Flicks of Shame: what's a nice actor like you doing in a movie like this?

Bloody Mama (1970)

It’s hardly a surprise to see Robert De Niro in a gangster movie, but it is surprising to find someone of his stature billed seventh in this deliciously lurid exploitation entry from Roger Corman, in which Shelley Winters cranks up the slut-o-meter as real life crime matriarch Ma Barker, whose four sons cut a violent swathe across Arkansas in the 1920s.

Corman has never been shy about cribbing a popular formula and upping the sleaze factor (see: Diane Ladd) and this often squalid crime flick was clearly inspired by Arthur Penn’s classic Bonnie & Clyde, released three years earlier.

Combining the pulp action of the two-fisted mobster pics of the Thirties and Forties, and stirring in a huge dollop of Sixties grit and grime, Bloody Mama doesn’t shrink from the queasy corners of the Barker Gang legend. Eldest son Herman is in the grip of a powerful incestuous compulsion, often sharing his mother’s bed and picking up Mona, a prostitute girlfriend who looks and acts much the same as dear mum. Sometimes, the other brothers share Mona’s favours, though Herman warns them that such generosity will end when he marries her. A man has to have some standards, after all.

Meanwhile, young Fred Barker is awakened to his homosexual nature after an eye-wateringly painful prison encounter with ass-rape fanatic Kevin Dirkman (Bruce Dern). The pair become lovers, and Dirkman joins the gang. Bored and horny, Ma Barker takes him to bed as well. Hey, why not?

And then there’s Lloyd, played by the 27-year-old De Niro. The first we see of him, he’s naked in a tin bath being ruthlessly scrubbed by Ma. A simple guffawing hillbilly, he enjoys sniffing the glue he uses to make model aeroplanes and soon graduates to injecting morphine.
It’s while smacked up to the eyeballs that he meets Rembrandt, a cheeky young lass who has the misfortune of swimming in the lake near the Barker’s latest hideout. At first she seems quite taken with Lloyd’s naïve charm, but when she realises he’s a junkie, and a gangster junkie at that, consensual flirtation goes out of the window and Lloyd bypasses romantic convention and simply rapes her. Their hideout thus compromised, Ma drowns the interloper in the bathtub and the boys dump the girl’s body in the lake.

From this moment on, Lloyd drifts further and further away from the family, and deeper into addiction. Their crime spree expands to include kidnapping, but Lloyd is still steaming about Rembrandt – at least when he’s not giggling in a doped-up stupor.

Finally, with the whole sorry bunch holed up in a rural guest house, Lloyd overdoses by the shore of yet another lake, his death signalling the beginning of the end for the gang. As Lloyd lies dying, Herman and Dirkman are off hunting alligators using a tommy gun – a subtle pastime that prompts the local handyman, Moses, to call in the feds.

As is traditional in these stories, it all ends in a hail of bullets as the forces of law and order surround the house and the remaining Barker’s go down, one by one – though Herman takes his own life, turning his machine gun on himself in the movie’s most shocking and gory scene.

A gleefully offensive movie, oozing with taboo-busting excess, Corman nevertheless manages to find room to slip some of his trademark directorial flourishes and subversive subtexts into the mix - the end credits play out over a postage stamp dedicated to “the mothers of America”.

De Niro is fascinating to watch. Though this wasn’t his first movie – he’d already worked twice with Brian DePalma – he still looks incredibly young and fresh-faced. While it’s funny to see him falling off chairs, smashed off his tits on glue, there are enough dramatic scenes where you can see the intense method actor we now know to stake this out as a pivotal De Niro role. His silent scene by the lakeside, contemplating his syringe before taking his presumably deliberate overdose, is both graceful and heartbreaking even while the film itself zooms shamelessly over the top like a giddy skyrocket of bad taste.

Need to know: Moses, the groundsman who makes the call that finally brings the cops and the feds down on the Barker clan, was played by Scatman Crothers, the multi-talented singer, comedian and actor best known for The Shining, where he played Halloran, the poor bloke who slogs through a blizzard to save the Torrance family, only to receive an axe in the back from Jack Nicholson the minute he steps through the door. His gravely voice also made him a popular voiceover artist, lending his vocals to both Hong Kong Phooey and Jazz, the funky Porsche in the Transformers cartoon.

Availability: With no DVD release in the UK or US, Bloody Mama can only be found on second hand VHS.

