Trashy gangster picture from Roger Corman about Ma Barker and her criminal sons. It's very loosely based on the real people. I won't say it's uninteresting but it sure isn't much fun. It's violent, schlocky, and quite frankly, gross. I didn't care about anybody in the movie, which made it hard to become invested in the plot. It does have a nice cast, though. Shelly Winters gets a lot of flack for this movie but I thought she was pretty good. Robert De Niro appears in an early role. I missed his name in the credits so when I saw him I couldn't believe it was really him. Bruce Dern, Don Stroud, Pat Hingle, and Scatman Crothers are among the other solid actors in the cast. Like I said, it's not much fun but it's worth a look. I did love that corny theme song.
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utgard1418 July 2014
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fredschaefer-406-62320418 September 2012Bloody Mama was in the theaters back when I was too young to get into R rated movies by myself, only recently did I get a chance to finally view this film. Seeing it now after nearly four decades, I think Bloody Mama tells us much more about pop culture in 1970 then it does about criminals in the 1930's.
First of all, it's clearly an attempt by Roger Corman to cash in on the enormous success of Bonnie and Clyde, made only a few years earlier. The producers take full advantage of the changes in censorship ushered in by that previous film and here give us a screenplay filled with incest, homosexuality, nudity, drug addiction, and sadism, all portrayed by a cast of characters without a single redeeming moral value except for the fact that Ma Barker really did love her sons. A lot.
Corman was obviously pandering to early 70's audiences (especially the youth like myself) who simply could not get enough good old sex and violence in their entertainment. Sadly, Bloody Mama isn't very good when compared with Bonnie and Clyde or The Wild Bunch; the screenplay just trudges along with scenes built to showcase each character's particular depraved personality. And the low budget really shows.
Still any movie with this cast is worth seeing at least once if you're a film buff. Don Stroud, Clint Kimbrough, Robert Walden and a young Robert De Niro are the Barker boys. Was this De Niro's first gangster role? Stroud is pretty much forgotten today, but he was a great bad guy on old cop shows and would have been a much bigger star if he'd gotten the right role. Bruce Dern is Walden's prison lover who joins the gang and gets to sleep with Ma. He's still playing mean bastards all these years later, just watch HBO's Big Love. The only remotely redeeming person is Pat Hingle's kidnapped businessman; Hingle was an always dependable character star who brought a lot to anything he was in. Scatman Crothers is here a full decade before he worked for Kubrick in The Shinning and the late Diane Varsi gets to show off her breasts in one of her last roles.
The main reason to see Bloody Mama of course is Shelley Winters as Ma Barker. Winters was one of the movies all time great scenery chewers and she doesn't let us down here. Her Kate Barker snarls, yells and sneers when she needs to and then turns around and cries, pleads and begs if that is what it takes to get her boys to bend to her will. Winters made a long career out of playing monster mothers, shrews and harridans, but there was something about the way she portrayed her mean characters that suggested they were just women who'd had to put up with a lot in life and had learned to give it back twice over.
In the end, Bloody Mama is a relic of a bygone time, that time being the 1970's. -
PaulyC14 February 2008Shelly Winters plays a wild Ma Barker in this decent Roger Corman directed flick about the Barker gang of the great depression era. Everyone playing Ma Barkers sons, who include Robert Deniro, gives a good performance. Bruce Dern also has a small role as sort of an outside member of the gang. The Barker gang is on the run, lead by their fearless mother. They rob banks and whoever they can get their hands on. There is one particular good scene involving Deniro, complete with his Max Cady accent, where he acts on the advances of a young blonde swimmer who flirts with him while he sits on the dock. Her flirty ways turn to terror as Deniro realizes he tells her some forbidden information and can't afford to let her live. Deniro lost 30 pounds for the role. He also told Corman he could drive even though he didn't have a license. Pat Hingle, a great character actor, as a high profile man who the gang kidnaps to get ransom money is also very good. This film is no "Bonnie and Clyde" but I'm surprised it didn't get more attention. Worth a look.
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Infofreak11 November 2001I can't believe there is only ONE comment on this classic piece of Roger Corman trash! Corman is known as the King of the Quickies, which gives many people who aren't all that familiar with his work the impression is that all he made was "bad" movies that can only be enjoyed on a camp level. This is not true, and 'Bloody Mama' proves it! Sure it's an exploitation movie, but exploitation doesn't necessarily equate with worthless trash, as the movies of Russ Meyer or Larry Cohen or Sam Fuller show.
