Black Mama White Mama

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.

"Black Mama, White Mama" has something for everyone. Everyone, that is, who walks directly to the "Action/Adventure" section upon entering their local video store. First, it starts out in a woman's prison in some random South/Central American country. Second, the suggestions of lesbianism that this setting offers are set into hyper-warp by the chaining together of the two rivals for the lead, Pam Grier and Margaret Markov, while they wear nothing but skimpy prison tunics. They go on the run together while the film makes various unnecessary-yet-entertaining visits to all of those on their trail: Grier's former pimp, government agents after Markov, and, last but not least, Sid Haig's delightfully flamboyant "cowboy" character. This is a video that's not necessarily fun for ALL, but rather, a video that's fun for all who keep video stores in business.

When two trouble-making female prisoners (one a revolutionary, the other a former harem-girl) can't seem to get along, they are chained together and extradited for safekeeping. The women, still chained together, stumble, stab, and cat-fight their way across the wilderness, igniting a bloody shootout between gangsters and a group of revolutionaries.

From a story by pre-fame Jonathan Demme, this is partly an homage to the 1958 classic "The Defiant Ones", which structured the same type of situation for its leading characters, played by Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier. Then we bring on director Eddie Romero, who was an actual Filipino director who worked primary in the Tagalog language. Well done, AIP, for not bringing in your own guy.

There were a number of jungle revolutionary films in the early 1970s, starting with Jack Hill's "Big Doll House" (1971), also starring Pam Grier. Actually, Grier was the queen of 1970s Filipino jungle women-in-prison films, also appearing in Hill's "The Big Bird Cage" (1972), plus Gerardo de León's "Women in Cages" (1971). Grier really made her name in these type of films before transitioning to "Foxy Brown".

Grier's co-star Margaret Markov also appeared in "The Hot Box" (again written by Jonathan Demme). She starred opposite Pam Grier again in "The Arena" (1974). She never quite reached the level of Grier because during the making of the latter she started dating producer Mark Damon (who had risen to fame through Roger Corman); the two later married and Markov retired.

The Arrow Video disc features an audio commentary with filmmaker Andrew Leavold, director of "The Search for Weng Weng". He loves to recommend the documentary "Machete Maidens Unleashed", and I would second that if you want to see how "Black Mama" fits into the whole Filipino action film cycle.

We also have new interviews with stars Margaret Markov and Sid Haig. Markov covers the entire breadth of her career, even spending time discussing Rock Hudson and Gene Roddenberry on "Pretty Maids All in a Row" (1971). Haig had many films in Philippines, so he has a few tales to tale. We are treated to a previously unseen archive interview with director Eddie Romero. (Exactly why an interview would have been filmed and not used, I don't know.) What is missing? An interview or commentary from David Sheldon, as on the disc for "Sheba Baby". Sheldon has contributed by far the best audio commentary in years, and we really need more of those from him.

***

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.

Wow, this one just about defies description! Although the filmmakers seem to take the project a bit too seriously, our stars (Pam Grier and Margaret Markov) seem to be enjoying themselves. There's sadistic female guards, showers, a prison break, shootouts between revolutionaries and police. This film really typifies the genre.

Despite some of the dire happenings (blood flows like water) the film has a light-hearted feel. It's pure entertainment material, and doesn't pretend to be anything else. The heroines, Grier and Markov, really are the shining lights of this piece. One wonders how they could roll in the mud and catfight their way cross-country without mussing their uniforms. Talented women, they are. A funny note, at least in my opinion, is that Grier's character wears black underpants, and Markov's white.

See it, enjoy it, have a good giggle.