Frauen in Ketten

Eddie Romero's "Black Mama, White Mama" aka "Chained Women" of 1972 is a stylish and funny 'Women in Prison' exploitation flick full of the usual ingredients like violence, catfights and shower- and lesbian scenes. The movie's highlight is, of course, the great Pam Grier.

Locked up in a brutal prison camp on a tropical island, blonde revolutionary Karen Brent(Margaret Markov) and former black prostitute Lee Daniels (Pam Grier) are constantly having beef with each other. Chained together by the sadistic lesbian prison wardens, the two escape from a con transport. Chased by henchmen of the drug-lord who used to have Lee locked up as a harem-girl, gangsters and the police, the two fugitives have different destinations. While Karen has to find her guerrilla friends, Lee must reach a boat with a case full of cash. On the run, the two have quite some fights, but since they are chained together, they have to get along.

"Black Mama, White Mama" is pretty violent and a typical exploitation flick, lots of shootouts, occasional torture, many catfights and naked breasts. The acting in this movie differs. Pam Grier is great as always, and so is sexy Margaret Markov as Karen. Sid Haig's performance as Ruben, a slightly insane gangster in a cowboy outfit, is another highlight in "Black Mama, White Mama" and makes the movie a lot funnier. The rest of the acting is nothing special, typical B-movie performances, some better some worse. A fan of Pam Grier and lover of blaxploitation classics like "Coffy" as well as films like "Jackie Brown", I found "Black Mama, White Mama" very entertaining. Not one of Pam Grier's best movies, but better than most 'Women's prison' flicks, this is a violent and fun film and definitely worth watching.

Hellcats/The Hot Box duo Viola and Demme next paired the winning combination of Pam Grier and Sid Haig in yet another prison film, Women In Chains/Black Mama White Mama. Blonde revolutionary Margaret Markov and sworn enemy Grier, who thinks Markov's revolution is "jive-ass", bust out of prison chained together in a 70s gender reversal of The Defiant Ones. They continue to bitch and scratch each other as they head across the countryside (at one point dressed as nuns!) to meet up with Markov's bandit buddies. Sid Haig is the comedy relief in a cowboy hat as the lead bandit, and in one scene has two naked women riding him like a horse. Haig continued to work with Pam in Coffy and Foxy Brown, and was much later cast by Tarantino in a fitting touch as the sympathetic judge across from Grier in Jackie Brown.

Prostitute Lee Daniels (Pam Grier) and revolutionary Karen Brent (Margaret Markov) are prisoners who don't get along. They are chained together on a transport to maximum security when Karen's friends try to free her. The two women manage to escape while the revolutionaries battle with the police. The women dress up as nuns and bicker with different plans. Captain Cruz wants them Dead or Alive and recruits gang leader Ruben (Sid Haig).

It's blaxploitation. It's sexploitation. It's a B-movie beyond a doubt. There are lots of boobs. The girls are bad mofos and one of them is Pam freaking Grier. Their uniforms are short. There are surprisingly funny moments like the dick measuring. It's not winning any awards although it's not trying to be that. It does what it intends to do. The title is ridiculous and perfectly memorable. All in all, it is better than it has any rights to be.

Dig it! You've got your black mama. You've got your white mama. You've got your lesbian prison guards. You've got your female prison shower scene. (That lasts about 5 minutes). You've got your tough Filipino gangsters. You've got your corrupt police man. You've got a Che Guevara like revolutionary leader. Put this together and what do you get? Pure cinematic goodness. This isn't a great movie. But hell, its a lot of fun. Pam Grier is great as usual as one of the mama's.(I'll let you guess which one.) Plenty of violence and nudity to spare. Don't go looking for this in the family section of your video store. Oh yeah, the story was written by Jonathan Demme. (Seriously!)

Pam Grier and Margaret Markov are the Black Mama and White Mama respectively, Two escapees from a womens' prison, in this exploitation flick. Actually pretty good in a B-movie way. It's not Jonathan Demme's best writing credit ( that would be Caged Heat), and not Pam Grier's best movie (or 5th best movie... or 10th best movie.. or even.. well you get the gist), but it IS Margaret Markov's best film AND it does have Sid Haig (who's good in anything,pretty much the ONLY actor i liked in that "House of 1,000 Corpses" travesty)

My Rating: B-

Eye Candy: shower scene, Pam & Margaret topless in the "hot box", Various hookers, & a 3-way

Where i saw it: TMC Extra