'Bloody Mama' tells the story of Ma Barker and her sons, infamous criminals during the Depression. Exactly how much of this movie is historically accurate I don't know, and it doesn't really matter. This is a non-stop action ride, low budget yes, but full of energy, clever touches, and generally strongly acted by the cast, which includes - get this! - cult favourites Don Stroud and Bruce Dern AND a scene stealing performance from a young Robert De Niro. If the thought of those three absurdly talented actors appearing in the same movie isn't enough to get you running to your local video store, then you're beyond help!
Add to that the familiar character actors Pat Hingle, Scatman Crothers and the appearance of Diane Varsi from the legendary 'Wild In The Streets', and b-grade film buffs will be ecstatic. Last but certainly not least, Shelley Winters in the title role is outstanding. She has had a long and varied career, but she always gives her best whether she is in a- or b-grade material, a star vehicle, supporting role or a cameo. More power to her!
'Bloody Mama' is a movie to be treasured! Trash with intelligence. Don't miss it! -
ma-cortes25 September 2009The most colorful epoch of criminality in America during the Depression era is brought to life in this story of a bank-robber family , in a period when any employment, even illegal, was cherished, ambition, money and power originated an interminable cycle of fury and violence. The infamous Ma Barker ( Shelley Winters)'s blood-thirsty gang of the 30s backed by his four rare sons ( Robert De Niro, Robert Walden, Clint, Don Stroud) carry out heists to banks and a crime spree that gets even bigger when she dreams up an abducting plot , its a fast road to ruin. A hooker ( Diane Varsi) appears to be falling for the moronic sibling (Don Stroud as the sadistic mama lover). Later on, they hook up with Robert Walden's (as the homosexual ex-con) prison lover, Bruce Dern. Meanwhile a wealthy businessman ( Pat Hingle) is kidnapped by the grotesques family led by the sadistic mummy. Based on the biography of the violent careers of Ma Barker, named Arizona Clark (1877-1935) and his perverted sons, who roamed the South robbing banks during the Depression as Missouri, Texas, and Florida . They're joined by nefarious criminal Alvin Karpis who doesn't appear at the movie.
This is a perverse stew of murders, pronounced bloodshed, sentimental blood bonding, action , lots of violence and with a bullet-ridden ending . Overacting by Shelley Winters as sex-crazed lady killer and machine-gun toting mother. Imaginative musical score and evocative cinematography by classic cameraman John A Alonzo . Director and producer( along with Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson : American International) Roger Corman skillfully blends extreme violence that was highly controversial and some good scenes action. Good camera work, slick edition and nice 1930s period sets in average budget.
Followed by ¨Big Bad mama¨ (1974) by Steve Carver with Angie Dickinson, William Shatner, Tom Skerrit and ¨Big bad mama II¨ (1988) with Dickinson, Robert Culp and Julie McCullough. And a remake titled ¨Public enemies¨(96) by Mark L Lester with Theresa Russel Eric Roberts, Alyssa Milano and Frank Stallone. Furthermore, ¨The Grisson gang¨ (1971) by Robert Aldrich with Kim Darby and Scott Wilson. -
Coventry10 March 2020My personal first acquaintance with the legendary Barker family wasn't via old newspapers, Wikipedia or this infamous B-movie. I learned about this delightful family via the lyrics of an ultra-cheesy (but catchy) disco/pop song by a band called "Boney M". I believe they were originally from Germany, so I haven't got the slightest idea if their songs are also known outside of Europe. Either way, it's fun, so you should look it up on YouTube. The song is called "Ma Baker" instead of "Ma Barker", for the simple reason that it fit the lyrics better.
This film (as well as the song, in fact) perfectly illustrate just how powerful urban myths and folklore tales can be. Allegedly the real Kate Barker wasn't a criminal mastermind at all. She wasn't even a petty thief, but merely a docile mother who got dragged along to various crime scenes by her four gangster sons as cover. And yet, immediately after her death, Kate Barker got bombarded - by J. Edgar Hoover - as the most vicious criminal brain of the decade, and she became an infamous legend.
