In the prison cell when Freddie is walking on Dirkman's back, if you look on the cell wall behind him, you'll see graffiti of a Nazi swastika on the wall.
The movie takes place circa 1930 and the Nazi symbol didn't even exist (at least in America's consciousness) until the late 1930's-1940's.
This is an incredibly tasteless tale that is reputed to be the story of the notorious Ma Barker and her demented criminal sons. Unfortunately, most of what you see in this Roger Corman production is pure hooey--with no basis in the real lives of this criminal family.
"Blood's thicker than water," explains Shelley Winters' pious and psychotic Ma Barker. Based extremely loosely on the exploits of Ma Barker and her sons, who went on a crime spree during the 1920's and was chased by J.
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".
This film is not AT ALL historically accurate (read the Wikipedia entry on Ma Barker for a more factual account). This is a pure Corman "exploitation" film, but it's worth ONE screening (and one only) just to see early portrayals by Bruce Dern and Robert DeNiro, both noted for playing psychotic characters during their careers.
C-movie director Roger Corman rides the Bonnie & Clyde wave and makes his own movie about white trash criminals on a violent crime spree through hillbilly country.So instead of Corman's usual cheap exploitation of beautiful women with heaving bosoms, or cold war garbage about alien invasions, we have over-fed Shelley Winters and her half-wit spawn creating havoc.
Shelly Winters was miscast as Ma Barker, her performance was contrived and disingenuous, she sounds like a New York Jewish woman trying to sound Southern. I wish they could have gotten the sturdy Kate Murtagh or Mercedes McCambridge or even Jocelyn Brando wait!
Kate 'Ma' Barker (Shelley Winters) was abused by her family when she was young. She vows to have boys who only supports her.
Kate Barker (Shelly Winters) and her low-life brood go on a bloody crime spree in the 1930s in this charmless gangster film from Roger Corman. Winters, an actress not known for subtlety, lays on the self-righteous reprobate act pretty thickly as the murderously doting mother who smokes cigars, kills innocent people, and beds her sons.
"Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) a Slick and Influential Hollywood Game Changer was Criticized for Glamorizing Gangsters and Criminals (as if that was something new). Roger Corman's Movie did No such Glamorizing.
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