BLOODY MAMA 1970

The Shelley Winters Blogathon hosted by Realweegiemidget Reviews & Poppity Talks Classic Film

"MEET MA BARKER who took her bibles, her hymn book and her tommy
 gun and raised four sons and raised more hell the most of the mobs in Chicago"

     Produced and directed by "B" movie mogul Roger Corman and released by A.I.P. in 1970 BLOODY MAMA, was a drive-in answer to Arthur Penn's BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967) with eschewing (for the most part) Penn & Beatty's European art house/French New Wave aspirations. Although geared toward the exploitation market, Corman always gave his films some artistic flourishes (it's often forgotten what a technically skilled director he was and how beautiful looking his movies were) and BLOODY MAMA does show that Corman was an avid watcher of films and was aware of what was going on at the time artistic-wise in Hollywood and overseas.
     In the late 60's Hollywood's obsession with the youth market met that many classic Hollywood greats and Oscar winners were regulated to the sidelines and forced into secondary roles or leading roles in exploitation movies. For the men these often-meant roles as emasculated or evilly corrupt authority figures standing in the way of the under 30 anti-heroes. For women it often came down to playing shrieking harpies in the so-called "hag horror" that began with Robert Aldrich's WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE (1962) and was still growing strong in the late '60s along with bizarre exploitation fare like Lana Turner on LSD in THE BIG CUBE (1969) and the fascinating Jennifer Jones train wreck of  ANGEL, ANGEL DOWN WE GO  from 1969 (which was written by Robert Thom who also wrote the screenplay for BLOODY MAMA).

    Winters who by the time of BLOODY MAMA had two best-supporting actress wins and had been one of the better respected supporting actresses in Hollywood was seeing her career regulated to TV (she had played "Ma Parker" in the BATMAN TV series) and had begun to tip her toe into the exploitation genre with THE MAD ROOM & WILD IN THE STREETS in 1969. She would later appear in Curtis Harrington's fascinating takes on the "hag horror" genre with WHO SLEW AUNTIE ROO? and WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN? in 1971. Although when looked at the time her role of Ma Barker would have seemed a bit shocking Winters always took great gusto in these later roles which in spite of the bluster would always show what a fine actress she was and with her mainstream career fading she would more & more go into full-on "Shelley Winters" persona in roles and on the talk show circuit.
    Along with Winters BLOODY MAMA contains a fascinating mixture of up & comers, character faces and ingenues on the downside. Although a gangster picture at its heart, Corman & screenwriter Thom are more interested in the characters rather than their exploits (there's only one actual bank robbery in the course of the film) and the film features some marvelous performances. With these characters come at times a very vile and sordid story with rape, incest, and drug addiction taking center stage often in the proceedings.
    Opening de rigor for a gangster film banjo-driven main title theme this one by composer Don Randi we're shown 14-year-old Kate being pursued through the woods before being violently held down by two boys and being raped by an older man who we learn is her brothers and father. Jumping forward we find a now-adult Kate Barker (Winters) in rural depression-era Arkansas with her brood including Herman (Don Stroud THE HOUSE BY THE LAKE), Arthur (Clint Kimbrough NIGHT CALL NURSES), Fred (Robert Walden TV's LOU GRANT), and an almost impossibly young Robert De Niro as Lloyd.

     Forcing to flee after the boys are accused of the vicious gang rape of a local girl that resulted in her broken arm, Kate loads the boys into a car stolen from the sheriff and bids good-bye to meek mannered husband George (Alex Nicol THE SCREAMING SKULL) with the parting words "you never did know how to mount me right". It's pretty amazing how much seediness the film packs into its opening moments.
    Once on the road, the gang/family quickly resorts to a life of crime with Stroud's Herman showing himself to be the most dangerous as he is a psychotic killer who occasionally needs to be cradled in Ma's arms and taken to her bed and Lloyd becomes more dependent on his morphine addiction with the occasional glue sniffing ("you sure start acting funny when your building those model planes..."). Along the way, they pick up a prostitute named Mona whose played by Diana Varso who has previously appeared with Winters in WILD IN THE STREETS and was nominated for an Academy Award for PEYTON PLACE in 1957. Although nominally attached to Herman, she's not above climbing in the back seat with Arthur while Herman is driving.
    Herman and Fred are thrown into jail for attempting to rob a charity benefit and while in jail Fred becomes involved in an S&M relationship with Kevin (Bruce Dern) who upon release joins the gang and sometimes shares Winters's bed when she's not with one of her brood. Things escalate with the brutal murder of a young girl and the kidnapping of a banker (a wonderful performance by the great Pat Hingle) and the climatic and bloody shootout at the gang's FL. hideaway. it's during the extended kidnapping scene with Hingle that Corman and Thom really let the characters stretch out (especially Winters and Stroud) as the boys begin to bond with the kidnapped banker seeing in him a father figure they never had.

