Bloody Mama (1970) in the PNW

Details: Written by: Mortado; Category: The 1970s in Northwest Cinemas

This is a collection of media from the initial runs of "Bloody Mama" (1970) in the Pacific Northwest. "The Devil's 8" was the second feature.

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Bloody Mama (1970)
"Bloody Mama" is a grubby little movie that takes pleasure in being ugly and never bothers to apologize for it. Shelley Winters chews the scenery with a kind of theatrical venom that makes you want to look away and keeps you watching anyway. The film is less interested in subtlety than in piling on the dirt until the whole thing smells like a cautionary tale left out in the sun too long.

The plot is simple and mean-spirited by design. A mother corrals her broken sons into a life of crime, and the camera follows with a clinical curiosity that often feels like cruelty dressed up as realism. The supporting cast includes names you will recognize later, and their presence gives the movie a weird ballast. They do what they can with material that prefers shock to insight.

Technically, the movie is rough around the edges but not sloppy. The period details and the lean running time keep it moving. What lingers is the tone. Roger Corman seems to be daring you to be offended while also asking you to admire the audacity of the spectacle. That tension never resolves into anything like moral clarity. Instead, the film wallows in its own nastiness and expects you to take the ride.

If you want a polished study of maternal pathology or a careful historical portrait, you will be disappointed. If you want a nasty, pulpy piece of cinema that wears its nastiness like armor, you will find it oddly satisfying. Either way, "Bloody Mama" is not trying to be likable. It is trying to provoke, and it succeeds at that in the most blunt and unapologetic way.

Director: Roger Corman
Writers: Robert Thom, Don Peters
Stars: Shelley Winters, Don Stroud, Pat Hingle, Bruce Dern
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May 24, 1970 ad (Seattle)