Roger Corman Cult Classics roars back with Big Bad Mama

Disc Announcements, News

Crank up the car and load up the shotgun, the latest batch of Roger Corman’s Cult Classics features two double features of cross country crime with women calling the shots. Big Bad Mama / Big Bad Mama II and Crazy Mama / The Lady In Red have as many stars as bullets flying across the screen. William Shatner, Angie Dickinson, Robert Culp and Donnie Most dress up to fight the law. Here’s the press release from Shout! Factory:

This holiday season, get ready to fire-up with the action from four explosive Roger Corman gangster classics when Shout! Factory, in association with New Horizons Picture Corporation, unleashes the Big Bad Mama/ Big Bad Mama II Double-Feature Collector’s Edition DVD and Crazy Mama/ The Lady In Red Double-Feature Collector’s Edition DVD on December 7, 2010. A must-have for loyal fans, these two pairs of Roger Corman’s Cult Classics double-feature DVD sets boast new Anamorphic widescreen movie presentation with loaded extras. Aggregate your Roger Corman’s Cult Classics with these two double-feature collector’s edition DVD sets. Each set is sold separately with $19.93 SRP.




The Big Bad Mama/Big Bad Mama II double-feature collector’s edition showcases Angie Dickinson (Dressed to Kill, TV’s Police Woman) at her toughest and sexiest, in one of her signatures roles.

None bigger, none badder, and none more beautiful than Angie Dickinson as Big Bad Mama!

During the Depression, Wilma McClatchie (Dickinson) finds that there is no money to be made in the bootlegging business, but a chance meeting with bank robber Fred Diller (Tom Skerritt, Top Gun, TV’s Picket Fences) leads to a new career — in crime!

Along with her daughters (Robbie Lee and Susan Sennett), Wilma joins Fred on his next big heist. After meeting slick gambler/con-man William J. Baxter (William Shatner, Star Trek, TV’s Boston Legal), Wilma recruits him and the rest of her gang to kidnap a millionaire’s daughter in hopes of collecting a big ransom.

Big Bad Mama also stars Sally Kirkland (Anna, In the Heat of Passion), Noble Willingham (City Slickers 1 & 2, The Last Boy Scout), cult favorite Dick Miller (The Howling, Gremlins 1 & 2) and Royal Dano (The Trouble With Harry, The Dark Half).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaLuskJD5ac

The ongoing cult popularity of Big Bad Mama prompted Roger Corman to fashion a follow-up remake more than a dozen years later. As gorgeous as ever, Angie Dickinson agreed to reprise her role as the pistol-packin’, hard-lovin’ Wilma McClatchie in Big Bad Mama II.

Joined again by her two beautiful daughters (Danielle Brisbois and Playboy Playmate Julie McCullough), Wilma’s out to steal a better life for herself. The sexy trio sets their (gun) sights on revenge against a crooked politician (Bruce Glover, Diamonds Are Forever, Ghost World) by robbing his banks and kidnapping his son. Along the way, they’re joined by a resourceful newspaper reporter (Emmy® nominee Robert Culp, TV’s I Spy and The Greatest American Hero) who becomes part of the gang … and becomes Mama’s favorite!

BIG BAD MAMA/BIG BAD MAMA II DOUBLE-FEATURE COLLECTOR’S EDITION DVD

BONUS CONTENT:
BIG BAD MAMA Special Features

· New Anamorphic widescreen transfer (1.78:1)
· Audio commentary with director Steve Carver and director of photography Bruce Logan
· Leonard Maltin interviews Roger Corman
· Theatrical Trailer and TV Spots
· Mama Knows Best: A retrospective featuring interviews with Roger Corman, filmmaker Steve Carver, writer Frances Doel and actress Angie Dickinson.
· Theatrical trailer and TV spots

BIG BAD MAMA II Special Features

· New Anamorphic widescreen transfer (1.78:1)
· Audio commentary with director Jim Wynorski
· Leonard Maltin interviews Roger Corman
· Theatrical trailer




When Big Bad Mama hit it big at the box office, producers Roger Corman and Julie Corman decided to go the distance for more thrills – better and crazier!