    Winters is a true force of nature here, not only making the character of Ma Barker seem almost larger than life, but she spews forth her dialogue with a visceral force that must be heard to be believed. Alternately quoting the bible and dispensing with her own version of social justice, she sings spirituals while condemning the entire human race as immoral and berating the "rich heathens". If not for the talent of a great supporting cast, she would push them all to the background. De Niro, in particular, is fascinating to watch as you can't take your eyes off him even when he's lurking in the background.
     Opening with the title card "Any similarity to Kate Barker and her sons is intentional" the screenplay by Thom is more indebted to the gangster fantasy that Penn & screenwriters David Newman & Robert Benton (along with an uncredited Robert Towne) put forth in 1967 to BONNIE AND CLYDE. Corman takes the basic story of the outlaw gang and infuses it with seediness and sordid details along with requisite violence that makes for a great drive-in exploitation movie. But as mentioned before the characters are all well developed and Corman shoots some sequences with almost a poetry like ambiance such as the beginning with a young girl running slowly through the woods in a gunny sack dress and later at the climax when groups of spectators silently watch the bloody shootout (which is based on actual fact).
     Bruce Dern's character Kevin is based upon Alvin "Creepy" Karpis who was the last surviving member of the Ma Barker gang and later befriended Charles Manson in jail and taught Manson how to play guitar. There's still much debate on how much of a criminal mind "Ma" really was and many believe that Hoover inflated her reputation in order to justify her violent death at the hands of authorities. The house in Ocklawaha, FL. where the hours-long shootout took place is still standing (complete with bullet holes) and in reality, only Kate "Ma" Barker and Fred were there at the time. Hollywood had previously tackled the story in 1960 with MA BARKER'S KILLER BROOD starring Lurene Tuttle which was released by Something Weird on DVD (in a nifty Dbl. feature with GANGBUSTERS) and BLOODY MAMA has been released on DVD and Blu-ray by Scorpion.

The above screen caps are from the Scorpion DVD

PSYCH-OUT 1968

"These are the PLEASURE LOVERS !"

"They'll ask you for a dime with hungry eyes..but they'll give you love for NOTHING"

    A pony-tailed Jack Nicholson helps flower child in training Susan Strasberg search for her missing brother in an A.I.P. version of 1960's hippie San Francisco. Produced by Dick (American Bandstand) Clark this was based upon an earlier script titled THE LOVE CHILDREN written by Nicholson. It was later re-worked seemingly enough not to have Jack credited as a writer, but he was able to get himself cast into what is essentially the male lead (although Dean Stockwell is top billed). One of those movies that's instant fodder for jokes and "so bad its good" viewing recommendations its actually a lot better then its reputation and plus where else are you going to get to see Jack fronting a psychedelic rock band in 1960's San Francisco ?? Sure its a bit hokey at times, but does feature a well written script with some depth to it, beautiful cinematography by Laszlo Kovacs, earnest work by its leads and best of all there's an almost impossibly cute Susan Strasberg.

    Straight off (literally) the bus deaf runaway Jenny Davis (Strasberg) arrives in the midst of counter culture 1968 'Frisco to search for her missing brother. Wandering into a coffee shop she makes the acquaintance of "Stoney" (Jack Nicholson) who along with his friends Ben & Elwood (Adam Rourke & Max Julien) head up a rock group known as Mumblin' Jim. Hiding her from the police in their Mumblin' Jim day-glo painted Chevy van they take her back to their commune located in an old Victorian house that comes complete with hippies lounging around and making love on pillows, plentiful drugs and trippy lighting. As it turns out Jenny's missing brother Steve is a local street corner preacher and sculptor known as "The Seeker" who's disappeared from his apt. after sending Jenny a postcard that reads mysteriously reads "JESS SAES God is alive and well and living in a sugar cube".

