User Reviews

I don't understand anyone who says that this is one of the worst exploitation films they have ever seen. Just the title alone gives this cult status and all the ingredients are here for it being an extremely fun film to watch. Film starts out in a Filipino womans prison where a bunch of new inmates are put through orientation and they soon meet Warden Logan (Laurie Burton) and Matron Densmore (Lynn Borden) who are lesbian lovers but Densmore likes to bed the pretty new inmates. She has a secret peephole by the shower where she watches the ladies and masturbates. One night inmate Lee Daniels (Pam Grier) is propositioned by her but Lee tells her no. Later Lee meets a tall blond named Karen Brent (Margaret Markov) who is part of a bunch of revolutionaries and they plan on busting her out. While on a bus being transported to a work detail the Rebels ambush the bus and after some gunfire Lee and Karen escape. They are shackled together but don't like each other and they quarrel about which direction to go. The Rebels are headed by Ernesto (Zaldy Zschornack) and he tells his men that they must find Karen and will stop at nothing to get her back. Lee and Karen keep running and they knock out some nuns and steal they're gowns to try and sneak around the police. Meanwhile, Captain Cruz of the police makes a deal with a ruthless bounty hunter named Ruben (Sid Haig) to help get the girls in exchange that the police will leave his illegal operations alone. Also, Lee's ex-boyfriend is a gangster named Vic (Vic Diaz) and he wants Lee badly because she stole 40,000 dollars from him.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

Finally the Rebels catch up with them and they are reunited with Karen. They give Lee a ride to a pier where a friend is going to get her out of the area with his boat but when they get there Vic and his men are waiting and a vicious gun battle ensues. This film was directed by a pretty popular "B" movie director named Eddie Romero and he helmed many low budget horror films in the Phillipines. The story is written by a very young Jonathan Demme who two years later would direct his first film "Caged Heat". This film is of course inspired by "The Defiant Ones" but the fun of these exploitation flicks is that they take on a popular theme and add all sorts of sleaze and mayhem. The characters are all written well and Haig steals the film with his cowboy-like Ruben. He dresses like a cowboy and in one scene he threatens to shoot off the smallest penis between two men. Grier displays some of her tough quips to fellow inmate Markov like "I don't care about that jive ass stuff" referring to Markov's revolutionary politics. Markov's character is reminiscent of Patty Hearst and in one scene she tells Grier that she always had everything but wants to stay with the rebels. Film is full of gratuitous nudity and the shower scene at the beginning of the film lasts at least 5 minutes. They're is no quick glimpses here, plenty of time for an eyeful! As far as exploitation films go this delivers the goods and the cast is excellent.

Some of the films produced by Roger Corman's New World film company in the 1970s represent the best kind of B-movie, where the limitations of the genre actually act as a kind of freeing influence on the writers and directors – such classic drive-in films as "Deathrace 2000", "Hollywood Boulevard", "Grand Theft Auto" and "Caged Heat" emerged from this environment. Unfortunately, his former confederates at American International Pictures were running out of steam in the 1970s, particularly in the absence of Jim Nicholson, and they often produced second rate imitations of Corman's films, sometimes featuring his self-made stars. "Black Mama, White Mama" is one of those films. It's basically a cheaper imitation of "The Big Doll House with some of the same stars doing a lot of the same things. Yes, this is a John Ashley co-production (yes, the same John Ashley who was the hilarious Elvis wanna-be in "How to Make a Monster" and paired up with Debbie Walley in "Beach Blanket Bingo") with all the signature marks of his productions – women's prisons where everyone except maybe 2 or 3 lead characters including the inmates and the guards are Filipino actors in mostly non-speaking roles, where we see supermodel-type women taking on the roles of revolutionary militants, and where the primary joy of the film is derived through rudimentary S&M exploitation.

The print I saw most recently was horribly light-damaged (good ole Will Viharo described it as "Yellow Mama, Yellow Mama"), but I think even in the best conditions the photography and directing are extremely routine. There's also very little visual value here… Corman must not have had very much to do with the film itself because he was always canny enough to at least give his films some extra production value by filming in free public spaces that would make the film look more impressive. This film doesn't look impressive, it doesn't have an impressive soundtrack, and you just feel embarrassed for anyone who shows a shred of talent. The only remotely interesting performances come from Pam Grier as a feisty whore out to escape the life, Filipino actor Dindo Fernando as her grotesquely self-indulgent pimp, and Sid Haig as a cowboy styled mercenary. The story places Grier and co-star Margaret Markov in a low budget female version of "The Defiant Ones", but does very little with the melodramatic possibilities afforded by that premise. It's basically just an excuse to ensure that the two protagonists can still stop for a good mud wrestling match while they're trying to escape the prison together. This is all in the spirit of good fun, but the film ultimately fails even as exploitation because there's a certain edge and rawness that should be present in such scenes that is instead replaced under this director's hand with a kind of yawning predictability.

So the film will have little value for fans of hard-core exploitation value – at least in the version I saw it's no more explicit than "Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!" from over a decade earlier, and far less interesting visually and thematically. For those who just enjoy getting a laugh out of "so bad it's good" films, this one might provide some fun but it's not in the upper tier. People would be more advised to seek out "Caged Heat" or some of the others that revel in their own brutality to the point that it becomes camp; this one is more similar to less ambitious efforts like Cirio Santiago's "The Muthers". Sadly, the best thing about this particular film is the title and the presence of Pam Grier, who was better in other films around the same time (particularly Jack Hill's "Coffy"). This film perhaps illustrates a midway point in Miss Grier's journey from Corman secretary to B-movie Queen-For-A-Day, but other than its historical "significance" as such it will have little value even to Grier's big fans because she is given very little to work with here.