The "Public Enemy" era of the 1930's also happens to be one of the favorite topics of the legendary producer/director Roger Corman to make violent movies about. After his admirable efforts "Machine Gun Kelly" and "The St Valentine's Day Massacre", the fictional albeit juicy saga of Kate Barker and her brood formed the ideal subject matter for a splendid exploitation shocker! "Bloody Mama" is deliciously grotesque and trashy good fun; - no more and no less. As if the story wasn't over-the-top enough already, Corman shamelessly adds extreme bits of gratuitous violence and a variety of taboo subjects, like incest, animal slaughter and harsh criticism against contemporary society. Half a century later, the film looks badly dated, but it's still fascinating to observe the borderline-neurotic performance of Shelley Winters as Ma Barker and the young Robert De Niro as the wildly glue-sniffing son Lloyd ("You sure act funny when you're building them model planes, Lloyd"). -
gavin694215 July 2012This film is Roger Corman and Sam Arkoff's answer to "Bonnie and Clyde". But not only did they take the theme of Depression-era gangsters, they also borrowed the idea of completely eradicating the facts. I would be hard-pressed to name one thing in this film that was based a real event.
That being said, it has some historical merit. Shelley Winters gives a good performance, and has said she was proud of the film (which she oddly enough promoted as a film denouncing violence, despite its clearly violent nature). She even allegedly took a punch to the face, resulting in a nose injury bad enough to get X-rays.
Bruce Dern and Robert DeNiro give some of the earliest performances of their careers, and any DeNiro fan who has not seen him in this is really missing out on his humble beginnings. These days, he is past his prime, making cheesy comedies. But have you seen him before his prime?
Perhaps most interesting, this was the big-screen debut of cinematographer John A. Alonzo. While he may not be well-known, he did go on to film "Harold and Maude", "Chinatown" and "Scarface" and snagged an Oscar nomination. Not bad for a graduate of the Corman School. -
"Blood's thicker than water," explains Shelley Winters' pious and psychotic Ma Barker. Based extremely loosely on the exploits of Ma Barker and her sons, who went on a crime spree during the 1920's and was chased by J. Edgar Hoover's newly formed F.B.I., director Roger Corman reverses the familiar pre-credits text by stating 'any similarity to Kate Barker and her sons is intentional." The truth is that the real Ma Barker had very little to do with the organisation of her family's criminal activities, but Corman gives her to Shelley Winters who grabs the role and runs away with it. This is a loud, crude, violent film, about a bunch of despicable characters. But Corman does something that is rarely done and delves into the psychology of these gangsters, and, although it's hardly Freud, comes up with some interesting and uncomfortable answers.
Leaving her home and husband in Arkansas, Ma Barker and her four sons - the towering brute Herman (Don Stroud), the practical Arthur (Clint Kimbrough), the submissive, bisexual Fred (Robert Walden), and the quiet, drug-addled Lloyd (Robert De Niro) - embark on a petty crime spree on the command of Ma. Herman and Fred find themselves locked away for petty theft, and inside, Fred is dominated by the violent Kevin (Bruce Dern), who joins Ma and her boys when they are released from prison. As their notoriety grows, the family kidnap wealthy businessman Sam (Pat Hingle) and hold him for ransom. When the boys start bonding with the father figure, cracks begin to appear in the gang.
On the surface this is just a cheap exploitation film made the master of the quickie, but it has recently received some acclaim for its unorthodox portrayal of its ugly characters. There's more than a hint of incest that runs throughout the film, conveyed in Ma's hyper-sexual activity and Herman's hesitation to leave his mother's breast. It is also often quite disturbing, as the lengths that Ma will go to in order to protect her sons becomes evident as she drowns an innocent young woman who Lloyd rapes. The performances are noticeably excellent too, especially Winters, who gives Ma a vulnerability in her need to have strong men around her, and Dern, who is creepy as the alpha-male whose sexual preferences is somewhat questionable. This is one of the finest examples of Corman's skill as a director, using limited resources to create a genre film that still stands out in a crowded marketplace, never ashamed to embrace it's exploitation roots, but bold enough to dig that little bit deeper.
