I believe myself well schooled in gross budget schlock from various film genres. Watching cheesy films is an acquired taste, one not easily cultivated overnight. Even with some knowledge about who makes these types of films under my belt, I smooth stumble over major contributors to the clunker movie catalogue and wonder why I haven’t spent time with these delicacies before now. Roger Corman is my latest discovery. I admit I have heard of Corman before in reference to the spate of Vincent Impress terror classics that emerged in the 1960s, along with a few other films he made over the course of his career, but until now I never saw many of them. This guy is a giant of the gross budget film, producing or directing some 500 plus movies in the last forty years. He’s composed going strong as far as I know, and never limits his output to one particular genre; he’s made westerns, alarm, action, drama, and science fiction films with seeming ease. Moreover, according to the bio on this DVD, Corman helped originate the careers of numerous Hollywood bigwigs. If “Tremendous Abominable Mama” is any indication, I will continue to exercise a lot of time with this filmmaker’s projects in the advance future.
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“Astronomical Abominable Mama” is a sort of feminist reinterpretation of those movies about Depression era highway outlaws; it’s “Bonny and Clyde” with lipstick and long tresses. Angie Dickinson plays Wilma McClatchie, a mule headed, dirt abominable Texas woman with a temper and a desire to better her conditions. Life hasn’t been easy for Wilma, not with two young daughters to raise in a ramshackle cabin out in the sticks. What’s a woman to do during these tough times? Why, strike up a relationship with local bootlegger Barney (Ample Willingham), of course! But when the wedding ceremony of one of Wilma’s daughters goes horribly awry, and Barney perishes in a shootout, Wilma is left holding several abominable bags. The Feds enthusiastic in bringing down Barney, led by Bonney (Richard Smith), now situation their sights on Wilma and her kids. Unfortunately, McClatchie plays true into their hands by taking over Barney’s illicit liquor operation. At some point, Wilma decides she’s had enough of being terrible and decides to hit the road in search of ill-gotten gains. She takes her two lascivious daughters, Polly (Robbie Lee) and Billy Jean (Susan Sennett), along for the hump. And why not? If you’re going to embark on a crime spree, you may as well manufacture it a family affair.
Problem is, Wilma cannot run the lure of sleazy, valid for nothing men. She first hooks up with wanted criminal Fred Diller (Tom Skerritt), and quick consummates their partnership the archaic fashioned procedure. Then conman extraordinaire William Baxter (William Shatner) enters the represent, and Wilma brings him into the fold as well. The resulting jealousy between Diller and Baxter, along with a most new relationship struck up between Diller and Wilma’s daughters, will certainly lead to hazardous tensions within the gang. Despite these internal stresses, Wilma continues to station the next mountainous pick up. The gang finally stumbles upon the perfect scheme; they will infiltrate a soiree thrown by a bunch of rich folks and kidnap one of them. McClatchie and her compatriots succeed in abducting Jane Kingston (Joan Prather), but the belief fouls up when Diller decides to fetch up halt and personal with the hapless heiress. Then Baxter pulls a hastily one. Then the cops and the G-men end in. Cue gunfire and crashing cars. Roll credits. Who will live and who will perish? Surprisingly, you’ll actually care about the retort to that put a question to while watching “Enormous Poor Mama.”
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I’ve seen several Corman classics now, and “Substantial Dreadful Mama” ranks as one of the better ones. First, you’ve got a solid cast filling all the main roles. Dickinson not only looks astonishing, but she believably portrays a dreadful woman looking out for her absorb with nothing to lose. Tom Skerritt, an actor I’ve never liked in anything, actually manages to avoid annoying me as the murderous and jealous Fred Diller. As for Shatner, well, he’s probably at his most restrained here in a role requiring him to talk softly in oily tones. I got a kick out of the daughters. Both of them are so far over the top that you can’t aid but laugh at their antics. Be positive and withhold an gaze start for their dancing routine at the local veteran’s obtain together. Is anyone as dense as these two airheads? Guess so. Thankfully, the performances unfold against the second famous element that makes “Titanic Abominable Mama” a lot of fun, namely the film’s substantial atmosphere. While I imagine plenty of anachronisms plague the movie, I conception the 1930s props looked scheme better than I expected to scrutinize in a coarse budget relate. Finally, you really do secure an opportunity to gape Angie Dickinson select a few risks, so to sing, but you’ll miss it if you blink. Considering what the actress had to do in the role, I’m surprised she took the fragment when she was detached a player in Hollywood.
The DVD is standard a standard Roger Corman release. You regain the obligatory short interview with Leonard Maltin, and a bunch of trailers. A sequel to “Tremendous Terrible Mama,” unoriginally entitled “Expansive Awful Mama II,” came out roughly ten years later. While I haven’t seen the sequel, which apparently once again stars Angie Dickinson, I can say that the first film is a lot of fun. Tall performances, bountiful skin, a sleazy attitude, and wonderfully realistic atmosphere makes this Corman classic a must behold for B movie fans.
