Black Mama, White Mama (1973)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Eddie Romero

Writers:

H.R. Christian (screenplay)
Joe Viola (story) ...

Release Date:

19 January 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller | Crime

Tagline:

Where they come from this is fun!

Plot:

When two troublemaking female prisoners (one a revolutionary, the other a former harem-girl) can't seem to get along...

Plot Keywords:

Chained | Revolutionaries | Gangster | Female Prisoner | Grenade

Cast

Pam Grier	...	Lee Daniels
Margaret Markov	...	Karen Brent
Sid Haig	...	Ruben
Lynn Borden	...	Matron Densmore
Zaldy Zshornack	...	Ernesto
Laurie Burton	...	Warden Logan
Eddie Garcia	...	Capt. Cruz
Alona Alegre	...	Juana
Dindo Fernando	...	Rocco
Vic Diaz	...	Vic Cheng
Wendy Green	...	Ronda
Lotis Key	...	Jeanette
Alfonso Carvajal	...	Galindo
Bruno Punzalan	...	Truck driver
Subas Herrero	...	Luis (as Ricardo Herrero)

Also Known As:

Chained Women
Chains of Hate
Hot, Hard and Mean
Women in Chains (USA) (video title)

Runtime:

87 min | Germany:83 min

Country:

USA | Philippines

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | Spain:18 | Chile:18 | France:-16 (with warning) | Canada:R (video rating) | Portugal:M/18 | USA:R | UK:18 (cut) | Germany:18 | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Baras, Rizal, Luzon, Philippines

Company:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Trivia:

Several VW Country Buggies are seen in the film - these were manufactured by Volkswagen of Australia between 1968-72. Fewer than 2,000 were manufactured - these vehicles were imported into the Philippines and have been sought-after by classic vehicle collectors.

Quotes:

Ruben: I don't like cops. And cops don't like me.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

Let The Revolution Pass You By

Imagine an exploitive remake of The Defiant Ones with a black chick and a white chick attached to each other. Set the story on some Caribbean island where the drug dealers rule and the revolution has arrived. And have the black woman be from Huggy Bear's stable of ladies and the white woman be a watered down Patty Hearst and you've got Black Mama, White Mama.

In those waning days of the drive-in theater this item must have been a big old hit. All the hot buttons of the Seventies are pushed in this one. Even though they both fill out their clothes better and will get a few whistles from the males in the audience no one is ever going to mistake Pam Grier and Margaret Markov for Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis. All right, Halle Berry and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Margaret and Pam are prisoners where the guards and the warden look lasciviously at the new fish arriving. Margaret is a rich girl from the state who took up 'the revolution', whilst Pam's your basic high priced call girl who's been servicing the local drug kingpin and grew tired of it and tried to leave the island.

Margaret's fellow revolutionaries ambush the bus transporting them from the women's prison to town, but they get lost in the escape. Both have their different agendas, but like Sid and Tony they can't quite agree on whose agenda comes first. Makes for some interesting times as the police, the drug dealers, and the revolutionaries are all looking for these two illfated chain buddies.

Just so you don't get any wrong ideas the head of the revolutionaries and Markov's kanoodling partner is named Ernesto played by Filipino actor Zaldy Zshornack. The whole mess was shot in the Phillipines who were getting their own film industry started.

Nice location photography in the Phillipines is all that Black Mama, White Mam has to recommend it. But if you're a fan of really bad black exploitation flicks, this is one for you.