A psychologically disturbed matriarch presides over her damaged family of bank-robbing misfits.A psychologically disturbed matriarch presides over her damaged family of bank-robbing misfits.A psychologically disturbed matriarch presides over her damaged family of bank-robbing misfits.
- Moses
- (as 'Scatman' Crothers)
- Young Kate
- (as Lisa Jill)
- Bank Customer
- (uncredited)
- Victim
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn one scene where Herman Barker (Don Stroud) punches Ma Barker (Shelley Winters) in the nose, Stroud accidentally punched Winters in the nose for real, and hurt her badly enough that she had to be taken to the hospital.
- GoofsIn the prison cell when Freddie is walking on Dirkman's back, if you look on the cell wall behind him, you'll see graffiti of a Nazi swastika on the wall. The movie takes place circa 1930 and the Nazi symbol didn't even exist (at least in America's consciousness) until the late 1930's-1940's. Correction: The swastika was used as good luck symbol long before the Nazis. It was a common Native American symbol of good fortune and was on the official patch of the 45th Infantry Division of the US Army prior to 1930. So it's use as graffiti is not impossible.
- Quotes
'Ma' Kate Barker: [opens door and walks into boys' room, where Fred and Kevin are lying in bed together] I don't wanna sleep alone tonight.
Fred Barker: Ma, I can't.
'Ma' Kate Barker: Freddie, I don't want to cuddle with you tonight, baby. Kevin, I want you.
Kevin Dirkman: Well, we're all feeling kinda weird tonight, Ma.
'Ma' Kate Barker: ...Kevin, I've been promising myself you for a long time, and I want you tonight
Kevin Dirkman: Well, honey, I'm ready.
[rolls over Freddie, rubbing him sexually as he climbs out of bed. In a subsequent masochistic ecstasy, Fredde burns himself with his cigar]
- Alternate versionsThe film was originally rejected for a UK cinema certificate by the BBFC and then released 8 months later in 1971 with cuts to nudity, violent beatings, a rape scene, the drowning of Rembrandt, Lloyd's injection scenes and the violent shooting of Herman. The 18-rated UK video release of this film was cut by 11 seconds by the BBFC and removes the scene where Bruce Dern drops a tethered piglet into a river to use as alligator bait. The cuts were fully waived for the 2009 Optimum DVD.
- ConnectionsEdited into Frogs (1972)
This film (as well as the song, in fact) perfectly illustrate just how powerful urban myths and folklore tales can be. Allegedly the real Kate Barker wasn't a criminal mastermind at all. She wasn't even a petty thief, but merely a docile mother who got dragged along to various crime scenes by her four gangster sons as cover. And yet, immediately after her death, Kate Barker got bombarded - by J. Edgar Hoover - as the most vicious criminal brain of the decade, and she became an infamous legend.
The "Public Enemy" era of the 1930's also happens to be one of the favorite topics of the legendary producer/director Roger Corman to make violent movies about. After his admirable efforts "Machine Gun Kelly" and "The St Valentine's Day Massacre", the fictional albeit juicy saga of Kate Barker and her brood formed the ideal subject matter for a splendid exploitation shocker! "Bloody Mama" is deliciously grotesque and trashy good fun; - no more and no less. As if the story wasn't over-the-top enough already, Corman shamelessly adds extreme bits of gratuitous violence and a variety of taboo subjects, like incest, animal slaughter and harsh criticism against contemporary society. Half a century later, the film looks badly dated, but it's still fascinating to observe the borderline-neurotic performance of Shelley Winters as Ma Barker and the young Robert De Niro as the wildly glue-sniffing son Lloyd ("You sure act funny when you're building them model planes, Lloyd").
- Coventry
- Mar 10, 2020
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