If you got the idea from Bonnie and Clyde that the life of an outlaw in the Thirties was a rip-roaring game of cops and robbers, the just-released film Boxcar Bertha, starring Barbara Hershey and David Carradine, should set you straight. The story of a legendary woman train heister who terrorized the South Central United States, Bertha depicts the bitter struggle between labor organizers and the railroad companies that oppressed employees with threats of lockouts and withheld wages. "I think the movie's more real than Bonnie and Clyde," says Carradine, who portrays Bertha's cohort and lover, Big Bill Shelley. "The people aren't romantic; they're just lowly workers fighting a corporate tyrant."
Besides their rebellion against railroad czar H. Buckram Sartoris (played by John Carradine, David's father), Bertha and Bill also share a common desire--for honest love and good sex. And if their passionate scenes seem more true to life than most screen encounters, it's no accident: Barbara and David have been sharing bed and board for several years and, what's more, she's now pregnant with his child. "Doing the sex scenes with David was very good," says Barbara, who starred in TV's The Monroes and several films, including Last Summer and The Babymaker. "We wanted to really make it, though it was hard with the camera crews around. But we sure didn't have to fake anything." Obviously not.
