Strangler Of The Swamp
Image Entertainment
DVD 58 minutes, B&W, 1946

review by Shade Rupe

A favorite of film historian William K. Everson, Strangler of the Swampis a classic horror film exhibiting the noir style of the Val Lewton films, using its darkened backdrops as a vehicle for the storytelling.
Three women take the barge across the lake, expressing their idea that ferryman Douglas may have not been guilty of the murder he was accused of years ago, and that his incrimination of murder may be a wrongdoing. They are also very afraid of ferryman Douglas' spirit, the swamp strangler, but the townsmen tell them that there is no such ghost. A noose hangs overhead as the three, delivering their lines as if they were the Three Sisters from Shakespeare's Macbeth, mentioning that a village man was found with a noose around his neck. The women beleaguer ferryman Joseph with their fears and admonish him for leaving up an old noose at the other end of the barge trip.
Ferryman Douglas appears out of the misty swamp for Joseph, and the long-tied noose appears. Joseph throws the deadly rope in the air only to have it land right around his neck, tying itself off in the process. The ghost pulls himself back across the lake, remembering his previous occupation. Young, sweet Maria comes back to town to see her grandfather and takes over his job of ferryman, and she proves to have even more skills than tugging a barge across a swamp.
The shadowed, dark backgrounds of the film may first appear to be an effect of a murky film stock or transfer to video, while in fact they serve as spaces for the apparition of the strangler to manifest. Congealing out of the blackness, the strangler, played by Charles Middleton, the man who created the role of Ming The Merciless in the Flash Gordonserials, becomes a shimmering ghost of a man, only becoming visible in the swamp's darkest spots. This pre-morphing effect of the strangler's materialization effectively transcribes the dark, brooding black and white horror of the villager's fears.
Lucky to have been saved at all, there are a few rough spots in the film print, with a bit of weaving a half hour in and a few scratches and jumps, but the film's strength overcomes these small glitches. A very young Blake Edwards, before directing 10,Victor/Victoriaand S.O.B.performs as a hopeful suitor for Maria's beauty, adding another reason to view this classic release from Image.

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