Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Mabel Munoz Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Fred Schaefer Bloody Mama was in the theaters back when I was too young to get into R rated movies by myself, only recently did I get a chance to finally view this film. Seeing it now after nearly four decades, I think Bloody Mama tells us much more about pop culture in 1970 then it does about criminals in the 1930's. First of all, it's clearly an attempt by Roger Corman to cash in on the enormous success of Bonnie and Clyde, made only a few years earlier. The producers take full advantage of the changes in censorship ushered in by that previous film and here give us a screenplay filled with incest, homosexuality, nudity, drug addiction, and sadism, all portrayed by a cast of characters without a single redeeming moral value except for the fact that Ma Barker really did love her sons. A lot.Corman was obviously pandering to early 70's audiences (especially the youth like myself) who simply could not get enough good old sex and violence in their entertainment. Sadly, Bloody Mama isn't very good when compared with Bonnie and Clyde or The Wild Bunch; the screenplay just trudges along with scenes built to showcase each character's particular depraved personality. And the low budget really shows. Still any movie with this cast is worth seeing at least once if you're a film buff. Don Stroud, Clint Kimbrough, Robert Walden and a young Robert De Niro are the Barker boys. Was this De Niro's first gangster role? Stroud is pretty much forgotten today, but he was a great bad guy on old cop shows and would have been a much bigger star if he'd gotten the right role. Bruce Dern is Walden's prison lover who joins the gang and gets to sleep with Ma. He's still playing mean bastards all these years later, just watch HBO's Big Love. The only remotely redeeming person is Pat Hingle's kidnapped businessman; Hingle was an always dependable character star who brought a lot to anything he was in. Scatman Crothers is here a full decade before he worked for Kubrick in The Shinning and the late Diane Varsi gets to show off her breasts in one of her last roles. The main reason to see Bloody Mama of course is Shelley Winters as Ma Barker. Winters was one of the movies all time great scenery chewers and she doesn't let us down here. Her Kate Barker snarls, yells and sneers when she needs to and then turns around and cries, pleads and begs if that is what it takes to get her boys to bend to her will. Winters made a long career out of playing monster mothers, shrews and harridans, but there was something about the way she portrayed her mean characters that suggested they were just women who'd had to put up with a lot in life and had learned to give it back twice over. In the end, Bloody Mama is a relic of a bygone time, that time being the 1970's.

samgrass-3 Roger Corman's take on Ma Barker, with Shelley Winters hitting rock bottom as Ma. Corman mentions in the credits that any similarity between anyone living or dead is purely coincidental, except for the Barker family. Well, we can include them in with the rest, because other than naming the characters after Ma and her sons, there is no similarity. It's just good, cheesy fun. Going for a psychological turn, the movie seems to revolve around sex, except for parts where Corman inserts his social commentary on America, which is always a hoot. It was made during the period where Corman, applauded by the French, was believing his own reviews and imagining himself not as a B director, but as an important social commentator. Anyone who sat through Gas-s-s-s knows the depth of Corman's thinking. Robert DeNiro has one of his early parts, playing one of Ma's sons. I can just imagine method actor DeNiro asking Corman what his motivation is. Oh to be a fly on that wall. Not to be outdone, Shelley also mumbles quite a few of her lines, perhaps competing with DeNiro. Bruce Dern is also in there, as son Arthur's (Clint Kimbrough) sadistic prison friend who joins the gang. Don Stroud plays oldest son Herman. Lots of nude scenes, though I kept wishing that Shelley would keep her clothes on. Thankfully, she did. It's fun to watch, but Corman did this sort of nonsense better in Big Bad Mama.

PaulyC Shelly Winters plays a wild Ma Barker in this decent Roger Corman directed flick about the Barker gang of the great depression era. Everyone playing Ma Barkers sons, who include Robert Deniro, gives a good performance. Bruce Dern also has a small role as sort of an outside member of the gang. The Barker gang is on the run, lead by their fearless mother. They rob banks and whoever they can get their hands on. There is one particular good scene involving Deniro, complete with his Max Cady accent, where he acts on the advances of a young blonde swimmer who flirts with him while he sits on the dock. Her flirty ways turn to terror as Deniro realizes he tells her some forbidden information and can't afford to let her live. Deniro lost 30 pounds for the role. He also told Corman he could drive even though he didn't have a license. Pat Hingle, a great character actor, as a high profile man who the gang kidnaps to get ransom money is also very good. This film is no "Bonnie and Clyde" but I'm surprised it didn't get more attention. Worth a look.

Maciste_Brother I watched BLOODY MAMA because I love Shelley Winters and wanted to see where Robert De Niro started as an actor. Well, it wasn't worth watching. What started interestingly enough quickly became tiresome and unwatchable. The script is a complete mess. Really. I never seen such a badly written story for a film ever. It just doesn't know what to do with its characters. By the time the film focused on the kidnapped man who was bound to a chair, I lost interest. What the hell were they thinking?Poor Shelley, stuck in this bad movie. Whenever she's one screen, her mere presence elevates this movie up a couple of extra stars. Remove her completely and no one, and I mean no one would remember this film. Aside from the scene when Shelley robs a bank and forces old ladies to hang on to their car and the subsequent car chase, seeing the old ladies hang for dear life, which I admit was really fun, this film is totally forgettable.