Directed by future Academy Award® winner Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia), Cloris Leachman (The Last Picture Show, Young Frankenstein) stars in Crazy Mama as Melba Stokes, a middle-aged woman who runs a beauty parlor with her mother Sheba (Academy Award® nominee Ann Southern, The Whales of August) and teenage daughter Cheryl (Linda Purl, Visiting Hours). When the shop falls into foreclosure and is repossessed, the three ladies take a wild road trip from California to the family home in Arkansas that turns into a crime spree.

Crazy Mama also stars Academy Award® nominee Stuart Whitman (The Mark, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines), Donny Most (TV’s Happy Days) and Jim Backus (TV’s Gilligan’s Island, Rebel Without a Cause).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwW7Oh5Pe5c

Pamela Sue Martin (The Poseidon Adventure, TV’s Dynasty) makes a startling transition into grown up roles, in the title role of The Lady in Red. All her life, Polly Franklin wanted to see her name in lights. Yet her dreams were constantly dashed and she frequently wound up in trouble. From sweatshop worker to dancehall girl, from prisoner to prostitute, Polly lived a hard, often harrowing, life. Then she fell for John Dillinger (Robert Conrad, Jingle All the Way, TV’s Wild Wild West), the much-feared bank robber and killer who was declared “Public Enemy Number 1″ by the FBI.

It was Polly who wore the infamous red dress on that fateful July evening in 1934 Chicago, when she and Dillinger went to the movies at the Biograph Theatre. It is there that Polly found the fame she had so long craved — although not in the way she desired.

With a hard-edged script rooted in history by two-time Academy Award® nominee John Sayles (Eight Men Out, Lone Star), The Lady in Red is a gritty crime saga with a unique point of view. It explores the mystery behind one of the most notorious “ladies” of her time.

Produced by Julie Corman and directed by Lewis Teague (Alligator, Cujo), the film’s star-studded cast includes Louise Fletcher (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Cheap Detective), Christopher Lloyd (Piranha 3-D, the Back to the Future trilogy, TV’s Taxi), cult favorite Dick Miller (Big Bad Mama, Gremlins 1 & 2) and, in a special appearance, Academy Award® nominee Robert Forster (Jackie Brown, Alligator, The Delta Force).

CRAZY MAMA/THE LADY IN RED DOUBLE-FEATURE COLLECTOR’S EDITION DVD
BONUS CONTENT:

CRAZY MAMA Special Features
* New Anamorphic widescreen transfer (1.78:1)
* Audio commentary with director Jonathan Demme and producer Roger Corman
* Interview with Jonathan Demme and Roger Corman
* Theatrical trailer and TV spots

THE LADY IN RED Special Features

* New Anamorphic widescreen transfer (1.78:1)
* Audio commentary with director Lewis Teague and actor Robert Forster
* Audio commentary with producer Julie Corman and screenwriter John Sayles
* Theatrical trailers

Shout! Factory will continue to present Roger Corman’s Cult Classics home entertainment releases in 2011. Upcoming highlights include Up From The Depths, Demon Of Paradise, Roger Corman’s Cult Classics Sci-Fi Classics, Jackson County Jail, Caged Heat, and many others.

Independent filmmaker-producer Roger Corman’s illustrious career ranks as one of Hollywood’s most amazing and legendary success stories. Having produced more than 350 films and directed 50 others, his influence on American film goes far beyond his own energetic, creative low-budget movies. He is arguably one of Hollywood’s most gifted and masterful filmmakers, and he chronicled his incredible true-life story in the best-selling, award-winning autobiography How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime, written with Jim Jerome in 1998. In 2009 he was the recipient of an honorary Academy Award® for his contribution to the medium of film.

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.