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I will only say a few words about this almost forgotten sleaze classic from 1970. At the time, it represented some kind of point of no return for bad taste movies, and could still hold its own today. The most memorable viewing I ever had with this marathon of perversity, loosely based on the exploits of Thirties bank robbers the Barker-Karpis gang, was at a college film society in the early Seventies. The movie was so depressing and grim on the one hand, and so ludicrously , deliriously over the top on the other, that by the end, the audience was either numb from all the slaughter and cruelty, or laughing uproariously at things we knew weren't really funny. A couple of sequences near the end made the biggest impression. An old black man at a Florida tourist camp greets the newly arrived gangsters, and tells them about a legendary alligator named Old Joe, that haunts the creeks and lakes nearby. Later, Bruce Dern as his usual manic character ,and another gang member steal a pig, and trail it along behind a boat, hoping to lure Old Joe out of hiding. Meanwhile, sad, dreamy, drug addict son Robert DeNiro dies of a fatal heroin overdose on the riverbank, grieving over his lost love, who Ma had ordered killed. Suddenly, an alligator head appears menacingly in the water behind the boat, and the trigger happy mobsters gleefully blast Old Joe with machine guns. Meanwhile, Ma finds the body of her son on the river bank ,and goes completely wacko, shrieking and keening over her loss, which leads to one of the most unintentionally funny lines I have ever heard. As Ma wails and mourns with some of her other sons, the two guys in the boat proudly announce that they've bagged Old Joe, and Shelley Winters shrieks back at them, " How can you care about that? Your brother's dead, and you're out there playin' with gators!" This brought down the house at the screening I attended, followed moments later by the tearful Scatman Crothers phoning the sheriff to tell about the crazy folks and what they done. Weeping into the phone, the old black man asks rhetorically, " What they done? I'll tell ya what they done: they stole ma pig, and then they went and killed Old Joe!" Once again, this tragic moment caused total hilarity in the audience. This movie almost defies analysis. I cannot recommend it, unless you're a die-hard fan of Roger Corman or Shelley Winters. It is truly unforgettable, which is not a good thing, in this case.
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Witchfinder-General-66624 February 2008I am a huge admirer of Roger Corman, whom I consider to be one of the most influential directors alive. Corman's ingenious Edgar Alan Poe cycle (starring the great Vincent Price) alone makes him a brilliant director and Horror genius, and his repertoire furthermore contains other genres, with films such as the macabre and witty "A Bucket Of Blood" or "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre". Having praised Corman as a brilliant director (and equally great producer), I must say that I consider "Bloody Mama" of 1970 to be an entertaining film, but definitely not one of Roger's best. The film is a True-Crime Drama set in the 1930s when the Barker brothers and their bloody Mama were on a crime spree throughout various southern States. Even though gangsters are the central characters in "Bloody Mama", the film makes no attempt to romanticize a life of crime or to make the viewer sympathize with the criminals. The whole family are a bunch of ruthless people committing vile acts, which makes the film quite uncompromising. This is a quality in my book. Especially Ma Barker (Shelley Winters) is a truly despicable person, who has no mercy whatsoever, and hypocritically comes up with twisted morals in-between killing people. The matriarch of a family of criminals, she is the one who plans the deeds committed by her four sons and herself...
What I was slightly disappointed with was the acting. Not that the performances are bad, but with a cast like the one in "Bloody Mama" I would have expected more. Young Robert De Niro, who plays one of the Barker brothers, delivers a great performance as always, and Pat Hingle is also very good in a smaller role. These are the only two performances that I can really praise, however, I was especially (and negatively) surprised with how Shelley Winters overacted in the lead. Don Stroud did not impress me as the eldest son, and neither did Bruce Dern, who is usually a very good actor. "Bloody Mama" is also quite far away from the (probable) truth. The real Ma Barker was (with the utmost probability) not the criminal mastermind she is depicted as in the film, but just an elderly woman who tried to protect her criminal sons.Even though "Bloody Mama" has its faults, however, it is highly recommendable to lovers of crime flicks, and interesting enough for any cineaste to enjoy. Recommended! -
shepardjessica-113 December 2004This Roger Corman "exploitation" flick was great drive-in material, basically inaccurate much of the time, but a wonderful cast and plenty of 30's violence. Robert Deniro is very effective as the junkie son who keeps his "kit" in a Baby Ruth wrapper (I believe). Bruce Dern is stranger than usual. Shelley Winters was born to play Ma Barker and other sons, especially Don Stroud (fine actor) were on the money.
