BLOODY MAMA (1970)
Reviewed By Jerry Saravia
There is a certain fascination I have with Roger Corman. He is after all the king of B movies, all usually shot on low-budget and in less than a week. Corman has directed everything from horror films to biker movies to movies like "Bloody Mama." His interest was to capitalize on current trends and Prohibition crime dramas about bank robbers were no exception. "Bloody Mama" is nauseatingly violent, sleazy and trite - a numbingly dull action picture that aims to do everything except to gain our interest.
Kate "Ma" Barker (Shelley Winters) is the gun-toting mama who adores her sons. She adores them so much that she bathes them and beds them. One can surmise that Ma Barker is making the most of her sons since she was raped by her parents - she obviously doesn't reciprocate any hateful emotions and wants to do right. She takes her sons from their home, leaves behind her husband who can't take care of them with his meager funds, insists she will someday have a palace and decides to go on the road. The question is: where? Her sons, including Sam (Don Stroud), kill and rob and torture people arbitrarily for money and eventually decide to rob banks to support themselves. Ma takes part in their schemes, willing to do anything for her sons. One of the sons is homosexual (Robert Walden) and the other is a heroin addict (Robert De Niro). Before you know it, there is a major shootout that tries to outdo the violent climax of "Bonnie and Clyde." Well, it sure is violent but it lacks any real sting or purpose other than to shock.
Speaking of "Bonnie and Clyde," the latter was infused with real characters whom you could care more than a whim about. There was nostalgia and ample style but the triumph was watching full-bodied characters who at least possessed more than one dimension beyond perversion and murderous tactics. "Bloody Mama" is a cartoonish, vapid mess that wants to see these monstrosities as nothing more than monstrosities. It is a pleasure to see the black-and-white newsreels that show how turbulent the Prohibition era was - particularly noteworthy is the notion that the police were too busy controlling the poor rather than catching criminals. Besides that, Shelley Winters gives a performance worthy of shameful eye-rolling and of over-emoting every single facial expression, something the late director George Stevens might have fired her for. Stroud has presence to spare as the main son who misses his father greatly. De Niro shows none of the evident talent he later became famous for, and Pat Hingle, one of the most astute of all character actors, is not even permitted to show his eyes! This movie is just bloody hell to sit through.
