Crazy Mama / The Lady in Red

This is more like a 4 1/2 star rating a very fun double feature of movies that is like a trip back in time to the 1970's when double features still existed. One special feature for this CRAZY MAMA/THE LADY IN RED double feature is the "grindhouse" viewing which includes "R" rated Previews of other Roger Corman movies "Caged Heat" (looking really sex-ploitative, dirty, mediocre acted prison movie...did I mention "fun") as well "Big Bad Mama" (with,YES, a wonderful frontal shot of Angie Dickinson opening her button shirt to the voice of actor Tom Skerritt - in "character", I presume - stating very impressed for obvious "Angie" reasons, "Oh, MAN!"). It's a hoot (pun intended, I guess). There is, also, THAT 70's kaleidoscope of color while THAT movie theater music plays introducing the "upcoming attractions" et cetera. It's all crackly and grainy and kinda skips (on purpose) too.And then the movies which is why I came back to this review 6 months later to re-emphasize just how entertaining this "grindhouse" viewing is, Especially, THE LADY IN RED!Pamela Sue Martin (Poseidon Adventure; Nancy Drew) plays the lead in this surprisingly well detailed and ambitious (made for less than a million $$, 1979) Depression era gangster movie by Director Lewis Teague helped immensely by the screenplay of John Sayles.As for Sayles he conspires with Roger Corman's wife and Producer Julie Corman to give an informative Commentary (special features are all good on disc) that includes many great "research stories" including Louis Armstrong leaving the country to escape Gangsters fighting over his contract; 1/3 of the women in Chicago by age 30 were hookers during Depression; and the reporter in LADY IN RED was based on actual reporter Al Capone had ordered killed! Overall, the look and feel of this movie IS impressively authentic.Pamela Sue Martin "grows" wonderfully in her role as innocent mid western girl who eventually dates the infamous John Dillinger (or is he Dillinger; again listen to Commentary too). Lewis Teague (also directed underrated B-type movies Alligator with Robert Forster; and Fighting Back with Tom Skerritt..) gets good performances from Robert Conrad and Robert Forster as gangsters, but good men, with a not 'Doc Brown yet' Christopher Lloyd playing maniacal "Frognose".Before the 93 minutes of THE LADY IN RED is complete she is forced to spend time working in a sweat shop (where Corman staple Dick Miller makes his good-bad guy appearance), prison, and a brothel where there is a bevy of bust shots. A tad titty gratuitous, maybe; but, still, it IS a realistic portrayal of a 1930 Chicago brothel.The Romanian Madame is played by Louise Fletcher (One flew Over the Cuckoos Nest). Good to see her Not typecast as the wicked nurse in The Lady in Red.And don't disregard Jonathan Demme's second feature CRAZY MAMA starring Gloris Leachman and Ann Sothern as a mother daughter, soon to be bank robber team in 1957. Along with grand daughter (Linda Purl, kinda sexy) and her TWO boyfriends (one played by Donn Most from Happy Days) they must travel back to Arkansas from California to get their lives back. They pick up a lawman (played by Stuart Whitman) who quickly is in cahoots with the thieves on the run. Leachman heads the show and is sometimes quite amusing as the zaniness proceeds. So is Sothern and her slow southern drawl.There is a pretty good 50s soundtrack too that gives the movie a minor American Grafitti feel to it.CrAZY MAMA is a 4 star movie at best.THE LADY IN RED and the Grindhouse double-feature feature elevate the overall rating.Check this out. You might be surprised just how good and cinematic this Corman B production is.Especially THE LADY IN RED.

These disparate genre films have little in common other than that they were early offerings by Jonathan Demme and John Sayles while they toiled for schlockmeister Roger Corman. Demme as director and Sayles as screenwriter demonstrate in these films flashes of the brilliance that would inform their mainstream work. The better of the two works would probably be "Crazy Mama" because it is deliciously frantic and Demme evokes the late Fifties expertly through a terrific soundtrack and lush art design. "Lady in Red" isn't bad but I found it a little too fanciful in relating the tale of Polly Franklin, John Dillinger's squeeze when he was gunned down in front of Chicago's Biograph Theatre. Pamela Sue Martin, who was graduating from girl-next-door roles (TV's "Nancy Drew"), does commendable work as Franklin but not enough to push this flick into the indispensable category. On a trivial note Cloris Leachman, star of "Crazy Mama", played Franklin in John Milius' 1973 "Dillinger".

