Mean Mother

Mean Mother (1974)

* (out of 4)

Another patch job from director Al Adamson and producer Sam Sherman. This here was originally a Spanish movie directed by León Klimovsky but Sherman bought the U.S. rights but when he realized it wouldn't sell, he hired Adamson to shoot new footage and turn it into a Blaxploitation film. The story centers on two Vietnam men, one white and one black (Clifton Brown), who go AWOL and get into a life of crime, which adds up to nothing. Whenever you take one film, edit it down and then try to add new scenes around it, more often than not you're going to be left with some incomprehensible mess, which MEAN MOTHER certainly is. With that said, I've actually seen worst from Adamson who was used to mixing and matching movies since it was something he'd do throughout his career. I think what keeps this film slightly entertaining is the fact that both films are just so different yet seeing them together just as a unique and weird feel to it. I will also admit that I thought Adamson did a decent job at mixing the two together and especially when you consider how this type of thing should never be done and especially with these two stories. Still, the film is a complete mess with the typical low-budget bad acting, bad direction and bad cinematography. This is to be expected whenever the director's main job is to get a film in the can for cheap and not to be trying to make some sort of masterpiece. As awful as the film is there's still something that unique to the work of Adamson and it rings true here. I don't think anyone would consider him a good filmmaker but you've got to at least give him credit for trying anything to try and bring a film together.

"Mean Mother" is very different from those other exploitation films of the 70's. This one takes place in Europe.

It's about two Vietnam war buddies who go AWOL and go to Europe; the African-American goes to Spain, the Caucasian goes to Rome, Italy. They both get involved in the crime world and somehow meet again in Rome, Italy. They both meet lovely ladies and all four plan their escape to Canada.

Some of the situations are believable and the action scenes are fair. The dialogue has its moments (bad and good). The film even has a love story. Some of the indoor scenes are shot in vivid colors by Deluxe (not that washed out natural color of today's films). It seems that the film was shot on location (you do see the Coliseum in one scene).

Some scenes are funny: bikini-clad woman with blonde wig having car trouble on a remote hillside road who speaks like Marilyn Monroe; love-making on a grassy-leafy patio by a pool.

Normally this type of film deals with somebody plotting revenge for some type of drug-deal gone wrong, but not this film. It's of the same genre, but different. Give it a try, you may like it. And that 70's touch helps a lot.

This movie essentially begins with two soldiers named "Beauregard Jones" (Dobie Gray) and "Joe" (Dennis Safron) who decide to desert while serving overseas in Vietnam. While Beauregard takes a tramp steamer to Spain, Joe flies under a fake passport to Italy as part of a gold smuggling operation. Upon reaching their destinations Beauregard accidentally crosses the Syndicate and has to leave Spain with them hot on his heels due to their mistaken belief that he has stolen some valuable merchandise from them. So with limited assets and nowhere else to turn he decides to travel to Italy in search of Joe. Meanwhile, in Italy, Joe has managed to make ends meet by doing odd jobs here and there for the same people who hired him as a smuggler and has met a beautiful woman named "Therese" (Luciana Paluzzi) in the process. But even though he would like to settle down and raise a family with her he realizes that being an army deserter carries its own risks and would be a serious liability for the two of them. And then Beauregard suddenly shows up with problems that threaten all of their plans and aspirations. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I initially thought that this was a standard "Blaxploitation" movie from the 70's with a plot which would probably follow the usual pattern . What I didn't know was that this film borrowed heavily from another movie titled "Run for Your Life" and essentially morphed into something that it was never initially intended to be. This helps to explain the meandering plot and the choppy effect from one scene to another. That said, although I admired the manner in which the makers of this film managed to cut-and-paste scenes from another movie to create something entirely different, I have to say that the overall picture lacked balance and solidity. Additionally, while the acting was tolerable, the special effects and action scenes definitely had room for improvement as well. In short, about the only thing going for this movie was the presence of Luciana Paluzzi and to a lesser extent Marilyn Joi (as Beauregard's girlfriend "Joy"). Other than that this film was rather cheap and uninspired and because of that I have rated it accordingly.

During his career directing movies, Al Adamson has created an infamous list of films to his credit. I would clearly put him on the list of 10 worst directors in history, with garbage pictures like "Psycho A Go-Go", "Angels' Wild Women", "The Naughty Stewardesses", "Horror of the Blood Monsters", and "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" to his credit (or discredit). Aside from, perhaps, William Grefe, Ray Dennis Steckler and Ed Wood...I honestly can't think of a worse director! But deciding which of these is worse is akin to choosing between having Ebola, cancer or a flesh-eating virus...they're all very nasty!

Well, with "Mean Mother", Al's at it again. But instead of his usual garbage film, this time he secured the rights to a Spanish film. He then hacked the movie apart and inserted a few new scenes and, voila, an all-new blacksploitation movie!! If this isn't a recipe for disaster, I don't know what is!

Oddly, "Mean Mother" stars Dobie Gray....a man known for singing pop tunes like "Drift Away". And, you can tell that Gray is no actor, with stilted delivery of his lines and some hilariously bad fight scenes that look as if they're all being done in slow-motion! And, most of the time he just appears to be slapping his enemies silly!

The story begins in the 1970s but then there's a long flashback where you see Beauregard Jones (Gray) meeting up with a white guy and becoming friends with him in Vietnam. Years pass and they each go their separate ways...but both paths lead to a life of crime. Now, back in the present, the two are reunited.

Aside from seeing the gorgeous Luciana Paluzzi (a Bond villainess in "Thunderball"), there isn't a lot to recommend here. The fight scenes are silly and completely unchoreographed, the acting is amateurish and the overall picture, despite the action, is awfully slow and dull. Heck, the sound is even bad--with some characters sounding a bit loud and others being almost impossible to hear! Still, for an Adamson film my complaints are NOT that severe. Now I am not saying any of this is good...it isn't. But it's not among the director's schlockiest...though this isn't saying much!

I can usually find something good, or worthwhile, in most movies. Here, I can say Lucianna Paluzzi's the best thing about this show. BUT, even she couldn't save it. The stunt work was pathetic, I probably did this good, or better, as a kid and this was supposed to professional???!!! Everything was done slowly, without it being slowed down to show the fast action, it was DONE SLOWLY, poorly choreographed and executed. It was just embarrassing. The black guy, who wound up having most of the action/fight scenes, was SO out of shape you could see why his stunt work wasn't better. The acting was on par with the stunt work. If you want to catch another 70's black action flick because you want to have complete knowledge of the genre, here's the worst. If you want something entertaining, get Black Godfather, Cotton Comes To Harlem, or any Fred Williamson flick, these were at least good, and you'll be glad you skipped this one.