A 5 out of 10. Best performance = Deniro. Films like this were made tongue-in-cheek so don't expect BONNIE & CLYDE or an accurate portrayal of the Barker gang. A fun time is had by all. The alligator/pig scene is disturbing, but right in line with the rest of the goings-on. I'm not sure if this is on video or DVD. -
RanchoTuVu28 July 2005Some movies romanticize the life of crime, or make the criminals into sympathetic characters, but Roger Corman's "Bloody Mama" goes in the opposite direction with its depiction of the Barker crime family of the 30's and their ruthless murders, sadism, incest, drug addiction, and insanity. It's a morbidly colorful mixture of negative southern poor white trash stereotypes, encapsulated in a family of sociopaths, with a vintage Shelly Winters bringing her trademark intensity to the role of Ma Barker and a great cast as her sons and their associates, including Don Stroud, Robert Walden, Bruce Dern, Diane Varsi, and Robert DeNiro. A mishmash of humor and repugnancy, it's definitely not for the squeamish.
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jotix10010 September 2010Roger Corman, who specialized in low budget films show an ambitious side in directing "Bloody Mama" a sort of loosely based biographic picture about the criminal family that terrorized rural America during the Great Depression. Mr. Corman evidently took liberties in telling the story, the way he presents it, more as an entertainment than a factual account of the Barkers.
Ma Barker, a hillbilly from the backwoods is tired of living in poverty. Her four sons clearly adored her because otherwise it would make no sense of following the old lady into a crime spree unlike the ones the country had seen up to then. The four sons, Herman, a trigger happy individual, Arthur, the quiet one, LLoyd, the junkie and Fred, an openly gay man, way ahead of the times he was living. Herman brought along his girlfriend Mona, and Fred, his lover, Kevin Dirkman, who is one is to believe the material, also serviced a horny Ma Barker.
The director achieved a coup just in the mere casting of the film. Shelley Winters, who played Ma Barker, made a terrific contribution to our enjoyment. Don Stroud, Clint Kimbrough, Robert Walden and a young Robert Deniro are seen as the four sons. Diane Varsi and Bruce Dern are the two of the people the family attracted. -
Maciste_Brother10 June 2007I watched BLOODY MAMA because I love Shelley Winters and wanted to see where Robert De Niro started as an actor. Well, it wasn't worth watching. What started interestingly enough quickly became tiresome and unwatchable. The script is a complete mess. Really. I never seen such a badly written story for a film ever. It just doesn't know what to do with its characters. By the time the film focused on the kidnapped man who was bound to a chair, I lost interest. What the hell were they thinking?
Poor Shelley, stuck in this bad movie. Whenever she's one screen, her mere presence elevates this movie up a couple of extra stars. Remove her completely and no one, and I mean no one would remember this film. Aside from the scene when Shelley robs a bank and forces old ladies to hang on to their car and the subsequent car chase, seeing the old ladies hang for dear life, which I admit was really fun, this film is totally forgettable. -
Looking only ounces lighter than after her alleged 40 pound weight gain a year or so later for "The Poseidon Adventure", Winters portrays the title character, an outlaw mom based far more on legend than fact. The real "Ma" Barker was reportedly just a rather dense hillbilly who, though she loved, covered for and fostered her criminal sons, was not in any way a mastermind or the instigator as she is shown here. (One theory has her reputation created AFTER she was gunned down to lessen the stigma of the FBI blowing holes in little old ladies.) Winters plays her as a scornful, driven woman who will do virtually anything to escape her run-down, pitiful existence. She runs roughshod over her brood of four sons, slapping them when they sass her and taking them to bed with her in turns! Stroud plays the ringleader of them and suffers the most neuroses and inner turmoil. De Niro escapes from his existence through drugs of any kind. Kimbrough is the least developed (and least famous actor) of the four, but comes off as the sensitive one. Walden does time in jail and winds up as a sexual partner to equally criminal-minded Dern. This quintet, along with Stroud's hooker/girlfriend Varsi, rides across the Midwest holding up banks, kidnapping rich men and just generally causing mayhem anywhere they go. Though certain scenes and certain images linger in the memory (Winters scrubbing her grown boys in a washtub, afro-haired Varsi trotting around topless, De Niro tripping out on glue and dope, Winters packing a machine gun and playing Simon Says with it....) the film remains a fairly disjointed, sloppily constructed affair. It isn't terrible, but it falls short of excellence. The script doesn't seem focused enough and the editing is sometimes rocky. Stroud gives a very intense and thoughtful performance.
