Movie Review: Big Bad Mama (1974)

This movie was surprisingly entertaining. It had a low budget, which shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that Roger Corman produced it, but it still does a decent job of recreating its Great Depression setting. The movie feels a bit like a comedic version of Bonnie and Clyde, except there’s no real Clyde until nearly halfway through.

The movie follows Wilma McClatchie (Angie Dickinson, Rio Bravo) and her two daughters, Polly (Robbie Lee) and Billy Jean (Susan Sennett). They make their money engaging in whatever criminal activity they can. There’s a humorous scene where the two daughters are stripping in front of a veterans’ organization until Wilma shows up to accuse everyone of corrupting her daughters, allowing her to steal all their money. In another scene, they sneak aboard a bus of evangelical Christians going to a baptism, before stealing the money that the preacher was already stealing.

The movie changes direcdtions a bit when a bank that Wilma and her daughters are at gets robbed. Wilma steps in and steals the money, but the bank robber, Fred Diller (Tom Skerritt, Alien), ends up tagging along. I like that a lot of the scenes of Wilma and her daughters committing these crimes involves other people being just as bad and corrupt. It’s quite humorous, and might even be satirical.

Eventually a new man enters the picture, and it’s none other than William Shatner as William J. Baxter.

Shatner’s a lot of fun in his role, as is everybody else. This movie has a pretty strong cast, including Dick Miller as Bonney, a lawman after Wilma for the entire movie. I mean, Dick Miller is always awesome.

There’s some character drama involving relationships. Wilma and Fred Diller take an erotic interest in each other, and once Baxter steps in, Diller gets jealous, before moving on to Billy Jean, and later Polly, getting the latter pregnant. It is a sexploitation movie, and all three main female characters are nude in at least a couple scenes, but it also uses sex for some of the drama.

I’d also say this movie is shot really well. It’s more technically impressive than most low budget movies of its time, and it has some tracking shots that look really great. Most of the car stuff isn’t too impressive, but there is one scene that looks pretty great.

And I must say, the ending is pretty memorable. The movie dragged a bit towards the end, but everything worked at the conclusion from an excitement perspective and even an emotional perspective. This dumb, low budget sexploitation action comedy actually made me feel something.

Rating: 7/10