Mean Mother (1974)

Directors:

Al Adamson
León Klimovsky

Writers:

Joy Garrison (writer)
Charles Eric Johnson (writer)

Release Date:

August 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Tagline:

Super Cool & Wild! Smashing the Man and the Mob for his Women!

Plot:

Two Vietnam deserters go their separate ways, become criminals and are eventually reunited. |

Plot Keywords:

Vietnam | Blaxploitation | Mafia | Interracial Relationship | Grindhouse

Cast

Dobie Gray	...	Beauregard Jones (as Clifton Brown)
Dennis Safren	...	Joe
Luciana Paluzzi	...	Therese
Lang Jeffries	...	Dan
Marilyn Joi	...	Joy (as Tracy King)
Bedy Moratti
Albert Cole	...	Mack
Al Richardson	...	Big Rex
Elizabeth Guadalupe Chauvet	...	Maria
Dick Poston	...	Slasher
Irv Saunders	...	Carver
Erik Cord	...	Brute (as Eric Cord)
Gregory White	...	Stud (as Greg White)
Robyn Hilton	...	Blonde In Bikini

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R

Company:

Amhearst Productions

Movie Connections:

Edited from El hombre que vino del odio (1971)

Blaxploitation cinema has been better served.

Independent operator Sam Sherman, producer, was no stranger to re-tooling existing movies. Here he took a Spanish-Italian crime thriller titled "El Hombre Que Vino Del Odio", about jewel smuggling, and added footage of his own to it. Conscious of the blaxploitation boom of the time, he worked in a black action movie plot that would parallel the original one so the two stories could be connected at some point.

Clifton Brown, better known as singer Dobie Gray of "Drift Away" fame, and Dennis Safren are Vietnam deserters who go their separate ways and both end up living criminal lives. They reunite in Italy when each needs something from the other.

My main concern is that there weren't enough really good set pieces. Granted, there are moments guaranteed to make one chuckle, like a scantily clad blonde on the highway attempting to rip off Brown. But the movie is lacking in energy. It needed just a little more action. It therefore falls on the actors to carry the movie, and none of them do that good a job. That's even with such a performer as Luciana Paluzzi ("Thunderball") in the cast, and other familiar faces such as Marilyn Joi, Lang Jeffries, Albert Cole, and Al Richardson on hand. Joi is certainly an outstanding visual distraction, with an exquisite body. One can always identify the new footage for its funky score, which is easy to listen to at the very least. And the new footage is definitely more interesting, leading the movie towards a fairly rousing conclusion.

Not bad but one could do better if they want a blaxploitation fix.

F.Y.I. The director of the original film, Leon Klimovsky, should be known to some horror fans for his work with actor Paul Naschy. The final directing credit goes to Klimovsky and Al Adamson, Shermans' longtime film-making partner, under the pseudonym "Albert Victor".

5/10