How Long Is “Boxcar Bertha”?

Martin Scorsese's first 'recognised' feature film sees Barbara Hershey play the title role, who is in love with union organiser David Carradine in Depression-hit America. Forced by anti-unionists to go on the run, they take to riding the rails and then to robbing the trains themselves as the railroad management become determined to make an example of them. The film is based on a real character, Boxcar Bertha Thompson, who told her story in the book Sister of the Road, Produced by Roger Corman and directed by Martin Scorsese, Boxcar Bertha is a Bonnie and Clyde-like yarn set during the Depression. The title character, played by Barbara Hershey, links up with union organizer David Carradine (Hershey's real-life lover at the time) after the death of her father. Running afoul of anti-union forces, Bertha and Carradine are forced into a life of crime. Whereas Bonnie and Clyde robbed banks, Boxcar Bertha's specialty is trains. A story of this nature can only end in tragedy, and wait until you see Carradine's symbolic demise! For the record, there really was a Boxcar Bertha Thompson, and it is her autobiography, Sister of the Road, that serves as the basis for Joyce and John Corrington's screenplay.