Black Mama White Mama

Last updated

Black Mama White Mama
Black Mama White Mama.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Eddie Romero
Screenplay byH.R. Christian
Story by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyJusto Paulino
Edited byAsagani V. Pastor
Music by Harry Betts
Production
company
Distributed by American International Pictures
Release date
  • January 19, 1973 (1973-01-19)
Running time
87 minutes
Countries
  • United States
  • Philippines
LanguageEnglish
BudgetUS$200,000 [1]
Box officeUS$1 million(US and Canada rentals) [2] [3]

Black Mama White Mama, also known as Women in Chains (US reissue title), Hot, Hard and Mean (original 1974 UK title) and Chained Women (1977 UK reissue title), is a 1973 women in prison film directed by Eddie Romero and starring Pam Grier and Margaret Markov. The film has elements of blaxploitation. [4]

Contents

The movie was reportedly inspired by the 1958 film The Defiant Ones in which Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis are shackled together similarly to Grier and Markov. Set in an unspecified Latin American country (referred to only as "the island"), the movie was shot in the Philippines for budgetary purposes. [5]

Plot

Brought to a women's prison in a tropical country resembling the Philippines-set location of the movie, Lee Daniels (Pam Grier) and Karen Brent (Margaret Markov), a prostitute and a revolutionary respectively, butt heads and cause enough trouble to warrant a transfer to a maximum-security prison. They are chained together during the transfer, much to their dismay, and an attack by Karen's rebel friends allows them to escape, albeit still chained together.

The movie chronicles the pair's struggle to evade the army, led by Captain Cruz (Eddie Garcia), who enlists the help of the cowboy gang led by Ruben (Sid Haig). The pair also has competing goals: Lee aims to recover the money she extorted from her former pimp, Vic Cheng (Vic Díaz), and escape by boat, while Karen intends to meet her gun connections on time to prevent them from turning on her rebel friends.

The pair finally bonds, despite their initial hatred for each other, until they are ultimately freed by the rebel leader Ernesto (Zaldy Zshornack). The movie culminates in a violent shootout involving Cheng and Ruben's henchmen (who are rivals), Ernesto's guerrillas, and the army. While Karen is killed in the firefight, Lee escapes on a sailing vessel.

Cast

Production

The movie was made by Four Associates Ltd., the company of John Ashley and Eddie Romero. [6] In December 1972, it was acquired by American International Pictures. [7]

The movie takes its inspiration from the story concept of shackling a black character and a white one together introduced by The Defiant Ones (1958). John Ashley says the movie was originally called Chains of Hate and he bought the treatment from Jonathan Demme for $500. [8]

The lead actresses also reprised roles they already knew well. Pam Grier, who plays Lee Daniels, had done several tropical prison films, including The Big Doll House (1971), its non-sequel follow-up The Big Bird Cage (1972), and Women in Cages (1971). [9] [10]

Margaret Markov, who plays Karen Brent, had appeared in The Hot Box (1972), which was also a Latin American prison film. All of these movie were shot in the Philippines in accordance with their low budgets. [11] Pam Grier and Sid Haig also appear together in another tropical prison film The Big Doll House (1971) and Grier, Haig, Vic Díaz, and Andrés Centenera appear together in its non-sequel follow-up The Big Bird Cage (1972), which were also both filmed in the Philippines. Grier and Margaret Markov also starred opposite each other in the 1974 movie The Arena (a.k.a. Naked Warriors). [5] [12]

The movie was made at the same time as The Twilight People . [8]

Several Volkswagen Country Buggies are used in the movie; these were based on the VW Beetle chassis originally for the Australian market. The Country Buggy was produced locally in the Philippines as the Sakbayan, using VW power plants sourced from either Brazil or Mexico.

