Roger Corman Double Feature: Big Bad Mama/Big Bad Mama II – DVD Review

The Flicks:

Big Bad Mama (1974): Angie Dickinson stars as Wilma McClatchie in this Bonnie & Clyde style shoot ‘em up set in Texas in 1932.  After breaking up her young daughter’s wedding and finding out that bootlegging is harder than it seems, Wilma takes her two teenage daughters on the road and decides that they deserve a better life. After a chance encounter with a bank robber (a likeable Tom Skerritt), Wilma decides that ripping off banks is her ticket to the big time. With the help of a suave gambler (William Shatner, appropriately hammy) the gang sets out for bigger and bigger scores; including banks, an oil field robbery and even kidnapping a wealthy heiress. All while staying just one step ahead of the authorities.

This is a very solid Depression era road movie. It has everything you’d expect from a 70’s cult classic: car chases, shootouts, blood and bare breasts galore.  All that plus great banjo and fiddle music and excellent, period accurate props and sets really help to evoke the time period. Which is impressive, given that budget was less than half a million dollars.

Sure, sometimes the film drags and the robberies can become repetitive. Also, the film definitely stays within the confines of the low budget genre picture. This isn’t terribly groundbreaking stuff. But most fans of cult cinema know what they’re getting into with Corman films, and this is one of the better ones of the time.

Big Bad Mama II (1987): Angie Dickinson returns to the role of Wilma thirteen years later with a different director, writer, supporting cast and a much worse movie. This time Wilma and her daughters have kidnapped the son of a politician (Bruce Glover) who is responsible for the death of Wilma’s husband. Things get complicated when the kidnapped son falls for Wilma’s daughter.

As it is with most sequels, everything that was great about the first movie is either watered down or missing. The great banjo and fiddle music is replaced here by irritating 80’s synthesizers. The gun battles are more few and far between. Plus, as she approaches fifty years old, it’s just not believable for Dickinson to pull off sexiness (which was definitely not the case in the first film). The story and characters are also simply less compelling.

Still, the movie does have its moments, such as a good supporting performance by Robert Culp as an enterprising journalist. Plus, there are a few exciting action set pieces: a great brawl in a whorehouse and a bullet riddled finale complete with a massive cabin explosion. All things considered, Big Bad Mama II isn’t an outright bad movie, but should be considered only for diehard Corman fans.

The DVD:
Audio/Video: Shout Factory has done a great job with the new anamorphic transfers. Both films are cleaned up really well. So well, in fact, you almost miss some the scratches and blemishes that you would’ve seen in their original form. But they left enough in to preserve the grindhouse feel. As for the audio, the sound is slightly tinny in a few places, most likely due to the quality of the original recordings, but this not too big of an issue and doesn’t really effect the overall quality.

Special Features, Big Bad Mama:

Commentary with Angie Dickenson and Roger Corman: This is a little too self congratulatory, Dickenson and Corman are simply singing the praises of the movie they made.

Commentary with director Steve Carver and Cameraman Bruce Logan: This commentary is much more informative. They relay a lot more of how the film was actually made. Unfortunately, it’s also pretty dry and lecture-like.

Leonard Maltin Interviews Roger Corman: This is a great short segment (about 6 min.). Corman gives a concise and eloquent summary of his process as a producer.

Mama Knows Best: A Retrospective: This is a solid look behind the scenes. This segment features most of the major players (Dickenson, Corman, Shatner, Carver, and the writers) as they relate some funny and informative anecdotes from the making of the movie.

Trailer/Photo Gallery: The trailer gives a little too much away, but the photo gallery has some cool black and white original posters.

Special Features, Big Bad Mama II:

Commentary with Director Jim Wynorski: The best commentary on the disc by far. Wynorski doesn’t over praise his movie or pretend it’s anything more than it is. Informative and funny.

Leonard Maltin Interviews Roger Corman: A brief re-hash of the interview for the first movie with very little added content.

Interview With Actor Bruce Glover: Scary! Time has not treated this man well and for some reason he’s in front of these weird dolls. Glover played the villain in this movie but doesn’t get to it until about the half way point. He spends the first half talking about himself. Skip this one.

Trailer/Photos: Pretty standard stuff here.

Conclusion: A solid Corman genre piece and its lesser sequel. A good buy for fans of Corman or Depression era shoot ‘em ups.

The Flicks: Big Bad Mama Rating: ,
Big Bad Mama II: Rating:
The DVD: Rating:

Adam Fiske

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