    After being informed that local artist Warren (who also designs Mumblin' Jim's concert posters) is "freaking out" on STP Jenny and the boys arrive just in time to stop him from cutting off his supposedly rotting hand with a circular saw and plus he imagines everybody as festering zombie-like creatures !  There Jenny recognizes a sculpture as her brothers work which leads them to guru Dave (Dean Stockwell) who's the "oracle and speaker of the truth" character that's always around in hippie films. Dave was also a past member of Mumblin' Jim but quit because he thought the band was too concerned with success and "playing games for the man". He's standoffish to Stoney but seems attracted to Jenny (with motives that don't seem all that "truth seeking") and is eager to help her whereupon he gives them information that leads Jenny and the boys to a local junkyard for clues to the missing Steve.

 Watch out for that bad acid !!

  Mumblin' Jim jammin' at the ballroom !!

    Once there they see a Jesus Saves sign with a couple of letters missing which ties into Dave's cryptic postcard to Jenny. They also run into into gang of short haired thugs who attempt to rape Jenny (and as it turns out are looking to put an ass whoppin' on The Seeker). Luckily during the fight a stoned Elwood hallucinates that the junkyard thugs are knights and dragons and proceeds to wipe them out with a hunk of metal pipe.
   Meanwhile Mumblin' Jim seems to headed for the big time as they get an offer from a promoter to perform at "the ballroom" (a reference to the Avalon or Fillmore) on a bill with The Strawberry Alarm Clock and as Stoney says "maybe be as big as the Airplane". This causes a major rift between Stoney and guru Dave as he feels the band is "selling out" and "chasing the dollar" (Hey !, where's my official band sanctioned Mumblin' Jim t-shirt !). Stoney's preoccupation with making it big also hurts his burgeoning love affair with Jenny (which was punctuated by some stoned out blurry love making) and this allows Dave to start putting some non-guru like moves on Jenny and trick her into drinking some acid laced Kool-Aid (with resulting dire climatic consequences including hallucinatory exploding fireballs, flashbacks to evil moms and Golden Gate Bridge freak-outs). To top everything off it seems that "The Seeker" is a somewhat crazy and wacked out Jesus like figure and is played by everybody's favorite crazy and wacked out actor Bruce Dern. Holy Crap !

    In addition to the appearance by The Strawberry Alarm Clock (who also supply several songs to the soundtrack) there's also Sky Saxon and The Seeds preforming at a mock hippie funeral. Although there is some great documentary style footage street footage of San Francisco (complete with a quick appearance by Jerry Garcia) the majority of PSYCH OUT was filmed in Los Angeles, including Jack Nicholson's actual house. This might explain the presence of two Los Angeles bands in the form of The Seeds and Strawberry Alarm clock rather then San Fran based bands. Director Richard Rush's original cut was 101 minutes (and this was mistakenly issued on video cassette by HBO), but was cut down for release to 82 minutes - which is now the cut available on DVD from MGM. I've never seen Rush's 101 minute version, but seemingly how there is some filler here the shorter version probably works best.
    The cast were all in their late 20's with this seemingly most apparent with Nicholson as his looks practically scream out NARC (!) and would probably be pretty much guaranteed to clear out a hippie pad in no time. As mentioned Kovac's photography is beautiful (this would look gorgeous on blu-ray) such as the opening close-up of a wistful Strasberg gazing out of the bus window while coming into San Francisco and the film makes great use of the bright psychedelic color scheme of the time.

Hey, Mumblin' Jim have even got themselves a flute playin' hippie chick ! Far Out !

   With its in the open drug use (plus showing its sometimes ugly after result) along with Nicholson's presence make this an interesting companion to Peter Fonda and 1966's THE WILD ANGELS as precursors to EASY RIDER. The pretty girl stringing beads all over the commune at one point is played by Mireille Machu who was Jack's girlfriend at the time and played "The Pleasure Girl" in The Monkees HEAD (billed as I.J. Jefferson). Pretty cool stuff !  

  

 LOOK OUT ! Some more trippin' on that nasty ol' bad acid !