Big Bad Mama (1974)

Mother Hood

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Big Bad Mama on DVD

Roger Corman produced this lackadaisical, Robert Altman-like crime comedy, probably inspired both by Bonnie and Clyde and M*A*S*H. It's a free-spirited, hippie-era film -- with lots of nudity -- set in the depression era. A mother, Wilma McClatchie (Angie Dickinson), and her two teen daughters, Billy Jean (Susan Sennett) and Polly (Robbie Lee) hit the road and begin a kind of unplanned crime spree. Their motivation is to "never be poor again." They team up with professional robber Fred Diller (Tom Skerritt) and then a kindly Southern hustler, William J. Baxter (William Shatner). Both men get to sleep with most of the women at some point. Directed by Steve Carver, Big Bad Mama lacks a driving force, and the lazy mood never seems quite right for the fiery story. But it has more than its share of jaw-dropping "B" movie moments, little jabs that most mainstream movies would never dare to try. Dickinson helps a great deal; she looks amazing and is in top form, combining tough and playful tones just as she did in Rio Bravo, but without a lot of silly men to get in her way. If it catches you in the right mood, Big Bad Mama can be a lot of fun.

DVD Details: In late 2005, Buena Vista acquired the Roger Corman collection and released a whole batch at once (The Big Doll House, Brain Dead, Caged Heat, Jackson County Jail, Suburbia, etc.). Big Bad Mama comes with a trailer, a commentary track, and a 15-minute making-of featurette. The film is featured in full-screen aspect ratio, 1.33:1, which appears to be wrong, since the film was shot on 35mm. Still, there's never any point at which information seems to be missing from the sides of the screen.

Starring: Angie Dickinson, William Shatner, Tom Skerritt, Susan Sennett, Robbie Lee, Noble Willingham, Dick Miller, Tom Signorelli, Joan Prather, Royal Dano, Sally Kirkland, Paul Bartel
Written by: Frances Doel, William W. Norton
Directed by: Steve Carver
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 83 minutes
Date: January 13, 2006