Big Bad Mama, released in 1974, remains one of B-movie auteur Roger Corman’s most beloved, profitable, and enjoyable films. Following the proven Corman formula of ample boobs, violence, and future stars, Mama is still quite the guilty pleasure.
Essentially a Butch Cassidy/ Bonnie and Clyde rip-off, Mama stars Angie Dickinson as the tough title character Wilma McClutchie. Taking place during the 30’s depression era, the film opens with Wilma breaking up the marriage of one of her daughters Polly (Robbie Lee) and a pour rube of a boy. Seems Mama feels like her daughter deserves better than to toil in poverty as she had to. In the process of the breakup, a scuffle ensues (first catfight/boob shot alert) and Mama escapes with Polly, her other daughter Billy Jean (Susan Sennett), and horny bootlegger Uncle “Git your hand off my tit” Barney (Noble Willingham.) After an ensuing gunfight leaves Barney dead, Wilma attempts to pick up his bootlegging business. During one of her stops, we see Mama knock a fat woman on her ass and watch her wail helplessly like a turtle. Unfortunately, Polly, who happens to have a problem keeping her clothes on, is caught with the local deputy’s son and Mama has to spend all their cash to pay off the corrupt, jelly-loving sheriff.
Wilma and her girls then manage to rip off a room full of horny veterans and law enforcement officials (striptease alert), a crooked preacher, get mixed up in a bank robbery, and take on one of the robbers Fred Diller (Tom Skerritt) as a business partner. Mama, however, has a habit of sleeping with the men she considers business partners and (gratuitous sex scene alert) Fred is no exception. Fred and Wilma? Any Flinstones fans out there? Mama decides to knock off a racetrack next which results in not only another successful score but another business partner; this being the upper class gambler William J. Baxter ( Captain Kirk himself William Shatner who displays among other things a real comedic talent.) What results from this union is one of the most horrifying sex scenes ever put on film due to the fact that we are nearly exposed to Captain Kirk’s ass. Talk about phasers on stun.
With Fred being the odd man out, he decides he might as well have a threesome with Mama’s horny daughters. Wilma comes up with one last score involving the kidnapping of an obnoxious heiress for a million dollars that, of course, has no chance of succeeding. It’s not where you end up that’s important but the journey that gets you there. During this journey we learn many important things such as that it’s alright to screw your sister’s boyfriend as long as you don’t get her pregnant (Classic line: Billy Jean to Polly upon learning of her preggers; “Damn you Polly. I share Diller with you and you get knocked up,”) never trust girls giving out free doughnuts, and most importantly, that Angie Dickinson is not a natural blonde.
Made for less than $500,000 in 21 days, Big Bad Mama succeeds on most levels, albeit guilty ones. Primarily though it’s Angie Dickinson who deserves much of the credit for its success. Her Mama is not only one of the screen’s all-time bad ass chicks that paved the way for Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hamilton, and Angelina Jolie to name a few but is also one of the first liberated action heroines that shamelessly used her sex appeal to get what she wanted from men. Dickinson’s willingness to take a role like this that received a great deal of notoriety due to the nudity should be commended as well. The fact that, in her forties at the time, Dickinson looks better than her female co-stars half her age is amazing. She would later achieve TV stardom that year as Sgt. Suzanne “Pepper” Anderson on the show “Police Woman.”
The rest of the cast including Skerritt (still hot off of the film version of M.A.S.H.) and Shatner (always hot from Star Trek) are superb and make their respective characters memorable, funny, and touching. Director Steve Carver, who directed several other films for Corman during the 70’s, moves the story and action quickly at a brisk 84 minutes; always making time about every 5 to 10 minutes for some gunplay, car chase sequence, or boobs.
The documentary, featuring interviews with Corman, Dickinson, Shatner, director Steve Carver, and writers Francis Doel and William Norton, is extremely engaging with everyone taking a great deal of pride and joy in the picture and its success. There are humorous recollections of shooting the nude scenes and the controversy that stemmed from them as well as a fascinating unknown tidbit from Carver that Jerry Garcia did much of the guitar and banjo riffs on the soundtrack. The commentary is equally delightful with Dickinson providing the details about the actors and the shoot and Corman giving technical details regarding the locales and the behind the scenes making of the film.
Big Bad Mama remains a campy, raucous time. It makes no apologies for its driving forces (sex and violence) and does an admirable job of promoting family values, albeit very strange ones. While a widescreen transfer would’ve been nice, this Mama’s still a good pick-up.
Big Bad Mama - Special Edition is available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD's database for more information.
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