Bloody Mama

This film is Roger Corman and Sam Arkoff's answer to "Bonnie and Clyde". But not only did they take the theme of Depression-era gangsters, they also borrowed the idea of completely eradicating the facts. I would be hard-pressed to name one thing in this film that was based a real event.

That being said, it has some historical merit. Shelley Winters gives a good performance, and has said she was proud of the film (which she oddly enough promoted as a film denouncing violence, despite its clearly violent nature). She even allegedly took a punch to the face, resulting in a nose injury bad enough to get X-rays.

Bruce Dern and Robert DeNiro give some of the earliest performances of their careers, and any DeNiro fan who has not seen him in this is really missing out on his humble beginnings. These days, he is past his prime, making cheesy comedies. But have you seen him before his prime?

Perhaps most interesting, this was the big-screen debut of cinematographer John A. Alonzo. While he may not be well-known, he did go on to film "Harold and Maude", "Chinatown" and "Scarface" and snagged an Oscar nomination. Not bad for a graduate of the Corman School.

The most colorful epoch of criminality in America during the Depression era is brought to life in this story of a bank-robber family , in a period when any employment, even illegal, was cherished, ambition, money and power originated an interminable cycle of fury and violence. The infamous Ma Barker ( Shelley Winters)'s blood-thirsty gang of the 30s backed by his four rare sons ( Robert De Niro, Robert Walden, Clint, Don Stroud) carry out heists to banks and a crime spree that gets even bigger when she dreams up an abducting plot , its a fast road to ruin. A hooker ( Diane Varsi) appears to be falling for the moronic sibling (Don Stroud as the sadistic mama lover). Later on, they hook up with Robert Walden's (as the homosexual ex-con) prison lover, Bruce Dern. Meanwhile a wealthy businessman ( Pat Hingle) is kidnapped by the grotesques family led by the sadistic mummy. Based on the biography of the violent careers of Ma Barker, named Arizona Clark (1877-1935) and his perverted sons, who roamed the South robbing banks during the Depression as Missouri, Texas, and Florida . They're joined by nefarious criminal Alvin Karpis who doesn't appear at the movie.

This is a perverse stew of murders, pronounced bloodshed, sentimental blood bonding, action , lots of violence and with a bullet-ridden ending . Overacting by Shelley Winters as sex-crazed lady killer and machine-gun toting mother. Imaginative musical score and evocative cinematography by classic cameraman John A Alonzo . Director and producer( along with Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson : American International) Roger Corman skillfully blends extreme violence that was highly controversial and some good scenes action. Good camera work, slick edition and nice 1930s period sets in average budget.

Followed by ¨Big Bad mama¨ (1974) by Steve Carver with Angie Dickinson, William Shatner, Tom Skerrit and ¨Big bad mama II¨ (1988) with Dickinson, Robert Culp and Julie McCullough. And a remake titled ¨Public enemies¨(96) by Mark L Lester with Theresa Russel Eric Roberts, Alyssa Milano and Frank Stallone. Furthermore, ¨The Grisson gang¨ (1971) by Robert Aldrich with Kim Darby and Scott Wilson.

Trashy gangster picture from Roger Corman about Ma Barker and her criminal sons. It's very loosely based on the real people. I won't say it's uninteresting but it sure isn't much fun. It's violent, schlocky, and quite frankly, gross. I didn't care about anybody in the movie, which made it hard to become invested in the plot. It does have a nice cast, though. Shelly Winters gets a lot of flack for this movie but I thought she was pretty good. Robert De Niro appears in an early role. I missed his name in the credits so when I saw him I couldn't believe it was really him. Bruce Dern, Don Stroud, Pat Hingle, and Scatman Crothers are among the other solid actors in the cast. Like I said, it's not much fun but it's worth a look. I did love that corny theme song.

"Blood's thicker than water," explains Shelley Winters' pious and psychotic Ma Barker. Based extremely loosely on the exploits of Ma Barker and her sons, who went on a crime spree during the 1920's and was chased by J. Edgar Hoover's newly formed F.B.I., director Roger Corman reverses the familiar pre-credits text by stating 'any similarity to Kate Barker and her sons is intentional." The truth is that the real Ma Barker had very little to do with the organisation of her family's criminal activities, but Corman gives her to Shelley Winters who grabs the role and runs away with it. This is a loud, crude, violent film, about a bunch of despicable characters. But Corman does something that is rarely done and delves into the psychology of these gangsters, and, although it's hardly Freud, comes up with some interesting and uncomfortable answers.

Leaving her home and husband in Arkansas, Ma Barker and her four sons - the towering brute Herman (Don Stroud), the practical Arthur (Clint Kimbrough), the submissive, bisexual Fred (Robert Walden), and the quiet, drug-addled Lloyd (Robert De Niro) - embark on a petty crime spree on the command of Ma. Herman and Fred find themselves locked away for petty theft, and inside, Fred is dominated by the violent Kevin (Bruce Dern), who joins Ma and her boys when they are released from prison. As their notoriety grows, the family kidnap wealthy businessman Sam (Pat Hingle) and hold him for ransom. When the boys start bonding with the father figure, cracks begin to appear in the gang.

On the surface this is just a cheap exploitation film made the master of the quickie, but it has recently received some acclaim for its unorthodox portrayal of its ugly characters. There's more than a hint of incest that runs throughout the film, conveyed in Ma's hyper-sexual activity and Herman's hesitation to leave his mother's breast. It is also often quite disturbing, as the lengths that Ma will go to in order to protect her sons becomes evident as she drowns an innocent young woman who Lloyd rapes. The performances are noticeably excellent too, especially Winters, who gives Ma a vulnerability in her need to have strong men around her, and Dern, who is creepy as the alpha-male whose sexual preferences is somewhat questionable. This is one of the finest examples of Corman's skill as a director, using limited resources to create a genre film that still stands out in a crowded marketplace, never ashamed to embrace it's exploitation roots, but bold enough to dig that little bit deeper.

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This is an amazing film for 1970, and a good film to watch by itself today. A true gangster story, with no romantics at all. Evil people do evil things, they just do them because they are stupid and degenerated. No social comment is being made, and this is actually the best decision the script writer and the director could make. Only a completly social careless society can let such people 'enjoy the freedom', with the execution squad being the only 'educational tool' it knows. The viewer gets it by itself. The mix of documentary with the true story is discrete and smart. I liked the movie, and gave it 8/10 on my personal scale.