Based on a true story, Boxcar Bertha is a spellbinding tale of railroad renegades and runaway romance. Bristling with energy and the raw, “sensual” (Motion Picture Herald) performances of Barbara Hershey and David Carradine, the film delivers a “humor and warmth” (Cue) that’s right on track! Free-spirited Bertha (Hershey) is a small-time crook with a “love ‘em and leave ‘em” philosophy… until she falls hard for union man – and Robin-Hood-of-the-rails – Big Bill Shelly (Carradine). Stealing from the rich and giving to the workers, Bertha and Bill soon become the most notorious train robbers in the South. But as their crimes grow more brazen, the law grows more ruthless, and the duo discover that their lifetime of larceny may have brought them a one-way ticket to a deadly destination. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios)
“Boxcar Bertha is a weirdly interesting movie and not really the sleazy exploitation film the ads promise. I have the notion that Roger Corman, American-International’s most successful producer of exploitation films, sent his actors and crew South with the hope of getting a nice, simple, sexy, violent movie for the summer trade. What he got is something else, and something better. Director Martin Scorsese has gone for mood and atmosphere more than for action, and his violence is always blunt and unpleasant — never liberating and exhilarating, as the New Violence is supposed to be. We get the feeling we’re inhabiting the dark night of a soul. Scorsese remains one of the bright young hopes of American movies.” – Roger Ebert