Eddie Romero says that Sam Arkoff of AIP called him during the shoot, saying he was unhappy with the lack of coverage. Romero asked Arkoff to have a look at the dailies and see if there was any coverage that he thought was needed. He never heard from Arkoff again after that. [13]

Grier became seriously ill during the making of the movie. "It was a tropical disease you get from ingestion, either from food or from the virus going through your skin in water", she said. "We were in a lot of rivers, rice paddies, where there are leeches and bacteria. So it was just a matter of time before it went through a cut and into your brain – and it could kill you." She was in bed for a month with a temperature of 105 degrees. "I lost my hair, I couldn't see, I couldn't walk. I was dying. The doctor kind of froze me to kill the cell in my brain." [14]

Lynn Borden says she, too, fell ill during filming as well. [15]

Themes

Feminism and sexuality

Black Mama White Mama, despite its exploitative nature, passes the Bechdel test [ citation needed ] and contains themes of female empowerment. Both of the movies' leads are strong women. Karen Brent is a guerrilla fighter and Lee Daniels masterminds a scheme to screw over the misogynistic pimp, Vic Cheng. Although Karen is the only female present in the guerrilla force, she is essential to their cause, as she is the only one that has the connections to the weapons dealers, and the only one that those dealers trust (Ernesto says "Her contacts would never turn them over to us."). She also is seen firing a gun right alongside Ernesto, the guerrilla leader.[ original research? ]

James Robert Parish and George H. Hill state that Pam Grier is "an intriguing mixture of pugnacity and femininity, with a heavy dose of world-weary cynicism" [5] despite, according to Bob McCann, the movie itself being "somewhat listless", [16] and the strength of both women outshine most of the male characters.[ citation needed ] Yvonne Sims states that "it became evident very quickly that Grier's screen presence overshadowed the one-dimensional roles that focused on her physical attributes and the weak storylines in AIP [American International Pictures] productions." [17]

Pam Grier's character Lee also escapes from her former pimp with $40,000 of his money, while the pimp and his henchmen are all killed. Not only that, but when the pair is sexually assaulted by Luis in his work shed midway through the movie, Lee stabs him to death. Cultural critic Nelson George notes, "Pam Grier was a cult figure who was even embraced by many feminists for her ball-breaking action movies. She remains one of the few women of any color in American film history who had vehicles developed for her that not only emphasized her physical beauty but also her ability to take retribution on men who challenged her." [18] Therefore, "Grier...brought a new character to the screen that was instrumental in reshaping gender roles, particularly those involving action-centered storylines." (Simms) [17]

Black Power

Black Mama White Mama also contains elements of Black Power, as it was released during the middle of the Black Power era.

The revenge that Lee Daniels gets on her former pimp is nothing short of Black Power, and "1973 marked the first time that audiences saw African American women in non-servitude roles." [17]

Lee also wears her hair in an Afro. As a "Killer Dame" (along with Tamara Dobson, Teresa Graves, Jean Bell, et al.), "It was a goodbye to the headscarves worn by Mammy and the wavy hair of the Exotic Other, and a refreshing and political greeting to the woman with a natural hairstyle modeled, according to [film scholar Cedric Robinson], from civil rights heroines such as Angela Davis." Moreover, her very portrayal of an action heroine "represented the antithesis of the Mammy." [17]

In the beginning of the movie, Lee resists the white matron of the prison's lesbian advances, even though she knows that her life in prison will be a lot easier if she engages with her. Karen, on the other hand, readily submits to the matron's advances so that she does not have to work in the field, placing a greater burden on the other prisoners. This greatly irks Lee, as she sees it as a selfish move. Though both women play strong roles, Lee is unique in that she never lets a single character walk over her. The movie may be symbolic in that Lee is mentioned first in the title and the credits. The ending also implies that her strength exceeded Karen's.

In another scene, Black Power is alluded to by a surprising source, Karen. During a fight with Lee over which direction to go while shackled together, she exclaims, "We're trying to set this island free. Christ, you're black, you understand, don't you?" This line of thought is not pursued further, but the scriptwriters (one of which was none other than Jonathan Demme himself, who later won an Academy Award for directing The Silence of the Lambs ), were clearly making the connection between revolutionary actions occurring in Latin America and the Black Power Movement in the United States. Demme and Joseph Vila could have been referring to a number of Latin American revolutions, including the Black Power Revolution in Trinidad in 1970. This particular connection would make a lot of sense, because at the time in Trinidad, guns were not "readily available", [19] and a major plot point of this movie is that the guerrillas need guns in order to succeed and Karen's American weapons contacts are deemed essential for their cause.

