Crazy Mama | |
---|---|
Directed by | Jonathan Demme |
Screenplay by | Robert Thom |
Story by | Frances Doel |
Produced by | Julie Corman |
Starring | Cloris Leachman Stuart Whitman Ann Sothern Linda Purl Jim Backus Donny Most |
Cinematography | Bruce Logan |
Edited by | Allan Holzman Lewis Teague |
Music by | Snotty Scotty and The Hankies |
Distributed by | New World Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 83 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $2.3 million [1] |
Box office | $2.3 million (United States and Canada rental) [2] [3] |
Crazy Mama is a 1975 American action comedy film, directed by Jonathan Demme, produced by Julie Corman and starring Cloris Leachman. It marked the film debuts of Bill Paxton and Dennis Quaid.
The film focuses on a beauty parlor owner and her family, who lose their belongings to repossession. The trio of women soon start a crime spree. Their confrontation with law enforcement officers ends in a shootout.
In 1958 Long Beach, California, Melba Stokes is a beauty parlor owner, living with her mother Sheba and daughter Cheryl. They flee when landlord Mr. Albertson comes to demand the back rent and repossess their belongings.
On the road, heading back to Arkansas to reclaim the family farm, the Stokes women begin a crime spree. They rob a gas station first, then head for Las Vegas. In pursuit of pregnant Cheryl is her boyfriend, Shawn, while Melba meets up with a runaway Texas sheriff, Jim Bob Trotter. Further battles with the law along the way eventually lead to a shootout in which Jim Bob and others are killed. Melba is left alone, on the lam, but begins life again in a new town with a new look.
The original director was Shirley Clarke but she was fired ten days prior to filming and Demme (who had been preparing Fighting Mad for Corman [4] ) took over. Among the changes Demme made was to the ending, which was originally to have all the leading characters die. Producer Julie Corman gave birth to her first child during production. [1]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 92% of 12 reviews are positive, and the average rating is 6.5/10. [5]
On December 17, 2010, Shout! Factory released the title on DVD, packaged as a double feature with The Lady In Red , as part of the Roger Corman Cult Classics collection. [6]
Cloris Leachman was an American actress and comedian whose career spanned nearly eight decades. She won many accolades, including eight Primetime Emmy Awards from 22 nominations, making her the most nominated and, along with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, most awarded performer in Emmy history. Leachman also won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award.
Suburbia, also known as Rebel Streets and The Wild Side, is a 1983 American coming-of-age drama thriller film written and directed by Penelope Spheeris and produced by Roger Corman. The film's plot concerns a group of suburban youths who run away from home and adopt a punk lifestyle by squatting in abandoned suburban tract homes. The punks are played by Chris Pedersen, Bill Coyne, Timothy Eric O'Brien, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea and others.
Renaldo and Clara is a 1978 American film directed by Bob Dylan and starring Bob Dylan, Sara Dylan and Joan Baez. Written by Dylan and Sam Shepard, the film incorporates three distinct film genres: concert footage, documentary interviews, and dramatic fictional vignettes reflective of Dylan's song lyrics and life.
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The Wild Angels is a 1966 American independent outlaw biker film produced and directed by Roger Corman. Made on location in Southern California, The Wild Angels was the first film to associate actor Peter Fonda with Harley-Davidson motorcycles and 1960s counterculture. It inspired the biker film genre that continued into the early 1970s.
Caged Heat, also known as Renegade Girls, is a 1974 women in prison film. It was written and directed by Jonathan Demme for New World Pictures, headed by Roger Corman. The film stars Juanita Brown, Roberta Collins, Erica Gavin, Ella Reid, Rainbeaux Smith, and Barbara Steele.
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Tales of Terror is a 1962 American International Pictures comedy horror film in colour and Panavision, produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff, James H. Nicholson, and Roger Corman, who also directed. The screenplay was written by Richard Matheson, and the film stars Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Basil Rathbone. It is the fourth in the so-called Corman-Poe cycle of eight films, largely featuring adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories and directed by Corman for AIP. The film was released in 1962 as a double feature with Panic in Year Zero!.
Humanoids from the Deep is a 1980 American science fiction horror film starring Doug McClure, Ann Turkel, and Vic Morrow. Roger Corman served as the film's uncredited executive producer, and his company, New World Pictures, distributed it. Humanoids from the Deep was directed by Barbara Peeters and an uncredited Jimmy T. Murakami.
Big Bad Mama is a 1974 American action-crime-sexploitation comedy movie produced by Roger Corman, starring Angie Dickinson, William Shatner, and Tom Skerritt, with Susan Sennett and Robbie Lee. This movie is about a mother, Wilma, and her two daughters, Polly and Billie Jean, who go on a crime spree. After the mother unexpectedly falls in love with a bank robber it all ends, with tragic consequences. Big Bad Mama became a cult hit and was followed by a sequel, Big Bad Mama II, in 1987.
Bloody Mama is a 1970 American exploitation crime film directed by Roger Corman, and starring Shelley Winters in the title role, with Bruce Dern, Don Stroud, Robert Walden, Alex Nicol and Robert De Niro in supporting roles. It was very loosely based on the real story of Ma Barker, who is depicted as a corrupt, mentally-disturbed mother who encourages and organizes the criminality of her four adult sons in Depression-era southern United States.
American Cowslip is a 2009 independent American comedy feature film directed by Mark David. It revolves around heroin addict, Ethan Inglebrink, whose life is centered on his garden and his group of eccentric friends. American Cowslip is David's third film, following his debut, Sweet Thing (1999), and his second, acclaimed feature, Intoxicating (2003). This was Peter Falk's final film appearance two years before his death June 23, 2011.
White Line Fever is a 1975 Canadian-American action crime neo-noir film directed by Jonathan Kaplan and starring Jan-Michael Vincent.
Hit Man is a 1972 American crime film directed by George Armitage and starring Bernie Casey, Pam Grier and Lisa Moore. It is a blaxploitation-themed adaptation of Ted Lewis' 1970 novel Jack's Return Home, more famously adapted as Get Carter (1971), with the action relocated from England to the United States.
How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life is a 1968 American comedy romance film directed by Fielder Cook. It stars Dean Martin, Stella Stevens and husband and wife Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson.
Julie Ann Corman is an American film producer. She is married to film producer and director Roger Corman.
Angels Hard as They Come is a 1971 biker film directed by Joe Viola and starring Scott Glenn, Charles Dierkop, Gilda Texter, James Iglehart, and Gary Busey. It was co-written and produced by Jonathan Demme.
In Broad Daylight is a 1991 American made-for-television thriller drama film about the life of Ken McElroy, the town bully of Skidmore, Missouri who became known for his unsolved murder. McElroy was fictionalized as the character Len Rowan, portrayed by Brian Dennehy. The film is based on Harry N. MacLean's nonfiction book of the same name.
Not to Forget is a 2021 American drama film written and directed by Valerio Zanoli and starring Karen Grassle, Tate Dewey, Kevin Hardesty, Louis Gossett Jr., Tatum O'Neal, George Chakiris, Cloris Leachman and Olympia Dukakis, the latter two in their final film appearances.