Big business can accomplish for outlandish bedfellows as is the case here, with the recently re-released film Great Dreadful Mama (1974) . Seems not too long ago The Walt Disney Corporation, through their Buena Vista Home Entertainment group, acquired the rights to release onto DVD some 400 Roger Corman films, including this one…if you’re not familiar with Roger Corman, he probably the single, largest producer of low-budget exploitation films in the last 50 years, features someone generally wouldn’t associate with the Walt Disney image. Produced by Corman, co-written by William W. Norton (White Lightning, I Dismember Mama) and Frances Doel (Deathsport, DinoCroc), and directed by Steve Carver (Lone Wolf McQuade), the film stars Angie Dickinson, who first made an impression on me as Sgt. Suzanne “Pepper” Anderson in the mid to behind 1970s television series “Police Woman”. Also appearing is William `The Shat’ Shatner (”Star Dart”, Kingdom of the Spiders), Tom Skerritt (MASH, Alien), Susan Sennett (The Candy Snatchers), Robbie Lee (Switchblade Sisters), Wonderful Willingham (The Last Portray Exhibit), Dick Miller (X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes), Tom Signorelli (The Cotton Club), Royal Dano (Killer Klowns from Outer Location), William O’Connell (Every Which Map But Loose), and Joan Prather, whom some may remember from the television series “Eight Is Enough”, as Janet McArthur Bradford.
The movie, situation in the depression era south, begins as we view three women, one older, two younger, heading to church. Seems new widower Wilma McClatchie (Dickinson) is taking her two daughters, Billy Jean (Sennett) and Polly (Lee) to the church as Polly done got herself engaged to a dirt farmer. The trio arrives, met by skeezy Uncle Barney (Willingham), a bootlegger by trade, shortly followed by the groom, showing up on the befriend of a truck…I must say, he’s quite the prize pig…anyway, Wilma seems sorrowful with her youngest daughter’s choice in men, and promptly puts the kibosh on the affair in the middle of the nuptials, as she decides she wants better for her girls. A advantageous, dilapidated fashioned ruckus ensues, and the three women, along with Uncle Barney, plug…accurate into a trap status by a lawman named Bonney (Miller), who’s been chasing Barney the bootlegger for some time. There’s a car shuffle, and Barney ends up with a terminal case of lead poisoning, to which Wilma decides to grasp over the business, thus beginning her life of crime. After the bottom falls out of her moonshine business (thanks to a injurious local sheriff), Wilma and her girls, who are about as ripe as Georgia peaches, fleece a bent preacher, and then score tangled up with a bank robbery, eventually taking on one of the robbers, named Fred Diller (Skerritt), as a partner, in more ways than one, if you know what I mean…homina, homina…Wilma, deciding it wise never to pull the same caper more than once, decides their next win will be a rush track, where they meet Captain Kirk…er, I mean William J. Baxter (Shatner), an upper-class hustler, resulting in another partnership, along with more of Ms. Dickenson doffing her clothes…position phasers on heavenly! Anyhoo, the group makes their method west, to California, with Sheriff Bonney hot on their heels, and Wilma comes up with one last ample derive, curious kidnapping a elegant, yet snooty, heiress (Prather) and ransoming her off for a million bucks…but jealousies threaten to saunter the group apart, along with their ever increasing notoriety.
I’ve seen plenty of exploitation films in my time, but few do them as well as Roger Corman. That’s not to say his touch is always gold, but he usually manages to finagle more than most of out so very miniature. I assume the one aspect about this production that elevates it to the upper echelons within the B movie realm is the strong and pleasurable cast, especially Ms. Dickenson, who, in her forties at the time, looked better than the females half her age appearing in this film, and that’s not to say they were hard on the eyes (the actress playing Polly seemed to have the most difficult time keeping her top on) . She provided an exceptionally strong, knowing, certain female character, one who knew what she wanted, and knew how to rep it…overall I really enjoyed this gangster drama with a feminine twist. Director Carver keeps narrative involving along well, which included predictable twists, appealing car straggle and gunplay sequences, along with a whole lot of freaky deaky…check out the scenes where Tom Skerritt’s character, after getting replaced as Wilma’s bed warmer by The Shat’s character, hooks up with her daughters, in a creepy. Southern fried threesome. And then there’s the scene reach the kill when Skerrit’s character is seduced by the kidnapped heiress (in an attempt by her to hasten), and The Shat creepily watches on from the doorway…but never alarm, The Shat does salvage his groove on in one, particularly revealing scene with Ms. Dickenson…thankfully, for myself at least, his nekkidness is covered up by her nekidness (actually, Ms. Dickenson has about three or four gratuitous nekkid scenes, if you’re looking for that kind of thing) . As far as the acting goes, its better than I expected, given the amount of experience in the cast, both in recognizable actors and character actors. And how could you not like a script that features lines like this? “Uncle Barney…was you trying to feel up my Mama? ” Oh Uncle Barney…whotta sleaze…the account is decent enough, as there seemed to be attempts to flesh out the various relationships, but it never really went to far which was pleasant because that really wasn’t something I was looking for in a movie like this…another aspect I really liked was the ending, as I plan it a substantial design to wrap things up.
The fullscreen (1.33:1) portray on this DVD release looks decent, but does reveal some signs of age. I’m betting the quality here is the same as the previous DVD release, so if you have that, and that’s all you care about, there probably isn’t distinguished reason to be sucked in by this `Special Edition’ release. The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio is decent enough, with no complaints. As far as extras, there is a featurette titled `Mama Knows Best: A Retrospective’ (14:38), that includes Corman, Dickenson, The Shat, and a number of people eager with the film discussing their experiences, all looking quite archaic and crusty. Also included is a commentary track with Corman and Dickenson, and a rough, current theatrical trailer.
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By the design, the film apparently did well enough to warrant a sequel titled Tremendous Terrible Mama II (1987), featuring Ms. Dickenson. I haven’t seen it, and doubt I will as the DVD, which is currently out of print, seems to be a bit over priced…savor them gougers…maybe Disney will re-release it, too…
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