A Roger Corman project into which Martin Scorsese injected his efficacious political statement, Boxcar Bertha is a violent Wild Boys of the Road, or a political Bonnie and Clyde - a Depression drama made for the exploitation market. Bertha (Barbara Hershey) leaves her rural home when her father is killed in a faulty crop duster. Angry and impoverished, she hops the freights where she meets up with union leader Big Bill Shelley (David Carradine), who makes like Robin Hood and steals from the railroad magnates to give to the union. Boxcar Bertha follows in the oft-interrupted tradition begun by Warners in the Thirties of being both a popular film and one which takes seriously the struggles of unions in America. In addition, its portraits of Depression “types” are historically revealing while kept from banality by the less than stereotypic stunts required by the plot. Inspired by the exploits of Boxcar Bertha Thompson, an Arkansas folk heroine of the Depression era, Bertha was Scorsese's first Hollywood venture, made at age 28.