Release

One advertisement for the movie included the tagline "Chicks in chains...and nothing in common but the hunger of 1,000 nights without a man!" [20]

Reception

Box office

Ashley recalls being unhappy when AIP wanted to change the title to Black Mama White Mama. "[It was] really left field. I didn't care for it. As it turned out, that was the most successful theatrical movie I have ever done, in terms of hard dollars in my pocket." [8]

Critical

The movie, like many blaxploitation movies, was a B-movie produced on a low budget and received mixed reviews.

"So bad it's good", said the Los Angeles Times . [21]

Variety magazine said that "Performances ranged from bad to mediocre." Josiah Howard writes in Blaxploitation Cinema: The Essential Reference Guide that the movie was "a lively and well-done women's prison yarn", but that it "somehow never really hits its mark", largely because "the filmmakers do little to distance themselves from the tired trick...of having key characters shackled together for almost the entire length of the picture." However, the pairing of Pam Grier and Margaret Markov was "a hit with audiences", [22] as they played off each other well. Variety praised Eddie Garcia, saying that he "rises above the material by studious underplaying". [5]

"That film wasn't half bad", reflected Romero years later. "There are scenes in there I wasn't ashamed of. But some of those "cult" films, Beyond Atlantis and The Bride of Blood Island – the worst things I ever did. Ayy!!!!... Pam Grier was the gamest actor I ever worked with. She was willing to do anything- jump off a cliff, whatever. I'd be talking to a stuntwoman and Pam would say, 'Oh I can do that.' Ha! She was very good. And Margaret Markov was very good." [23]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack received praise. Howard comments, "Harry Bett's superior ambient music soundtrack (available on CD) is much more sophisticated than the movie that it was created for." [22]

Legacy

The movie is screened in the John Sayles film Lone Star (1996). Sayles said "Even that [movie] is about people of different races being chained together whether they want to or not." [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Defiant Ones</i> 1958 film by Stanley Kramer

The Defiant Ones is a 1958 American drama film which tells the story of two escaped prisoners, one white and one black, who are shackled together and who must co-operate in order to survive. It stars Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier.

<i>Jackie Brown</i> 1997 film directed by Quentin Tarantino

Jackie Brown is a 1997 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, based on the 1992 novel Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard. It stars Pam Grier as Jackie Brown, a flight attendant who smuggles money between the United States and Mexico. Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, and Robert De Niro appear in supporting roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pam Grier</span> American actress (born 1949)

Pamela Suzette Grier is an American actress and singer. Described by many as cinema's first female action star, she achieved fame for her starring roles in a string of 1970s action, blaxploitation and women in prison films for American International Pictures and New World Pictures. Her accolades include nominations for an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Satellite Award and a Saturn Award.

<i>The Mack</i> 1973 US blaxploitation film by Michael Campus

The Mack is a 1973 American blaxploitation crime drama film directed by California native Michael Campus, starring Max Julien and Richard Pryor. The film also stars Oscar-nominee Juanita Moore and Tony-nominated actor Dick Anthony Williams. Filmed in Oakland, California the movie follows the rise and fall of Goldie, who returns from a five-year prison sentence to find that his brother is involved in Black nationalism. Goldie decides to take an alternative path, striving to become the city's biggest pimp.

<i>Foxy Brown</i> (film) 1974 film by Jack Hill

Foxy Brown is a 1974 American blaxploitation film written and directed by Jack Hill. It stars Pam Grier as the title character who takes on a gang of drug dealers who murdered her boyfriend. The film was released by American International Pictures as a double feature with Truck Turner. The film uses Afrocentric references in clothing and hair. Grier starred in six blaxploitation films for American International Pictures.

<i>Im Gonna Git You Sucka</i> 1988 film by Keenen Ivory Wayans

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka is a 1988 American blaxploitation parody film written, directed by and starring Keenen Ivory Wayans in his directorial debut. Featured in the film are several noteworthy African-American actors who were part of the genre of blaxploitation: Jim Brown, Bernie Casey, Antonio Fargas and Isaac Hayes. It co-stars John Vernon, Kadeem Hardison, Ja'net Dubois, John Witherspoon, Damon Wayans, Clarence Williams III and Chris Rock, and acts as the film debuts of comedian Robin Harris and brothers Shawn and Marlon Wayans.

