hotel... I mean, it was really abandoned!... I'm surprised that the hotel had running water! I remember that we each had a room with an iron bed. Our first night there, I went to bed, and I heard this tremendous crash! I went screaming into Marie Windsor's room, and there she was with the bed on top of her— the whole bed had collapsed! Well, we started laughing because everything was so awful in this hotel, just incredibly terrible, and we became good friends.[7]

Windsor confirmed this, saying Corman is "such a nice guy. but he's sure hard on you out on the location."[8]

Mike Connors recalled, "the girls in that picture had it much worse than I did. They were playing escaped convicts, and they captured me. They had to trudge through the mud, the swamps, pulling this rowboat, and I was sitting in the rowboat high and dry." However at the end of the film he had to dive into the water which "had snakes and stuff in it, and it was just terrible. But to Roger, it was like [shrugs], "So you get bit by a snake — big deal!"" It was a horrendous experience, I'll tell you — just the worst."[9]

Connors said he had to do scenes near an alligator in the water (it was tied up) and a rattlesnake which crawled over its leg (its mouth was taped). "I had nightmares for weeks after I got back, about that.. .big snake," said Connors.[9]

Ed Nelson, later of Peyton Place fame, was living in New Orleans at the time, working as a floor manager for WDSU, when he heard of the film. "I had the gut feeling that being a part of the Corman group would boost my career," Nelson said. "I was right."[3]

Nelson got himself a job behind the scenes on the movie and eventually was cast as a cop as well. Nelson later said, "I did everything: I was the location manager, I wrestled the alligator. I held it up in the water so that Mike [Touch] Connors could wrestle it. "[10] He added, ""This included bringing the limited supply of hot water to the almost primitive hotel rooms at the Georgian Manor so the performers and crew could bathe. I made hot coffee for the cast and crew, and maintained a cooler of cold Barq's Root Beer, Louisiana's favorite soft drink, when the heat was at its worst."[3]

Wild animals, such as an alligator and a rattlesnake, were hired from Arthur Jones, who then ran a roadside attraction off Highway 11 in Slidell.[3]

At the end of the film Garland's character was killed with a spear and fell out of a tree. She recalled:

They got me up in this tree and Roger said, "When you're killed, you have to drop"— and this was a big tree! I'm not exaggerating when I say it was at least a 20-foot drop. I said, "Well, will somebody be there?" And Roger said, "Yes, they’ll catch you." And by God, they had three guys underneath. And when they killed me, I just fell— dead weight- on these three poor guys! Roger said to me, "You're really one of the best stuntwomen I have ever worked with."[7]

After making the movie Nelson went to see Corman in Hollywood and went to work for him, doing all sorts of jobs as well as acting. Based on his behind the scenes help and his role, he would go on to appear in about 15 Corman productions. He returned to Louisiana to film another low budget movie, Bayou, shot near Barataria Bay.[3]

The MST3K version of the film was released by Rhino Home Video as part of the Collection, Volume 10 (out-of-print on both Rhino's and MST3K's official websites) and Collection, Volume 10.2 DVD sets. As of January 2010, Volume 10.2 is out-of-print on Rhino's official website, but still available on MST3K's official website.