Winters is way, way over the top (and her hair color varies wildly throughout the film at inappropriate times.) She indulges herself in some extreme Method acting which isn't always pretty to watch, though she does catch one's attention. Seeing her sometimes similar mannerisms and vocal mumblings in this film casts a slight pall over her better received work in "Poseidon". It's so jarring to see De Niro in such a minor part (not to mention seeing him alongside some of these costars!) that it's sometimes a distraction. Varsi has to have earned a place as one of the all-time career slides. ALLISON MACKENZIE! Then here she is blankly wandering around with awkward tan lines and her nipples at full attention, looking basically out of her head. (She purportedly didn't give a hoot about film stardom, career, et al and it shows!) Dern does a great job. His initial scene, in which it becomes clear that he has more in mind for Walden than just a bunkmate, is delicious. The decent parts just don't add up to a cohesive, enjoyable whole. However, the curiosity factor of seeing that cast together (and doing what they're doing!) calls for at least one viewing. Incidentally, the paperback novelization of the screenplay is quite possibly one of the most vulgar and shocking tomes ever to come out as a movie tie-in! -
SnoopyStyle7 December 2020Kate 'Ma' Barker (Shelley Winters) was abused by her family when she was young. She vows to have boys who only supports her. It's 1925. While the Klan is marching in Washington, she and her four boys are raising hell in the rural south. It's rapes, incest, murders, and robbing over the years. They kidnap Sam Adams Pendlebury (Pat Hingle).
This has newcomer Robert De Niro and veteran actors like Shelley Winters. This may be a small budget affair from Roger Corman but the production value looks good. At the very least, the actors are big time doing good work. The subject matter is pushing the envelope. Other than killing Rembrandt, most of the more disturbing stuff happens off screen especially the rapes and incest. There is a big gun fight at the end. These characters have no redeeming value. They have no rooting interest. I wouldn't say that it's fun but it is a matter of fascination. This is a series of bad acts until the shock of them wears out and it's left with a grim march into the woods. The final shootout does have a feel of an exhibition. I'm like one of those picnickers. The problem may be that the dying is done poorly other than shooting yourself in the face. Some better gore would also help. The obvious comparison is Bonnie and Clyde. It definitely has some similarities but not the incest. -
jackgavin2 February 2006There are disturbing elements to the film. Mainly, that the gang kill and rape indiscriminately, just because they can and depending on their mood at the time. Which makes this film slightly uncomfortable as it is based on a true story. Although how much of the film is true I'm not sure. But the film does come across as a cross between Bonnie & Clyde and the first half of A Clockwork Orange.
I watched this film, for probably the same reason that most people watch it today. Because it contains an early performance by De Niro. And although he is the best thing in it, that isn't saying much. He doesn't really give any indication of the big star or acting guru he was only a few years away from becoming.
But that isn't really his fault. What lets this film down the most is not the acting, but the script. None of the characters are developed at any point to become interesting, or for you to care what does or does not happen to them.
Nor do we have any empathy for most of the victims. One is so particularly stupid I found myself wanting them to get their sticky end. The army of G-Men chasing them are not developed, so there is no antagonist for the gang. The gang themselves get on pretty well with each other so there's no drama there.
This film really was a wasted opportunity and by the end of it you really couldn't care less. -
bkoganbing14 April 2009Though Bloody Mama has very little to do with Ma Barker and the four fine strapping sons she raised, the film provides Shelley Winters with a role she can overact to her heart's content and no one would notice this side of a slasher flick. It's part that I wish Shelley had done in a more factual retelling of the Barker saga.
She gave her four sons played by Don Stroud, Clint Kimbrough, Robert Walden, and Robert DeNiro the lack of character and amoral view of life that led them to become criminals, she herself simply went along for the ride on their criminal enterprises. She was far from the mastermind that Shelley Winters is shown to be.
