Big Bad Mama (1974) [Roger Corman: Early Films] – DVD

**/**** Image B Sound A- Extras B-
starring Angie Dickinson, William Shatner, Tom Skerritt, Susan Sennett
screenplay by William Norton and Frances Doel
directed by Steve Carver

by Travis Mackenzie Hoover Has Molly Haskell written on Big Bad Mama? The title of her seminal feminist study on American film–From Reverence to Rape—fits the movie and its two-faced approach to women perfectly. Under any other circumstances, completely implacable mother Wilma McClatchie (Angie Dickinson) would be a feminist superhero for her ability to go on the lam and do what's best for her daughters, all while swindling the system. But Wilma's will-to-power is largely played for laughs: not only is she way in denial about her offspring's abilities (both of whom turn out to be brain-dead sex objects), but her whole mission is perceived as transgressive in the wrong ways, opening her up to ridicule and, in her nude scenes, degradation. One doesn't expect feminism from Roger Corman, but the handling of the women in Big Bad Mama is telling about a time and place far beyond its diegetic moment.

That moment is, of course, the Dirty Thirties, and our heroine is obsessed with a good life for her teenage daughters Billy Jean (The Candy Snatchers' Susan Sennett) and Polly (Robbie Lee). Wilma is depicted as a controlling bitch early on as she busts up Polly's wedding to a slap-faced boy-child and winds up running booze with an "uncle" who promptly dies by police bullet. But no inconvenient corpse is going to ruin her brood's chances: she sells the remaining hooch herself (only to have to bail out virginal Polly when she's caught with the merchandise), then "rescues" her kin from a smoker in which they had willingly participated. Never mind that Billy Jean and Polly are volunteering for cheesecake duty: nothing shakes their mother's image of them as being just as bulletproof as she is. This misunderstanding is basically the point on which the movie turns.

Haskell once remarked that the vanishing of strong female parts in the '70s was a backlash against the encroachment of feminism, and Wilma turns out to be an interesting case. She can only serve as a beacon of power if undercut by what her daughters (and women in general) "really" are: the handmaidens of male desire. This is a point made clear by bank robber Fred Diller's (Tom Skerritt) arrival on the scene. Diller first finds his way into Wilma's bed after the former crashes the latter's stickup, but soon he attracts the attention of Billy Jean and finally has a three-way with her and her sister. This does nothing to dent Wilma's enthusiasm: she becomes a comic figure for not seeing the writing on the wall of what she, her daughters, and womankind in general are supposed to be, which is pliable and non-threatening.

While this may be a little too much to pile on the back of an exploitation romp, the lack of generosity rankles when placed with the perfunctory nature of the production. Unlike Corman alum Jonathan Demme, whose Caged Heat had great affection for its characters, director Steve Carver is clearly uninterested in anything accumulating gunshots and skin. He's not erotic in the sex scenes, he's not exciting in the action scenes, and he only winds up accentuating the male bitterness that drives the whole production. And though Dickinson manages to professionally fill out her character (as does William Shatner, playing a genteel gambler picked up along the way), the feeling one gets is that of a bunch of construction workers making lewd comments at passing women. Even Russ Meyer knows what affection looks like–and how to, as he would put it, 'look a good fuck in the eye.' As the only look this movie has is down its snout, it becomes quite off-putting.

THE DVD
Buena Vista's DVD reissue of Big Bad Mama has its problems, leaving aside the inexcusable matter of the film not being in its original aspect ratio. Colours on the fullscreen image seem a little off: a distinct roast-beef-red quality affects flesh tones, with intermittent scratches also keeping the presentation from scoring top marks. The accompanying Dolby 2.0 mono sound is defect-free if not especially sharp. Extras include "Big Bad Mama: A Retrospective" (16 mins.), wherein Roger Corman, Angie Dickinson, and various other participants enthuse about the production and inflate its qualities quite a bit. Surprisingly, the most animated discussion comes from co-writer Frances Doel, who appears to have invented most of the situations before they were re-written by William Norton (and who provides better rationales than her less loquacious compatriot). It skims the surface, but it's worth it alone for William Shatner announcing, "I'm just naturally suave!" A feature commentary with Corman and Dickinson proves a largely fruitless collection of shout-outs to the "wonderful" actors and meagre production information pertaining to the classic cars and the like. The film's trailer rounds out the extras; trailers for Casanova, Flightplan, and the Roger Corman collection begin on startup–along with that ridiculous anti-piracy PSA.

84 minutes; R; 1.85:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 2.0 (Mono); English, English SDH subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; Buena Vista