<i>Coffy</i> 1973 blaxploitation film directed by Jack Hill

Coffy is a 1973 American blaxploitation film written and directed by Jack Hill. The story is about a black female vigilante played by Pam Grier who seeks violent revenge against a heroin dealer responsible for her sister's addiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerardo de León</span> Filipino film director (1913-1988)

Gerardo de León was a Filipino film director and actor. He was posthumously conferred as a National Artist of the Philippines for Film in 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Markov</span> American actress

Margaret Mary Markov is an American retired actress. She had a supporting role in the romantic drama The Sterile Cuckoo (1969) with Liza Minnelli and co-starred in There Is No 13 (1974), as well as appearing in other films.

<i>The Arena</i> (1974 film) 1974 film

The Arena, also known as Naked Warriors, is a 1974 gladiator exploitation film directed by Steve Carver and starring Margaret Markov and Pam Grier. Joe D'Amato, the film's cinematographer, has stated that he took over direction of the fight scenes in the film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddie Romero</span> Filipino film director (1924-2013)

Edgar Sinco Romero,, commonly known as Eddie Romero, was a Filipino film director, film producer and screenwriter.

<i>The Big Doll House</i> 1971 film by Jack Hill

The Big Doll House is a 1971 American women-in-prison film starring Pam Grier, Judy Brown, Roberta Collins, Brooke Mills, and Pat Woodell. The film follows six female inmates through daily life in a gritty, unidentified tropical prison. Later the same year, the film Women in Cages featured a similar story and setting and much the same cast, and was shot in the same abandoned prison buildings. A nonsequel follow-up, titled The Big Bird Cage, was released in 1972.

Carolyn Ann Stewart, known professionally as Carol Speed, was an American actress, singer-songwriter and author. Speed was best known for her roles in films during the 1970s blaxploitation era, most notably starring as Abby Williams in the American International Pictures 1974 blaxploitation horror film Abby (1974).

<i>The Big Bird Cage</i> 1972 film by Jack Hill

The Big Bird Cage is a 1972 American exploitation film of the "women in prison" subgenre. It serves as a non-sequel follow-up to the 1971 film The Big Doll House. The film was written and directed by Jack Hill, and stars Pam Grier, Sid Haig, Anitra Ford, and Carol Speed.

<i>Friday Foster</i> (film) 1975 film by Arthur Marks

Friday Foster is a 1975 American blaxploitation film directed by Arthur Marks and starring Pam Grier in the title role. Yaphet Kotto, Eartha Kitt, Scatman Crothers and Carl Weathers co-starred. It is an adaptation of the 1970–74 syndicated newspaper comic strip of the same name, scripted by Jim Lawrence and illustrated by Jorge Longarón. This was Grier's final film with American International Pictures. The tagline on the film's poster is "Wham! Bam! Here comes Pam!"

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blaxploitation</span> Film genre

Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s, when the combined momentum of the civil rights movement, the Black power movement, and the Black Panthers spurred black artists to reclaim power over their image, and institutions like UCLA to provide financial assistance for students of color to study filmmaking. This combined with Hollywood adopting a less restrictive rating system in 1968. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president of the Beverly Hills–Hollywood NAACP branch. He claimed the genre was "proliferating offenses" to the black community in its perpetuation of stereotypes often involved in crime. After the race films of the 1940s and 1960s, the genre emerged as one of the first in which black characters and communities were protagonists, rather than sidekicks, supportive characters, or victims of brutality. The genre's inception coincides with the rethinking of race relations in the 1970s.

<i>The Twilight People</i> 1972 Filipino-American horror film

The Twilight People is a 1972 Filipino-American horror film directed by Eddie Romero. It was produced by Romero and John Ashley, and written by Romero and Jerome Small. It stars Ashley and features, in an early film appearance, Pam Grier in a supporting role.

<i>Savage Sisters</i> 1974 film by Eddie Romero

Savage Sisters is a 1974 women in prison film made in the Philippines and directed by Eddie Romero.

