Bloody Mama

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Bloody Mama

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Roger Corman
Produced by Roger Corman
Samuel Z. Arkoff (executive producer)
James H. Nicholson (executive producer)
Written by Don Peters
Robert Thom
Starring Shelley Winters
Bruce Dern
Don Stroud
Diane Varsi
Robert De Niro
Robert Walden
Pat Hingle
Music by Don Randi
Cinematography John A. Alonzo
Editing by Eve Newman
Studio American International Pictures (AIP)
Distributed by American International Pictures
Release dates March 24, 1970
Running time 90 min.
Country United States
Language English
Box office $1,542,000 (US/ Canada rentals)[1]

Bloody Mama is a 1970 American low-budget drama film directed by Roger Corman and starring Shelley Winters in the title role.[2] It was very loosely based on the real story of Ma Barker, who is depicted as a corrupt mother who encourages and organizes her children's criminality; in reality, Ma Barker's involvement in criminality was fairly limited. The film features an early appearance by a young Robert De Niro as Lloyd Barker.

In 2008, Bloody Mama was nominated for AFI's Top 10 Gangster Films list.[3] Corman says the film is one of his favourites.<ref name="jerome>Roger Corman & Jim Jerome, How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never lost a Dime, Muller, 1990 p 162</ref>

Plot

The film starts as young Kate Barker (Lisa Jill) is brutalized by her father and older brothers, who rape her. Skipping forward 35 years, the middle-aged Kate 'Ma' Barker (Shelly Winters) now brutalizes innocent people herself, while indulging her monstrous sexual appetites. She lives by robbing banks with her four sons; the pragmatic Arthur (Clint Kimbrough), the sadistic Herman (Don Stroud), the bisexual Fred (Robert Walden), and the loyal, drug-addicted Lloyd (Robert De Niro). It all begins in the late 1920s when Ma leaves her husband, George, and her Arkansas home and embarks on her own with her four sons on a robbery-murder spree to make her own fortune, while keeping them under a tight leash.

When Herman and Fred are arrested and imprisoned for petty theft charges, Ma takes over the group and leads Arthur and Lloyd on a bank robbery spree to gain enough money to get her sons out of jail. The gang is joined by a gunman named Kevin (patterned after gunman Alvin Karpis, played by Bruce Dern) who was Fred's cellmate during his incarceration and, it is strongly implied, his lover. The group is also joined by a local prostitute named Mona Gibson, whom Herman frequented before his imprisonment. The gang resorts to more violent action and robberies.

While hiding out at a cabin in Kentucky, Lloyd comes across a young woman swimming at a nearby lake whom he sexually assaults. Not wanting the woman to report them to the police, the Barkers hold her captive and Ma eventually kills her by drowning her, despite the protests of her sons.

Some time later, the gang arrives in Tennessee where they abduct a wealthy businessman named Sam Pendlebury (Pat Hingle) (based on kidnap victims William Hamm and Edward Bremer whom the Barker gang kidnapped in 1933 and 1934). Holding him for a $300,000 ransom, the sons, particularly Herman, bond with their captive whom they see as the sympathetic father figure they never had. When Herman and Mona go to collect the ransom, they are chased by a pair of FBI agents and barely escape. When they find that the ransom is only half of what they originally demanded, Ma orders her sons to kill Sam rather than let him go. But none of them can bring themselves to do it and they set him free, lying to Ma about killing him.

Next, the gang hides out in Florida Everglades where Lloyd soon dies from a heroin overdose and Mona leaves Herman and the gang after she reveals that she's pregnant and does not want to be around them anymore out of the safety for hers and Herman's unborn child. But Herman and Kevin give away their hiding place one day when a local handyman and caretaker named Moses (Scatman Crothers) witnesses them shooting an alligator out on a lake with a Tommy gun. Moses then calls the police and reports his suspicions.

At the climax, several FBI agents and local police arrive at the Barkers' farmhouse hideout and a huge shootout ensues between the authorities and the surviving members of the gang. Kevin, Fred, and Arthur are all killed. Herman commits suicide to prevent himself from being sent to prison again. Ma is the last one to fall.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ "Big Rental Films of 1970", Variety, 6 January 1971 p 11
  2. ↑ Gary A. Smith, The American International Pictures Video Guide, McFarland 2009 p 30-31
  3. ↑ AFI's 10 Top 10 Ballot

External links

Films directed by Roger Corman
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