Big Bad Mama (1974)

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

BIG BAD MAMA is an outrageously cheesy 1930s-era crime comedy from producer Roger Corman; think of it as an over-the-top riff on BONNIE & CLYDE and you'll be right. The slick, speedy storyline involves Angie Dickinson as the titular character, a machine gun-toting criminal who, along with her teenage daughters, wreaks havoc throughout rural Texas. Other notable additions to the cast include Dick Miller as a dedicated lawman, Tom Skerritt as a wildman, and the great William Shatner as a shady character who falls in with the outlaws. The film is very much an exploitation picture, with a simple plot, lots of action and movement, and plenty of nudity from the female cast members. It builds up to an insanely violent climax that attempts to go one better than BONNIE & CLYDE and succeeds admirably.

Mama (Angie Dickinson) and daughters get forced by circumstances into bootlegging and bank robbing, and travel across the country trailed by the law.According to director Steve Carver, Angie Dickinson allowed the crew to remain on set during the filming of her sex scene with Tom Skerritt, but William Shatner asked for all nonessential crew to be removed during his sex scene with Dickinson. What a prude! Though you do see more of Shatner than you probably ever wanted to.More than anything else, this film is probably known for its gratuitous nudity. One wonders how low Angie Dickinson's career sunk that she would agree to this. Being a Corman film, she could not have been making much more than union wages.

Released in 1974 and not viewed again since I saw it in a local late night theatre back then, I remembered this only as a rather crude B film which provided an enjoyable romp for killing a few hours, but was not intended to leave any lasting memories. I was vastly surprised when I saw it listed on Turner's Classic Movies program recently. A Classic! - what was wrong with my recollections of it.? So I decided to watch it again and find out. As I remembered, it was a well made but essentially very bad film, most of which is in very poor taste and was difficult to justify watching. Nevertheless it proved to be a classic guilty pleasure that I kept remembering and drawing amusement from for a long time afterwards, so I found myself again facing the eternal question to be answered by every movie enthusiast - what constitutes a good movie? Does it have to be educational, enlightening or inspirational? Can't it just be lighthearted fun, perhaps in bad taste, but nevertheless welcomed for providing a little real relaxation after a period of hard work? I have always accepted the latter position, so after re-watching Big Bad Mama I am happy to report that, although it is a movie in rank bad taste which deserves only a low IMDb rating, it provides a hilarious and very enjoyable viewing experience. I am now on the lookout for its successor "Big Bad Mama 2 " which I have never seen.Its failures are largely in content, it makes fun of every serious concern it can look at during a relatively short running time of just over 80 min (ideal for cramming onto an 80 min VCD disk). These are all covered at a cracking pace that leaves viewers with little chance to think seriously about any message. In retrospect I am sure it tackled as many targets as it could possibly cover, but with no objective other than to amuse, certainly with no intention of forcing us to think. Politics, religion, the law, prohibition, misuse of firearms, bootlegging, taxes, burlesque, kidnapping - you name it they were mostly there (although I do not remember any references to race relations, which was probably wise.) Its period was set squarely in the middle of the depression and the location was somewhere in the deep south of the USA where this was biting particularly severely. The pace was such that each sequence tended to end just a tad too soon, so there was no opportunity for any boredom. Its ending was interesting. As Mama with her daughters escaped from their last shoot out, (apparently) with a minor wound to her arm, she suddenly collapsed and passed out. Her implied death tied up loose ends and no doubt pleased advocates of Hayes Code, morality rules, without prohibiting her eventual recovery to participate in a sequel 13 years later. Bravo RC - too many sequels created recently have been spoiled by illegitimately changing the ending of the original film.What more should I say? First I should commend Angie Dickinson who has undertaken an incredible range of roles over almost 50 years. Perhaps none were truly memorable, but I can't remember going home unhappy after seeing any of them. This film earns one star for excellent photography, including some extremely enjoyable shots of many delightful 1930 era vehicles, another for Roger Corman's usual impeccable direction - it is incredible how many different genres of film he has made that deserve this comment, and a third for its very acceptable acting - far above what I remember as the standard I used to expect from B movies, especially those seen in Drive-in theatres. Despite its entertainment value; I found difficulty in justifying another star without ignoring artistic quality, but eventually recognised its outstanding and almost unmatched pacing by awarding a fourth. I must also thank TCM for giving me this chance to see it again, and look forward to doing so next time if they decide to give it another spin. If not - with a bit of searching I might find a DVD still available, or perhaps I should suggest the release of a Blue-ray edition.

This is one of those films, where you kick yourself for listening to critics who, at the time, trashed this film. Finally saw it and while it is, as some suggest, "trashy," this is one of the most entertaining films I've seen in quite some time.I've always admired the talent of Mr Corman and his production of BBM is, for me, one of the highlights of his career. I've no illusions that his fans will suggest otherwise however this is a film that grabs you by the lapels, if one has lapels that is, and doesn't let go! Steve Carver takes a VERY low budget and gets the maximum out of it, there are some performances in this movie that will demonstrate the talents of some of your favorite actors that other, more popular and acclaimed films will NOT. As someone who is NOT a Tom Skerrit fan I've got to admit he was the standout actor in this, (I refuse to refer to actresses as 'actors', he really is a talented man. However the standout is the truly gorgeous Angie Dickinson, I knew she could act, I just never realized just how beautiful and sexy she really is, until this film. She singlehandedly transcends the material and thereby lifts BBM out of "trash" into a slam-bang adventure/crime/sex romp that is stunning. The supporting cast is excellent, however outside of 'Succubus' I've not quite gotten the appeal of William Shatner, at least in any serious sense. think we all realize how much talent got early starts in Corman films and I think you will also enjoy noting those who went on to do excellent work in other films and especially TV, such as Michael Talbott of "Miami Vice" TV series.After watching this film I felt rather upbeat, BBM is the sort of fun film that we used to see more of, sans all that CGI and other expensive and often tawdry special effects, good entertainment that takes one out of the humdrum and into a place where ordinary belief is suspended and one is cheering for the heroes, albeit not the nicest heroes/heroines, wink.One can only wonder if there is a Director's cut somewhere as this is rated 'R', Angie Dickinson, Wow! Did I mention Wow?