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Bloody Mama
[MGM]
1970; color
Directed by Roger Corman
Starring: Shelley Winters, Pat Hingle, Don Stroud, Diane Varsi, Bruce Dern, Clint Kimbrough, Robert De Niro, Robert Walden & Alex Nicol
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At first glance this movie seems like one of Corman's biggest budget films, with beautiful vintage autos and reasonably period-correct small towns and plantation houses. Once you factor in that it was "Filmed Entirely In The State Of Arkansas" in 1969 though, you realize it's more of RC's making the most out of the least methodology. Bloody Mama differs from a number of his other films in that, despite it's truly exploitative (if not downright sleazy) nature, the acting is top-notch and the movie itself is almost mainstream. (Emphasis on almost.) Shelley Winters rules the roost as Ma Barker, mother of the notorious Barker boys, whose real life exploits of bank robbery and kidnappings (as part of the Barker-Karpis gang) made them front page news in the 1930s, right alongside Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger. In Bloody Mama however, there is no Karpis side of the gang, just Ma and her boys. Things start off with Ma leaving town with her brood in tow because of an alleged rape of a local girl. Once they're on the road petty larceny gradually escalates to full-blown bank robbery and beyond. In the beginning Ma has full knowledge her boys are criminals and condones it but, once she starts becoming one of the robbers, she seems resigned to her fate. Even murder, which initially repulses her, becomes just another chore and part of the life they lead. Bloody Mama's dirty little heart lies in it's sexual overtones that help to maintain a more than modest level of perversion throughout. Starting with the film's opening scene, where a young Kate Barker (like maybe 12 or 13) is held down by her brothers so her father can rape her, through all the casual sex everyone in the family seems to engage in in front of everyone else - including all the implications of incest between Ma and her boys and the gay relationship between one of her son and his prison buddy. (Played by Bruce Dern; who's character is also more than happy to screw Ma at her request.) The only person not interested in sex all the time is son Lloyd (Robert De Niro) and that's because he's a junkie. It is kinda interesting to see his character evolve from huffing glue while making model airplanes to shooting up and eventually OD'ing just before the film's bloody grand finale. Truly twisted to it's core, Bloody Mama is a wild ride no exploitation fan, or especially Roger Corman or Shelley Winters fan, should miss.
—the Kommandant
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