a5c7b9f00b After the death of her lover, Wilma takes over his bootlegging business, but without much success. She soon meets up with bank robber Fred, who convinces her and her daughters to join him for his next big heist. In the meantime, Wilma also kidnaps the daughter of a millionaire in the hopes of getting rich off the ransom. Will Wilma and Fred be able to retire with their ill-gotten gains, or will the law eventually catch up with them? Mama and daughters get forced by circumstances into bootlegging and bank robbing, and travel across the country trailed by the law. I met director Steve Carver when he came to town to shoot &quot;Lone Wolf McQuade,&quot; and I&#39;m something of a fan, but even with screenwriter Bill Norton aboard, this lacks the wit and cool characters that enliven his Chuck Norris movies or even &quot;Steel.&quot; Dialog is particularly lacking, in some scenes even leaving Tom Skerritt with nothing to do but mutter incoherently, or a game Shatner muggingif he&#39;s about to say something but either gets cut off or thinks better of it. The two actors do their best, Skerritt all steely-eyed intensity and Shatner oozing lily-livered Southern charm,do Royal Danoa flustered preacher and a shockingly young-looking Noble Willinghama lecherous bootlegging &quot;uncle.&quot; As for the actresses, they certainly deliver the goods, and frequently, especially Angie Dickinson. Yowzah. If you&#39;re worried, Angie gets progressively more nakedthe plot moves along. Look close for a young and quickly unadorned Sally Kirkland.<br/><br/>Plotwise? Angie, rural 1932-vintage single mom, saddled with two unmanageable daughters (one way too naive and one way too not so), after extricating one daughter from a hasty wedding, dips her toe into crime (bootlegging and DAV-smoker-jacking), then gets mired in it after hooking up with bank robber Skerritt. An encounter with down-and-out Southern gent Shatner seals their fate,he proves to be their little gang&#39;s weakest link. Along the way, much blood, clothing and inhibitions will be shed.<br/><br/>Considering the budget and shooting time, the action is boisterous enough but haphazard and disjointed, with a lot of repetitive car chases featuring Dick Miller and a sidekick (representing the entirety of the FBI) in hot pursuit, miraculously always one step behind our anti-heroine and her mob. One shudders to see how many vintage autos run up dirt ramps and flip over. Even if you know that the Hollywood hills don&#39;t actually look a lot like East Texas (the geography of where our characters are supposed to be at any moment in the plot isn&#39;t always made abundantly clear), the small-town locations and antique cars do an impressive job of keeping the movie in its Depression-era period.<br/><br/>Look quickly for second-unit director Paul Bartela party guest, following in the footsteps of Francis Coppola in &quot;The Young Racers.&quot; The first Big Bad Mama is a favorite of collectors of celebrity nude scenes - Angie Dickinson has couple - and it&#39;s not a bad movie for what it is. It&#39;s a quickie Bonnie and Clyde wannabe on a much lower budget and a much shorter shooting schedule. The story is nothing special - Depression era criminals plot a kidnapping which goes predictably bad - but the low budget was well used, the production looks decent enough and Angie, Tom Skerritt and Bill Shatner all contribute solid perfs with little help from a largely illiterate script. Angie looks good and seems to be enjoying herself in a rare bad girl role, and there are enough car chases and shoot-outs to keep the viewer from falling asleep, but don&#39;t look for too much in the way of originality here.
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