BIG BAD MAMA
US, 1974, 85 minutes, Colour.
Angie Dickinson, William Shatner, Tom Skerritt.
Directed by Steve Carver.
There must be a large collection of films about 30s gangsters of U.S. city and country. Here is another, directed by Steve Carver (Capone) and produced by the man responsible for so many of them as producer or director, Roger Corman. This one is the same material, a bit more explicit on sexuality but the same violence. And now we have Angie Dickinson, with two daughters, who takes to the road against society, dominating the two men she attracts for a series of hold-ups. She is a strange and wilful character. There is social comment on the injustice of the Depression, but the film is much the same as the others of its genre.
1. The Depression genre? The appeal of the 30s and interest in the 30s? The style of a gangster film?
2. The importance of the recreation of the scene: the homes, the countryside, cars, paradise Texas, the banks, the police, etc.? Did the environment explain the criminals?
3. The significance of Angie Dickinson as Mama? Audience response to the actress and the character she was playing? How much character was developed in Mama? A mother and her relationship to her daughters? The initial attitude towards marriage and her reaction at the wedding? Her reaction to Barney? Her self-assertion? Her antagonism towards the police? Her ambitions for money and to give things to her daughters? Do these explain her involvement in crime?
4. How did the screenplay make her gradual involvement credible? Her irascible personality and her erratic behaviour at the wedding, taking off her daughters and looking after them and protecting them, her reaction to Barney and the police chase and his being shot? The decision to take over his deliveries? The experience in delivering the Moonshine whisky? The people she met? The corrupt police? The police bashing?
5. How was it easy for her to become more deeply involved and to determine her life of robberies and raids? The visualizing of the robberies? The counterbalance of the human interest sequences, for example, the daughter at the striptease? Her encounter with the preacher and his phoney religion? Her getting the money from him? Her ability to rob banks?
6. The portrayal of the police? As persons? As upholding the law? AS determined and dedicated to catch the criminals? As obsessed? The nature of their pursuit?
7. The personalities of the two daughters? Their style? Relationship with their mother? Their involvement in crime? Their moral stances?
8. The social background of America in the 30s? The American Legion Dinner and the striptease?' The phoney preacher? The comment on a corrupt society which needed upheaval?
9. The bank robbery and the coincidence of the other robbery? The involvement with Diller? Diller's personality? His being subjugated by Wilma? The sexual involvement, his relationship with the daughters, his becoming a partner, his jealousy? The pregnancy of the daughter?
10. The contrast with Baxter? As a character, as a con-man, his performance at the races,, the entanglement with Wilma,, the infatuation, sexuality? The reasons for him joining them? His place in the group?
11. The film's treatment of the sexual relationships? Appropriate for this kind of film? The complication and realism of the pregnancy?
12. Wilma's growing ambitions and her determination to rob the people at the Ball? Her style in doing this? The social comment? The talk of the people and the contrast with Wilma's background?
13. The kidnapping of Jane and its accomplishment, Jane's imprisonment, her relationship with Diller and Baxter? Her quick thinking in trying to escape? Audience sympathy for Jane in her imprisonment?
14. Baxter's fear and Jane overcoming him?
15. Audience response to the shoot-out and the deaths? The usual culmination of American criminal careers? The violence inherent in the American tradition? The ugliness of such death and justice?
16. The presentation of persons, moral stances, the nature of crime and their attitudes towards crime?
17. The film's exploration of relationships amongst depressed people and criminals?
18. The Depression atmosphere and the understanding of the Depression? Class questions in social conscious America?
19. Frank Diller's final stand-out and being shot? The quietness in contrast with Wilma's death? What is the value of exploring these characters and their times? The relationship to social situations now?
