Crazy Mama (1975) New World/Action-Comedy RT: 80 minutes Rated PG (violence, some language, brief nudity) Director: Jonathan Demme Screenplay: Robert Thom Music: Snotty Scotty and The Hankies Cinematography: Bruce Logan Release date: June 1975 (US) Cast: Cloris Leachman, Stuart Whitman, Ann Sothern, Jim Backus, Linda Purl, Don Most, Bryan Englund, Merie Earle, Sally Kirkland, Clint Kimbrough, Dick Miller, Tisha Sterling, Carmen Argenziano, Harry Northup. Box Office: $2.3M (US)
Rating: ***
The final feature of my period female gangster triple bill is Crazy Mama, a goofball action-comedy directed by the late, great Jonathan Demme in his second directorial effort following the women’s prison flick Caged Heat. As we all know, the Roger Corman protégé would go on to bigger and better films like the 1991 horror-thriller The Silence of the Lambs which garnered him the Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture. We all had to start somewhere, didn’t we?
The most notable difference between Crazy Mama and its two accompanying features (Big Bad Mama II & Bloody Mama) is that it does NOT take place during the Great Depression. Only the prologue does. The bulk of the action takes place in the late 50s. Also, Crazy Mama is more comical in tone. Demme, working under producer Julie Corman (Roger’s daughter), wants the audience to have fun and largely succeeds in that endeavor. It works just as long as you don’t set your sights too high.
Made on a shoestring budget of $300K, Crazy Mama is a glitchy but fun piece starring Cloris Leachman (Young Frankenstein) as Melba Stokes, a small business owner who embarks on a life of crime after being screwed over one too many times by the rich. I’m going to go off on a bit of a tangent for a moment here so bear with me please. I promise I’m leading up to something.
Although it’s officially a sequel to Big Bad Mama, BBM II could almost be mistaken for a remake of Crazy Mama. They both open with nearly the same exact scenario. The greedy, heartless rich guy who owns their land shows up with the cops to kick the struggling family off for non-payment. When Melba’s father tries to fend them off with a shotgun, he’s shot dead right in front of his wife and young daughter. That’s where Crazy Mama deviates slightly. It’s not the widow that turns criminal, it’s the daughter Melba. This won’t be her last bad experience with a rich a-hole either.
The story flashes forward to 1958 where we find Melba and her mother Sheba (Sothern, My Mother the Car) operating a beauty parlor in sunny California. They’re struggling, but their heartless landlord (Backus, Gilligan’s Island) doesn’t care. He wants his money right now. When they can’t pay, he repossesses everything. Left with nothing, Melba decides it’s time to head back to Arkansas to try and buy back the old family home. Also, there’s a score to settle with a certain rich a-hole.
Melba and her mother are joined on their quest by her pregnant teenage daughter Cheryl (Purl, Visiting Hours) and her surfer boyfriend Shawn (Most, Happy Days) who follows in his van when they flee Long Beach after making the landlord crash his car. Their first stop, after robbing a gas station along the way, is Las Vegas where Melba meets Jim Bob (Whitman, Night of the Lepus), a wealthy Texas lawman looking for excitement. It looks like he found it with this wild bunch. Talk about an eventful first date. They decide to get married in one of those 24-hour wedding chapels so they can rob the place. Then the gang concocts a kidnapping scam in order to get Jim Bob’s money away from his cheating wife (Kirkland, Best of the Best). Nothing bonds better than bigamy, right?
The gang picks up a couple of other strays in Sin City- leather-jacketed, motorcycle-riding greaser Snake (Englund, The Prowler) and not-so-innocent little old lady Bertha (Earle, Summer School Teachers). Together, they go on a crime spree, robbing banks and county fairs until Jim Bob’s ransom comes through. Once it does (if it does), it’s off to Arkansas to take care of old business.
It goes without saying that Crazy Mama is best enjoyed by taking it for what it is, a cheap exploitation movie with gunplay and car chases aplenty. It even has a quick boob shot despite the PG rating. It’s a rocky ride for the most part, but it’s kind of fun too. I have to admit, I got a kick out of seeing play an outlaw. It’s hard to get the image of his Happy Days character Ralph Malph out of my mind. I kept waiting for him to crack a joke and say “I’ve still got it.” He doesn’t, but he does get to say some silly things. Some of his dialogue is priceless. The topper has to be when his character says “Put up or shut up, you homo greaser!” to romantic rival Snake. Oh, did I not mention that Cheryl gets something going with the lame Fonzie wannabe? Well, she does. She’s into both guys. This leads to one of the funniest dialogue exchanges EVER! Check out all the cliched 50s tough guy lines.
Shawn: “I’d hit you, but I might slip on your grease!”
Snake: “You cruisin’ for a bruisin’, son?”
Shawn: “You want a mouth full of bloody Chiclets?”
Snake: “You’re asking for a knuckle sandwich, dipstick!”
LOL! I was ROTF almost. Was Robert Thom (Bloody Mama, Death Race 2000) watching Happy Days while writing this scene? I wouldn’t be surprised.
Okay, the acting in Crazy Mama isn’t exactly top-tier. In fact, it’s pretty bad which is fine because the whole movie is campy. Cloris plays it to the nosebleed section in the lead role. Sothern looks to be having a great time. Purl is easy on the eyes. It’s always a joy to see Whitman in one of the cheap B-movies that defined the latter part of his career- e.g. Eaten Alive, Oil, Demonoid and Guyana: Cult of the Damned (more of a Z-movie really). Look for early roles by not-yet-famous actors Bill Paxton (as “John”) and Dennis Quaid (as “Bellhop”) as well as an uncredited appearance by Will Sampson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). You can’t miss him.
By no stretch of the imagination is Crazy Mama a great movie. I’m not even sure I’d call it a good one. It’s fun though. Bear in mind I’m somewhat biased in that I like all things New World. They make cheesily entertaining B-movies for a fraction of the cost of a major Hollywood picture. Crazy Mama definitely fits that description. It’s its own kind of art which, as we know, is always subjective. Just forget everything you think you know about cinema and enjoy the crazy ride.
