# Swamp Witch - Did they ever do a movie?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swamp-witch-did-they-ever-do-a-movie/548613>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 30, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swamp-witch-did-they-ever-do-a-movie/548613 "2010-07-30T18:39:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swamp-witch-did-they-ever-do-a-movie/548613/1 "2010-07-30T18:39:59Z")

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Jim Stafford’s _Swamp Witch_ is one of the best story songs. The character and scenery is so vivid. There’s a movie just waiting to be made. Did they ever do one?

I still get shivers from this song. The imaginary is so good. 😉

[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7cowc\_jim-stafford-swamp-witch-hattie-hq\_music](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7cowc_jim-stafford-swamp-witch-hattie-hq_music)

Black water Hattie lived back in the swamp  
Where the strange green reptiles crawl  
Snakes hang thick from the cypress trees

Like sausage on a smokehouse wall  
Where the swamp is alive with a thousand eyes  
An’ all of them watching you  
Stay off the track to Hattie’s Shack in the back of the Black Bayou  
Way up the road from Hattie’s Shack  
Lies a sleepy little Okeechobee town

Talk of swamp witch Hattie lock you in when the sun go down  
Rumours of what she’d done, rumours of what she’d do  
Kept folks off the track of Hattie’s shack  
In the back of the Black Bayou

\<snip\>  
last verse

Party of ten of the town’s best men headed for Hattie’s shack  
Said Swamp Witch magic was useful and good

And they’re gonna bring Hattie back  
Never found Hattie and they never found the shack  
Never made the trip back in  
There was a parchment note they found tacked to a stump

Said, “Don’t come look’n again”

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**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swamp-witch-did-they-ever-do-a-movie/548613/2 "2010-07-30T19:47:48Z")

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Rather than the imagery I was impressed that they wanted to thank her for saving the town and she apparently killed those who came looking for her.

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**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swamp-witch-did-they-ever-do-a-movie/548613/3 "2010-07-30T20:48:30Z")

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I don’t think the men were killed.

The last verse only says they didn’t return to the swamp because of the warning.

I suspect the movie version would kill a few of the men. 😉 A good movie thriller needs a few dead victims.

I first heard this song in junior high. It scared the heck out of me.