My personal first acquaintance with the legendary Barker family wasn't via old newspapers, Wikipedia or this infamous B-movie. I learned about this delightful family via the lyrics of an ultra-cheesy (but catchy) disco/pop song by a band called "Boney M". I believe they were originally from Germany, so I haven't got the slightest idea if their songs are also known outside of Europe. Either way, it's fun, so you should look it up on YouTube. The song is called "Ma Baker" instead of "Ma Barker", for the simple reason that it fit the lyrics better.
This film (as well as the song, in fact) perfectly illustrate just how powerful urban myths and folklore tales can be. Allegedly the real Kate Barker wasn't a criminal mastermind at all. She wasn't even a petty thief, but merely a docile mother who got dragged along to various crime scenes by her four gangster sons as cover. And yet, immediately after her death, Kate Barker got bombarded - by J. Edgar Hoover - as the most vicious criminal brain of the decade, and she became an infamous legend.
The "Public Enemy" era of the 1930's also happens to be one of the favorite topics of the legendary producer/director Roger Corman to make violent movies about. After his admirable efforts "Machine Gun Kelly" and "The St Valentine's Day Massacre", the fictional albeit juicy saga of Kate Barker and her brood formed the ideal subject matter for a splendid exploitation shocker! "Bloody Mama" is deliciously grotesque and trashy good fun; - no more and no less. As if the story wasn't over-the-top enough already, Corman shamelessly adds extreme bits of gratuitous violence and a variety of taboo subjects, like incest, animal slaughter and harsh criticism against contemporary society. Half a century later, the film looks badly dated, but it's still fascinating to observe the borderline-neurotic performance of Shelley Winters as Ma Barker and the young Robert De Niro as the wildly glue-sniffing son Lloyd ("You sure act funny when you're building them model planes, Lloyd").
This film (as well as the song, in fact) perfectly illustrate just how powerful urban myths and folklore tales can be. Allegedly the real Kate Barker wasn't a criminal mastermind at all. She wasn't even a petty thief, but merely a docile mother who got dragged along to various crime scenes by her four gangster sons as cover. And yet, immediately after her death, Kate Barker got bombarded - by J. Edgar Hoover - as the most vicious criminal brain of the decade, and she became an infamous legend.
The "Public Enemy" era of the 1930's also happens to be one of the favorite topics of the legendary producer/director Roger Corman to make violent movies about. After his admirable efforts "Machine Gun Kelly" and "The St Valentine's Day Massacre", the fictional albeit juicy saga of Kate Barker and her brood formed the ideal subject matter for a splendid exploitation shocker! "Bloody Mama" is deliciously grotesque and trashy good fun; - no more and no less. As if the story wasn't over-the-top enough already, Corman shamelessly adds extreme bits of gratuitous violence and a variety of taboo subjects, like incest, animal slaughter and harsh criticism against contemporary society. Half a century later, the film looks badly dated, but it's still fascinating to observe the borderline-neurotic performance of Shelley Winters as Ma Barker and the young Robert De Niro as the wildly glue-sniffing son Lloyd ("You sure act funny when you're building them model planes, Lloyd").