Crazy Mama (1975)

Director:

Jonathan Demme

Writers:

Robert Thom (screenplay)
Frances Doel (story)

Release Date:

June 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Drama | Crime

Tagline:

In 1957 Cheryl Drove Her Mom's Chevy on a Heavy Date: Got Knocked Up, Knocked Over a Bank, Smashed Four Police Cars, and Kidnapped Her Stepfather. It Was a Crazy Year!

Plot:

Jonathan Demme directs this joyous unrelentlessly kitchy celebration of 50's America: opportunity, rock'n'roll...

Plot Keywords:

Arkansas | 1950s | Goodyear Blimp | Bank Robbery | Cross Country

Cast

Cloris Leachman	...	Melba
Stuart Whitman	...	Jim Bob
Ann Sothern	...	Sheba
Jim Backus	...	Mr. Albertson
Don Most	...	Shawn (as Donn Most)
Linda Purl	...	Cheryl
Bryan Englund	...	Snake
Merie Earle	...	Bertha
Sally Kirkland	...	Ella Mae
Clint Kimbrough	...	Daniel
Dick Miller	...	Wilbur Janeway
Carmen Argenziano	...	Supermarket Manager
Harry Northup	...	FBI Man
Ralph James	...	Sheriff - 1932
Dinah Englund	...	Melba - 1932
Rob Reece	...	Mover (as Robert Reece)
Mickey Fox	...	Mrs. Morgan
John Aprea	...	Marvin
Cynthia Songé	...	Lucinda (as Cynthia Songey)
Hal Marshall	...	Bartender
Beach Dickerson	...	Desk Clerk
Barbara Ann Grimes	...	Lady Teller (as Barbara Walters)
Bill McLean	...	Bank Manager
Bill Luckey	...	Newsman
Warren Miller	...	Justice of the Peace
Saul Krugman	...	Colonel Snodgrass
Vince Barnett	...	Homer
Tisha Sterling	...	Sheba - 1932
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Suzanne M. Kelly	...	Baby
Skip E. Lowe
David Boyle	...	(uncredited)
John Milius	...	Cop (uncredited)
Bill Paxton	...	John (uncredited)
Dennis Quaid	...	Bellhop (uncredited)
Will Sampson	...	Indian At Trading (uncredited)

Directed by
Jonathan Demme

Writing credits
Robert Thom		(screenplay)
Frances Doel		(story)

Produced by
Julie Corman	....	producer
Peter Cornberg	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Snotty Scotty and The Hankies

Cinematography by
Bruce Logan		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Allan Holzman
Lewis Teague

Art Direction by
Peter Jamison

Set Decoration by
Linda Spheeris

Costume Design by
Jac McAnelly

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Lamar Card	....	assistant director
Evelyn Purcell	....	second unit director

Art Department
William Sandell	....	property master (as Bill Sandell)

Sound Department
Richard L. Anderson	....	sound effects editor
Don Coufal	....	boom operator
Robert Gravenor	....	sound mixer

Stunts
Jim Burk	....	stunts
William H. Burton	....	stunts (as Bill Burton)
Alan Gibbs	....	stunt coordinator
James M. Halty	....	stunts (as James Halty)
Tommy J. Huff	....	stunts (as Thomas Huff)
Gary McLarty	....	stunts
Regina Parton	....	stunts
Walter Robles	....	stunts
Danny Rogers	....	stunts

Camera and Electrical Department
Tak Fujimoto	....	photographer: second unit
Michael Katz	....	grip
Jim Morris	....	key grip
Gerald B. Wolfe	....	still photographer

Editorial Department
Glenn K. Shimada	....	assistant editor (as Glenn Shimada)

Music Department
Marshall Leib	....	music coordinator

Other crew
Nancy Zearfoss	....	location manager
Don McKenzie	....	location scout (uncredited)

Production Companies

• New World Pictures

Distributors

• New World Pictures (1975) (USA) (theatrical)
• International Film Distributors (1975) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1977) (USA) (TV)
• Embassy Home Entertainment (1983) (USA) (VHS)
• New Concorde Home Entertainment (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Shout! Factory (2010) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:PG | Finland:(Banned) (1979) | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Griffith Park - 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

New World Pictures

Trivia:

Ann Sothern's daughter Tisha Sterling plays the younger version of Sothern's character Sheba who's seen in the prologue for this film.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 1 (1996) (V)

Soundtrack:

Black Slacks

Worth a Closer Look

A band of beauty shop desperadoes cartoonishly plunder their way from California to Arkansas, to reclaim the old family farm.

Wow! No energy crisis here. Just plug in the nation's generator and it'll light up from Broadway to Sunset with Denver in between. The movie's a classic of editing, scripting and directing; at the same time, add drive-in Oscars to actresses Leachman and Sothern.

This is the hillbilly masterpiece Roger Corman was building toward with his series of backwoods desperadoes. Sure, much is silly, along with the usual cartoonish violence and enough car crashes to put on an extra shift in Detroit. But there's still enough subtext to make you care.

This is America of forgotten people, the country's poor rural whites, one step ahead of bill-collectors and two steps from the law. Check out the cross-country tour of 1950's kitsch— the Burma Shave, the seedy motels, the lonely highway outposts—still familiar to thousands of us. And whose great idea was Leachman's tiger sheath dress that about says it all.

But don't overlook the subtext that slyly mocks the conventions of the time. No Ozzie and Harriet here. It's three generations of mother-daughter, ousted from their cut-rate beauty salon, picking up new family members as they rob and roar along—an 80-year old Granny, a 50's greaser, a philandering cowboy. And don't forget sweet daughter Cheryl's already knocked up, but can't decide which boy to hook up with. But then maybe she doesn't have to— and so much for 50's-style monogamy. Or consider hormonal old Granny who's still got eyes for the boys, plus young Snake who eyes her back—no sir, no ageism here. Or Jim Bob's wealthy wife, sobbing for Jim Bob on TV, that is, when not entertaining the sheriff on the side— and so much for the upper class.

Then there's the banker's moneyed class, the fugitive family's natural enemy. I love that big fancy wedding that suddenly explodes as the girls fulfill their 30-year debt of honor. Or when Sheba redesigns the banker's headstone with a barking pistol. No sir, it's sweat equity that earns a farmer his land and not the banker's money— too bad the law's on the wrong side here and we're made to feel it.

Then, of course, there's the Lord that keeps getting invoked along with a whiskey bottle. But it's not the religion of the church. It's the Sweet Jesus of desperate folk clinging to one another in a hostile world and hoping things turn out in the end. And speaking of end, what an inspired one here—the family that works together stays together, even if they can't seem to get the rules right.

No indeed, snooty Hollywood never recognizes kitschy films like this. But it's got style, humor, and a penetrating subtext that makes you feel rather than merely observe. Too bad ace screenwriter Thom died soon after. He had a real knack for the material. But more importantly, knew how to combine with director Demme's electric style. The result, in my little book, is worth 20 of those lumbering prestige films of the time. You know, the kind with Richard and Elizabeth that usually got the publicity space. All that vitality makes Mama a great extension of the 40's B-movie. Plus, it's funny as heck. So check it out.