		Bloody Mama (1970) It’s hardly a surprise to see Robert De Niro in a gangster movie, but it is surprising to find someone of his stature billed seventh in this deliciously lurid exploitation entry from Roger Corman, in which Shelley Winters cranks up the slut-o-meter as real life crime matriarch Ma Barker, whose four sons cut a violent swathe across Arkansas in the 1920s. Corman has never been shy about cribbing a popular formula and upping the sleaze factor (see: Diane Ladd) and this often squalid crime flick was clearly inspired by Arthur Penn’s classic Bonnie & Clyde, released three years earlier. Combining the pulp action of the two-fisted mobster pics of the Thirties and Forties, and stirring in a huge dollop of Sixties grit and grime, Bloody Mama doesn’t shrink from the queasy corners of the Barker Gang legend. Eldest son Herman is in the grip of a powerful incestuous compulsion, often sharing his mother’s bed and picking up Mona, a prostitute girlfriend who looks and acts much the same as dear mum. Sometimes, the other brothers share Mona’s favours, though Herman warns them that such generosity will end when he marries her. A man has to have some standards, after all. Meanwhile, young Fred Barker is awakened to his homosexual nature after an eye-wateringly painful prison encounter with ass-rape fanatic Kevin Dirkman (Bruce Dern). The pair become lovers, and Dirkman joins the gang. Bored and horny, Ma Barker takes him to bed as well. Hey, why not? And then there’s Lloyd, played by the 27-year-old De Niro. The first we see of him, he’s naked in a tin bath being ruthlessly scrubbed by Ma. A simple guffawing hillbilly, he enjoys sniffing the glue he uses to make model aeroplanes and soon graduates to injecting morphine. It’s while smacked up to the eyeballs that he meets Rembrandt, a cheeky young lass who has the misfortune of swimming in the lake near the Barker’s latest hideout. At first she seems quite taken with Lloyd’s naïve charm, but when she realises he’s a junkie, and a gangster junkie at that, consensual flirtation goes out of the window and Lloyd bypasses romantic convention and simply rapes her. Their hideout thus compromised, Ma drowns the interloper in the bathtub and the boys dump the girl’s body in the lake. From this moment on, Lloyd drifts further and further away from the family, and deeper into addiction. Their crime spree expands to include kidnapping, but Lloyd is still steaming about Rembrandt – at least when he’s not giggling in a doped-up stupor. Finally, with the whole sorry bunch holed up in a rural guest house, Lloyd overdoses by the shore of yet another lake, his death signalling the beginning of the end for the gang. As Lloyd lies dying, Herman and Dirkman are off hunting alligators using a tommy gun – a subtle pastime that prompts the local handyman, Moses, to call in the feds. As is traditional in these stories, it all ends in a hail of bullets as the forces of law and order surround the house and the remaining Barker’s go down, one by one – though Herman takes his own life, turning his machine gun on himself in the movie’s most shocking and gory scene. A gleefully offensive movie, oozing with taboo-busting excess, Corman nevertheless manages to find room to slip some of his trademark directorial flourishes and subversive subtexts into the mix - the end credits play out over a postage stamp dedicated to “the mothers of America”. De Niro is fascinating to watch. Though this wasn’t his first movie – he’d already worked twice with Brian DePalma – he still looks incredibly young and fresh-faced. While it’s funny to see him falling off chairs, smashed off his tits on glue, there are enough dramatic scenes where you can see the intense method actor we now know to stake this out as a pivotal De Niro role. His silent scene by the lakeside, contemplating his syringe before taking his presumably deliberate overdose, is both graceful and heartbreaking even while the film itself zooms shamelessly over the top like a giddy skyrocket of bad taste. Need to know: Moses, the groundsman who makes the call that finally brings the cops and the feds down on the Barker clan, was played by Scatman Crothers, the multi-talented singer, comedian and actor best known for The Shining, where he played Halloran, the poor bloke who slogs through a blizzard to save the Torrance family, only to receive an axe in the back from Jack Nicholson the minute he steps through the door. His gravely voice also made him a popular voiceover artist, lending his vocals to both Hong Kong Phooey and Jazz, the funky Porsche in the Transformers cartoon. Availability: With no DVD release in the UK or US, Bloody Mama can only be found on second hand VHS.
Text © 2008 Dan Whitehead. No cut and paste, y'hear? All images remain the property of the offending studios and their reproduction is covered by Fair Use law.