This was one of Robert DeNiro's first parts where he was noticed. You can see traces of later redneck characters that he did in films like This Boy's Life and Cape Fear in his portrayal of Lloyd Barker, the youngest Barker sibling. By the way Lloyd in real life did not end up the way he's shown in the film.
Other parts of significance are Bruce Dern as a character modeled on Alvin 'Creepy' Karpis who was part of the Barker story, but is not mentioned at all here. Another is Pat Hingle playing a kidnap victim of the gang's and a third is Diane Varsi who marries one of the Barker sons.
Roger Corman who produced and directed Bloody Mama gave Shelley Winters a great part and she ran with it. Even though the film is far from the truth about the Barkers, it does show the values those boys had and where they got them. -
Kate Barker (Shelly Winters) and her low-life brood go on a bloody crime spree in the 1930s in this charmless gangster film from Roger Corman. Winters, an actress not known for subtlety, lays on the self-righteous reprobate act pretty thickly as the murderously doting mother who smokes cigars, kills innocent people, and beds her sons. The most interesting character is strung-out son Lloyd, played by a very young Robert De Niro, although Pat Hingle has perhaps the best part as kidnapping victim Sam Pendlebury. Filling out the cast is Bruce Dern as Barker-boy Fred's buddy/lover, Don Stroud as sadistic son Herman, and Diane Varsi as Herman's tired-looking hooker-fiancé Mona. The film is quite bloody although the special effects at the various shootouts are not overly convincing and the overt violence takes a second seat to the general unpleasantness of scenes such as trolling for alligators by dragging a struggling pig behind a boat. Not one of the better Depression-era gangster films (but you can probably guess that from the cheesy poster).
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Groverdox29 November 2018"Bloody Mama" is an early '70s exploitation shocker with a crazy Shelley Winters as the unattractive lead and a young Robert de Niro and younger Bruce Dern as members of her criminal brood.
The movie really just feels like an assortment of shocking moments, which are, after all, not shocking enough to recommend to hardcore exploitation fans. It's more about intimations of disturbing material, like the movie's opening scene featuring a flashback to Ma Barker's childhood, showing her pursued and held down by her brothers in the woods, presumably to rape her.
Later, with the killing and crime spree properly underway, it is implied that Ma has sexual relationships with all of her sons.
Actually relatively little time is spent showing the robberies the Barker brood committed. More time is spent with her repulsive sons as they use drugs, rape girls, and feed a piglet to an alligator - though none of this is depicted as much as distressingly implied.
What we're left with, then, is a movie that isn't extreme enough to satisfy exploitation fans, and doesn't give de Niro or Dern enough to do to be interesting to fans of either. -
mark.waltz12 March 2021Shelly Winters is completely over the top in this freaky crime drama bio of the Barker gang with Ma completely in charge and totally demanding of love and loyalty. An unneeded estranged husband (Pat Hingle) is easily disposable in her mind, and she finds satisfaction from her sons when the urge calls, fortunately only insinuated.
The crime spree begins as she goes out of her way to free two of the sons in prison, then does is all she can to prevent them from finding happiness with other women. But eventually they start to rebel against her domination which leads them to hiding out in Florida where it all comes to a head.
There have been various films based on the Barker legend, some fictionalized and some basically spoofs. I recommend "Queen of the Mob" and "The Grissom Gang" (loosely based on the book "No Orchids for Miss Blandish") and this for Winters' over-the-top performance, a string of which dominated her career between "A Patch of Blue" and "The Poseidon Adventure".
Pamela Dunlap and Diane Varsi are the unfortunate other women, and Bruce Dern is a friend of the boys who joins the gang, but all eyes are on Winters who in spite of being completely hammy is unforgettable. Don Stroud and Robert DeNiro are among her boys, boys, each fighting against spending the night with her. It's disturbing and violent, yet an interesting tall tale on the life of a real life crime matriarch. -
dromasca4 March 2003This is an amazing film for 1970, and a good film to watch by itself today. A true gangster story, with no romantics at all. Evil people do evil things, they just do them because they are stupid and degenerated. No social comment is being made, and this is actually the best decision the script writer and the director could make. Only a completly social careless society can let such people 'enjoy the freedom', with the execution squad being the only 'educational tool' it knows. The viewer gets it by itself. The mix of documentary with the true story is discrete and smart. I liked the movie, and gave it 8/10 on my personal scale.
