Boxcar Bertha (1972) on Netflix
In the Depression, Bertha Thompson rides the rails after her father's airplane crash. She falls in with Big Bill Shelly, who speaks for railway workers, and the pair anger a railway owner.
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- Netflix2.9/5
- IMDb6.0/1012,815 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes54%
Trailer
Plot summary
After her father's crop-dusting plane crashes, Bertha Thompson is left alone in the Depression-era South and takes to riding the rails. On the road she crosses paths with Big Bill Shelly, who argues for the rights of railway workers, and the two become lovers. They travel with Rake Brown, a gambler who cheats at cards, and Von Morton, who once worked as her father's mechanic. The four grow fiercely loyal to one another. Police harass them over the freight trains and Bill's union talk, and they also anger the railway owner H. Buckram Sartoris and the McIver brothers, who act as enforcers for the railroad and the authorities.
Cast
- David Osterhoutas McIver #2
- Joe Reynoldsas Joe Cox
- Marianne Doleas Mrs. Mailler
- Ann Morellas Tillie Parr
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Boxcar Bertha (1972)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- John Cassavetes watched a rough cut of Martin Scorsese's film and told him he had spent a year making "a piece of shit" but was better than the people who make exploitation movies; the advice pushed Scorsese toward his next film, Mean Streets.
- The film's $600,000 budget forced Martin Scorsese to reduce the size of the script and made him unable to film in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Texarkana.
- Scorsese's film was originally intended to end with Bertha dancing at a funeral in New Orleans surrounded by black people.
- Martin Scorsese said he completely rewrote the character Rake Brown to the point that Brown came to represent the director himself in the film.