Here's two more crime chicks movies from the Corman factory(actually Julie Corman produced both films).First off is Crazy Mama, which has Cloris Leachman as a hairdresser making the trek from California back home to Arkansas(or was it Alabama?) to reclaim the land that was taken from her years before. Along for the ride are her mother, her daughter, a 75 year old refugee from an old folks home, her daughter's surfer boyfriend, a greaser hoodlum, and Leachman's love interest, Stuart Whitman. The journey becomes a cross country crime spree as the gang find ways of robbing and stealing along the way. The film takes place in 1958, but some of the songs on the soundtrack are at odds with that date, not that that's a big deal or anything.Thee whole thing is played as zany comedy. To be honest, I wasn't all that into it. It wasn't a bad movie, but it was just too much of the women all yelling and throwing fits. Plus the attempts at humor didn't really work for me. I do prefer Corman's Big Bad Mama, which this is more or less a carbon copy of plot wise.Next is The Lady In Red, and this is definitely the highlight of the disc. This one follows Pamela Sue Martin as she flees home to Chicago in the 1930s, gets crap jobs, gets thrown in prison(with Beulah Balbricker herself!), works the brothel, becomes John Dillinger's girlfriend, and eventually becomes a butt kicking criminal herself. It's a bit more serious in tone, but not afraid to be goofy when it allows. Lots of good actors here. We have Louise Fletcher as the madame, Robert Conrad as Dillinger, Robert Forster as a mobster, and Christopher Lloyd in sadistic mafioso mode.Very cool movie, very well done.Extras are commentaries on both films, and an interview with Jonathan Demme and Roger Corman, however the Demme interview is how he met and came to work with Corman, but no mention of Crazy Mama. But that's what the commentary is for, right?Definitely worth it for The Lady In Red, though Crazy Mama is certainly worth your time.

The Lady in Red - don't expect a roaring gangster movie about John Dillinger!Most of the movie looks at the fairly dull life of a woman who leaves home and ends up working in a brothel.Only in the last 15 mins does the movie really liven up, which is too little too late.If the story had included some life of Dillenger running parallel with her story, till they eventually meet up towards the end of the film, it would had been so much better.As is usual for many movies the DVD artwork is over-the-top and misleading, especially the image of the very slim female star! KAN

Double feature dvd on one disc,the first film is Crazy mama(1975) starring Cloris leachman as Melba who has had her beauty parlor repossessed & along with her mother(Ann sothern) & her pregnant daughter,decides to go on a cross country crime spree in order to buy back the family farm which was stolen from them when Melba was a young girl.Various other characters come along for the ride in this 50s set kitchy comedy but i really didnt care much for this film! I just didnt find anything that great about it,maybe i should have watched it before 'Lady in red',as after seeing that first this really didnt measure up.2 starsLady in red(1979)is the story of 1930s gangster John dillinger & his last girlfriend Polly franklin(Pamela sue martin).The film charts Pollys story from farm girl,to seamstress in a sweatshop,prison inmate,brothel worker,waitress & ultimately gangsters moll.Pamela sue martin steals the show,her performance as Polly is easily one of her greatest roles & this is one of her greatest movies! 4 stars

here`s a couple of double features worth a look,CRAZY MAMA must be the first film ever with a soundtrack so tinny I had to put the volume control down on my a/v amp to hear it right,other wise it was no good,ok gangster flick in the same vein as BIG BAD MAMA with the great Angie Dickinson,but not as funny,THE LADY IN RED is better and was hard to get until this release,better sound on this one but only mono,and a more serious movie,picture wise both movies are much better than any vhs copies out there,but not top end,if never seen before worth a one off view for each flick.

Lo bueno es que tenemos al alcance esta película, lo malo es que podría tener mejor calidad de audio, ya que a veces cuesta trabajo entender los diálogos.