<i>Machete Maidens Unleashed!</i> 2010 Australian documentary film by Mark Hartley

Machete Maidens Unleashed! is a 2010 Australian documentary film directed by Mark Hartley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African American cinema</span> Films made by, for, or about black Americans

African American cinema is loosely classified as films made by, for, or about Black Americans. Historically, African American films have been made with African-American casts and marketed to African-American audiences. The production team and director were sometimes also African American. More recently, Black films featuring multicultural casts aimed at multicultural audiences have also included American Blackness as an essential aspect of the storyline.

References

  1. ↑ Lamont, John (1990). "The John Ashley Filmography". Trash Compactor (Volume 2 No. 5 ed.). p. 26.
  2. ↑ "Big Rental Films of 1973", Variety, January 9, 1974, p. 60
  3. ↑ Donahue, Suzanne Mary (1987). American film distribution : the changing marketplace. UMI Research Press. p. 301. ISBN   978-0-8357-1776-2.
  4. ↑ "Black Mama, White Mama". Dvdtalk.com. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Parish, James Robert., and George H. Hill. Black Action Films: Plots, Critiques, Casts, and Credits for 235 Theatrical and Made-for-Television Releases. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1989. Print.
  6. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (December 6, 2019). "A Hell of a Life: The Nine Lives of John Ashley". Diabolique Magazine.
  7. ↑ Murphy, M. (December 2, 1972). "MOVIE CALL SHEET". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest   157121133.
  8. 1 2 3 Lamont, John (1992). "The John Ashley Interview Part 2". Trash Compactor (Volume 2 No. 6 ed.). p. 6.
  9. ↑ Tuchman, M. (July 28, 1974). "A new dimension for the girl gang genre". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest   157528447.
  10. ↑ Monaco, James, and James Pallot. The Encyclopedia of Film. New York: Perigee, 1991. Print.
  11. ↑ Koven, Mikel J. Blaxploitation Films. Harpenden: Kamera, 2010. Print.
  12. ↑ Broeske, P. H. (June 16, 1985). "GOOD TASTE NO BARRIER TO MAKING PROFITABLE FILMS ON WOMEN IN PRISON". Chicago Tribune. ProQuest   290839815.
  13. ↑ Leavold, Andrew (2006). "Strong Coffee with a National Treasure:An Interview with Eddie Romero". Cashiers du Cinemart.
  14. ↑ Jaggi, M. (March 7, 1998). "Twentieth-Century Fox as the glamorous, gun-slinging Foxy Brown, Pam Grier was both sex symbol and radical icon, the undisputed queen of the seventies blaxploitation flick. Twenty-five years on, she's the eponymous star of Quentin Tarantino's new film Jackie Brown. The role guarantees overwhelming fame. But she's more than ready to handle it". The Guardian. ProQuest   245229744.
  15. ↑ Tate, James M. (May 12, 2013). "LYNN BORDEN ON BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA". Cult Film Freaks.
  16. ↑ McCann, Bob. Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2010. Print.
  17. 1 2 3 4 Sims, Yvonne D. Women of Blaxploitation: How the Black Action Film Heroine Changed American Popular Culture. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2006. Print.
  18. ↑ Gregg Braxton (August 27, 1995). "She's Back and Badder Than Ever". Los Angeles Times.
  19. ↑ Victoria Pasley (November 2001). "The Black Power Movement in Trinidad: An Exploration of Gender and Cultural Changes and the Development of a Feminist Consciousness". Journal of International Women's Studies. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  20. ↑ "Black Mama White Mama". The Baltimore Afro-American. Baltimore, Maryland. UPI. May 26, 1973. p. 18.
  21. ↑ Thomas, K. (March 22, 1973). "MOVIE REVIEW". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest   157052860.
  22. 1 2 Howard, Josiah. Blaxploitation Cinema: The Essential Reference Guide. Godalming, Surrey, England: FAB, 2008. Print.
  23. ↑ SERVER, LEE, and EDDIE ROMERO (1999). "EDDIE ROMERO: Our Man in Manila". Film Comment. Vol. 35, no. 2. p. 49. JSTOR   43455360.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  24. ↑ "The Monkey Hustle / Black Mama, White Mama Soundtrack". Amazon.
  25. ↑ Smith, G. (1996). "John Sayles: 'I don't want to blow anything by people'". Film Comment. Vol. 32, no. 3. p. 56. ProQuest   210261893.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.