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Crazy Mama<\/strong> (1975)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 80 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (violence, some language, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jonathan Demme\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Robert Thom\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Snotty Scotty and The Hankies\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Bruce Logan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 1975 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $2.3M (US)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The final feature of my period female gangster triple bill is Crazy Mama<\/strong>, a goofball action-comedy directed by the late, great Jonathan Demme in his second directorial effort following the women\u2019s prison flick Caged Heat. As we all know, the Roger Corman prot\u00e9g\u00e9 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\u2019t we?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The most notable difference between Crazy Mama<\/strong> 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<\/strong> is more comical in tone. Demme, working under producer Julie Corman (Roger\u2019s daughter), wants the audience to have fun and largely succeeds in that endeavor. It works just as long as you don\u2019t set your sights too high.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Made on a shoestring budget of $300K, Crazy Mama <\/strong>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\u2019m going to go off on a bit of a tangent for a moment here so bear with me please. I promise I\u2019m leading up to something.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Although it\u2019s officially a sequel to Big Bad Mama, BBM II could almost be mistaken for a remake of Crazy Mama<\/strong>. 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\u2019s father tries to fend them off with a shotgun, he\u2019s shot dead right in front of his wife and young daughter. That\u2019s where Crazy Mama<\/strong> deviates slightly. It\u2019s not the widow that turns criminal, it\u2019s the daughter Melba. This won\u2019t be her last bad experience with a rich a-hole either. \u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The 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\u2019re struggling, but their heartless landlord (Backus, Gilligan\u2019s Island) doesn\u2019t care. He wants his money right now. When they can\u2019t pay, he repossesses everything. Left with nothing, Melba decides it\u2019s time to head back to Arkansas to try and buy back the old family home. Also, there\u2019s a score to settle with a certain rich a-hole.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Melba 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\u2019s money away from his cheating wife (Kirkland, Best of the Best). Nothing bonds better than bigamy, right?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The 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\u2019s ransom comes through. Once it does (if<\/em> it does), it\u2019s off to Arkansas to take care of old business.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0It goes without saying that Crazy Mama<\/strong> 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\u2019s a rocky ride for the most part, but it\u2019s kind of fun too. I have to admit, I got a kick out of seeing play an outlaw. It\u2019s 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 \u201cI\u2019ve still got it.\u201d He doesn\u2019t, but he does get to say some silly things. Some of his dialogue is priceless. The topper has to be when his character says \u201cPut up or shut up, you homo greaser!\u201d to romantic rival Snake. Oh, did I not mention that Cheryl gets something going with the lame Fonzie wannabe? Well, she does. She\u2019s into both guys. This leads to one of the funniest dialogue exchanges EVER! Check out all the cliched 50s tough guy lines.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Shawn: \u201cI\u2019d hit you, but I might slip on your grease!\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Snake: \u201cYou cruisin\u2019 for a bruisin\u2019, son?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Shawn: \u201cYou want a mouth full of bloody Chiclets?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Snake: \u201cYou\u2019re asking for a knuckle sandwich, dipstick!\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n LOL! I was ROTF almost. Was Robert Thom (Bloody Mama, Death Race 2000) watching Happy Days while writing this scene? I wouldn\u2019t be surprised.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Okay, the acting in Crazy Mama<\/strong> isn\u2019t exactly top-tier. In fact, it\u2019s 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\u2019s 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 \u201cJohn\u201d) and Dennis Quaid (as \u201cBellhop\u201d) as well as an uncredited appearance by Will Sampson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest). You can\u2019t miss him.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0By no stretch of the imagination is Crazy Mama<\/strong> a great movie. I\u2019m not even sure I\u2019d call it a good one. It\u2019s fun though. Bear in mind I\u2019m 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<\/strong> definitely fits that description. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\r\n Crazy Mama (1975)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 80 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (violence, some language, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jonathan Demme\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Robert Thom\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Snotty Scotty and The Hankies\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Bruce Logan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 1975 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Cloris Leachman, Stuart Whitman, Ann Sothern, Jim Backus, Linda Purl, Don Most, Bryan Englund, Merie Earle, Sally Kirkland, Clint […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-b-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Crazy-Mama-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1003,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions\/1003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Crazy-Mama-POSTER.jpg?resize=620%2C931&ssl=1\")
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