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 and 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 at Warners in the thirties, of being both a popular film and one which takes seriously the struggles of unions in America. Its Depression "types" are historically revealing but not stereotypical, thanks to the stunts required by the plot. Inspired by the exploits of Boxcar Bertha Thompson, an Arkansas folk heroine of the Depression era, Bertha, produced by Roger Corman, was Scorsese's first Hollywood venture, made at age twenty-eight.