Scorsese does Bonnie and Clyde

Boxcar Bertha (1972)

Roger Corman hired Martin Scorsese, then quite unknown film director, to make an exploitation flick. Scorsese did that, but the movie turned out to be a lot more than just an exploitation flick. The themes of the movie are quite similar to Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and there is a bit of an exploitative touch to it, but the rest is quite like trademark Scorsese. It's a story about a young woman, played quite brilliantly by Barbara Hershey, who during the depression era drifts into being a criminal. She's joined by a union leader, played by David Carradine, a card hustler, played by Barry Primus and an old friend, played by Bernie Casey. Together they make robberies, get caught, break out and same goes on. It's not the most original story and at parts the dialog is kind of corny, but it's not that bad either. The look is surprisingly like Scorsese's later movies so the touch is already there. This is the second feature length movie the maestro has done and even though he surely didn't have all the control over it, Corman being there to pull the strings, it still has many of those trademark moments. This is not among the best from Scorsese, but still it's well worth watching and a nice look into the early film making days of the maestro.
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