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The_Void24 March 2008Bonnie and Clyde was a big hit in 1967, and I don't doubt that Hollywood's great money-spinner, Roger Corman, had that on his mind when he decided to direct a film based on another of America's great crime legends. The story of "Machine Gun Totting Ma Barker" is a well known one; I won't profess to know the ins and outs of it, but the basics are common knowledge. The film would only appear to be loosely based on the classic story, however, and Corman seemed keener to put the focus on the situation within the group rather than actually telling a story. The plot focuses on Ma Barker; a strong matriarch with four sons. The story takes place within depression era USA and Ma and her sons find themselves with little to live on and so turn to crime. The troupe carries out robberies, commits murder and does other such illegal acts and it soon gets dubbed as a 'crime spree'. However, more interesting than that is how the group itself works; perversion is rife as we get to witness things such as incest and homosexuality within the group.
The film is rather entertaining throughout, but for me; something about it just doesn't work. Corman's directing style is very cold and despite excellent performances from the cast - the film fails to be involving and nobody really steps up to take the 'antihero' role effectively. It's a good job, therefore, that the film is entertaining for most of the duration as there isn't much in the way of distraction when it comes to the less entertaining parts. Corman has got himself together a good cast of actors; chief among them obviously being Shelly Winters. Winters looks decidedly less glamorous than in previous performances - but fits into her role here very well indeed and really convincing that she is the character she is portraying. The rest of the cast is fine too, featuring good performances from the likes of Don Stroud and Bruce Dern, as well an early performance from the great Robert DeNiro. There's not a great deal of highlights in the film; but Pat Hingle's role is entertaining and it all boils down to a very well working final shootout scene. Overall, this is decent enough; but I'm not surprised that it hasn't gone down as a great film and would only recommend it to those who happen across a copy. -
preppy-34 February 2002Silly psychological drama about Ma Barker and her sons who robbed and killed in the 1920s. Roger Corman directed this...it seems like he was actually trying to do a serious movie...sadly, it doesn't work at all. This movie has a following but damned if I know why.
It is very well-acted but the script and direction ramble all over the place. Also I found most of the actors dialogue unintelligible -- they're all putting on stupid Southern accents which don't help. Also, the movie is VERY sleazy. Rape, murder, incest, torture, beatings, drug abuse, homosexuality (portrayed negatively unfortunately)...you name it. I'm no prude, but this movie rubs your face in it. For instance, the opening scene has a young girl (about 13) being held down by her brothers while her father rapes her!
This is ALMOST worth seeing to see Shelley Winters chewing the scenery as Ma and Robert DeNiro before he hit it big.
All in all, a must miss. -
Lechuguilla20 January 2013Fun movie about a gun toting Ozark clan that rebels against their Depression-era poverty by stealing, threatening, robbing banks, kidnapping, and killing their way into infamy. The clan's leader is colorful Ma (Kate) Barker (Shelley Winters), self-confident, forceful, and determined to get some high-style living for her and her four boys, whatever is required.
Interspersed through the plot are real-life B&W flashbacks to the 1920s and 30s, which enhance a sense of realism, as does the casting of non-actors in minor roles in some scenes. The dialogue is at times clever, like during one of the B&W flashback scenes when, in V.O., Ma tells us: "1929 was a bad year for a lot of folks. The rich men was jumpin' out of the windows and, as usual, they fell on the poor".
In addition to clever dialogue, Shelley Winters makes the film fun, mostly as a result of her over-the-top Southern accent. And there's something quite ironic about her character. For all of Kate's gun-loving ways, she's actually quite religious and anti-war. In one sequence, she sits down at the piano to play, and starts singing a song to spark some life into her four dejected sons; they eventually join in. "I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier; I brought him up to be my pride and joy there'd be no war today, if mothers all would say, I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier", which also sums up her familial bond with her sons.
The film's color cinematography is acceptable, though nothing special. Prod design and costumes seem accurate for the era, though Shelley's long eyelashes look more like something from the 1960s than the 1920s. The film's songs are good; I really like that title song.
A lot of viewers don't like this movie, for a variety of reasons. No, it isn't a realistic portrayal of the real Ma Barker. And no, the story is not altogether accurate, though some plot points are. But it's a fun movie and worth watching, mostly for the entertaining performance of Shelley Winters.