Worth skipping, unless of course you get to see it in a movie theater with a lot of friends and a lot of beer like I did. And even then its value is questionable.

And you'd be right. Black Mama, White Mama, also known as 'Women in Chains,' is exactly the kind of trashy and crappy b-movie that the premise suggests. Pam Grier has been thrown into a prison on a small island with a lot of other women, and this place seriously makes the summer camp where Martha Stewart is locked up right now look like a maximum-security prison. It's not five minutes into the movie that one of the hottie guards utters the line 'Strip 'em and get 'em wet,' and then we are introduced to a prison life that resembles some college freshman's fantasy of what the inside of a sorority house is like.

The prisoners soap and rub and wrestle with each other in the shower like it's a Girls Gone Wild shoot, then they all hang out together in their dorm, openly smoking pot and discussing in a big group what would be the best ways to escape. I've never been to prison myself, but I have a feeling that escape plans are the kind of thing that you want as few people as possible to know about, prisoners or guards or otherwise. The biggest difference between this prison life and some fantasy sorority life is that the women in this movie all wear orange cardigans (and no pants. Go figure) that say PRISON on the back. Must be those generic prison outfits for prisons that can't afford pricey accessories like their prison name or prisoner numbers for their uniforms.

And as is to be expected, a prison that can't afford to put prisoner identification on the backs of the uniforms can obviously not expect to be able to find guards that are interested in guarding the prisoners as much as they are in having sex with the prisoners and each other.

The conflict of the movie's title refers to the fact that Lee Daniels (Pam Grier) spends much of the time handcuffed to a blonde prisoner named Karen as they are on the run from the cops after escaping from the prison. I won't go into details about how they escape except to say that you might have seen something like it in The Fugitive had they been unable to afford to stage a train wreck, and it leads into the muddled story of the conflicting interests also chasing these two women for different reasons. Karen and Lee both have their own gangs of people each hoping to rescue their respective escaped prisoner, and the cops are after both of them all the while.

(spoilers) So Karen is involved with a bunch of hippies that want to Revolutionize Life As They Know It. Meanwhile, Karen just wants to get off the island, something she's been trying to do for years, and isn't it just perfect that they each need to go to completely opposite sides of the island in order to fulfill their goals. So we get this odd couple pairing and, since they are an odd couple, it's not hard to predict that they will hate each other for the vast majority of the film but grow fond of each other by the end.

In a movie with so many conflicting interests, especially when those conflicting interests not only propel the two main characters in opposite directions as they pursue their goals, it is not unreasonable to expect that there will be a climactic moment involving the rival gangs at some point in the movie. Not about to leave anyone unsatisfied, they throw in a stupid gang standoff at the end of the movie, where everyone shoots machine guns at each other, killing each other en masse while the two women paddle safely and calmly across the river in a little boat. Nice.

Even better, at the end of the movie, after a huge massacre in which lots of people get shot and spurt bright red paint all over the place, the Captain of the police looks over the masses of dead criminals covered in awful, awful special effects, and we learn that he will be a Major before dinner. Not a bad way to end the movie, the criminals all kill each other off and the cops get all the credit, but here is the last line in the film – 'It's better to win, isn't it?'

Is THAT why the Captain is going to get promoted to Major? Because he figured that out???

What else needs to be said? Pam Grier and Margaret Markov are excellent as escaped prisoners who are chained at the wrist and are on the run from the cops and a vengeful drug lord. Throw in a band of revolutionaries who are looking for Karen (Markov) and Sid Haig as a music-loving gang leader and it all adds up to a classic sleazy 70's exploitation film.

Other than some bad dialogue dubbing thing move along at a pretty good pace. Grier and Markov eventually learn to get along (like they really have a choice!!) and use whatever methods they can to get to their separate destinations.

While certainly not a masterpiece, "Black Mama, White Mama" is worth a look.

Rating: 7 out of 10

This is one heck of a sleazy film. Like so many "women in chains" films, this one is chock full of lesbianism. However, unlike most prior films, which strongly implied this, BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA shows an awful lot of skin as a horny female prison guard leers at the women as they shower as well as has sex with one of the inmates. For the early 1970s, this is definitely a soft-core pornographic film--sort of like GIRLS GONE WILD GOES TO PRISON! It's also a bad rip-off of THE DEFIANT ONES, though in this case it's two hot females who hate each other who are chained together when they escape. Whereas the original film is considered a classic, this one can only be considered a classic example of bad taste. That's because there is no subtlety and the movie is just cheap--cheap thrills, cheap writing and very cheap acting.

Pam Grier is the "black inmate with an attitude"--a lady who was set up and sent to prison on this hellish island. Margaret Markov is a revolutionary. When they escape, they both can't stand each other and have opposite goals. However, since it is cliché-driven, there's really no surprise in how the film ends--with their both becoming (gag me) friends.

Another Pam Grier prison girl sexplotation film made in the Philippines. Pam goes to prison and arrives with a bunch of other women in time to take a shower. While the girl's frolic, the warden (Laurie Burton) spies on them and pleasures herself. In spite of having a regular guard as a girlfriend, the warden wants Pam Grier. Pam rejects her advances, but Margaret Markov does not. This causes friction between the girls who later give us a cat fight with up skirts.

Through a series of circumstances the 2 girls manage to escape except they are chained to each other (film also released under the title "Chained Women"). Blondie wants to get guns to the revolutionaries while Pam has some cash stashed and wants off the island. Good old fashion 70's drive-in standard.

Ample above the waist nudity, no silicon, near rape.

How do you go from an opening 20 minutes that holds such naughty promise (a women's prison full of bewbs and illicit lesbian fantasy) to a remaining 70 minutes that almost does away with that entirely and leaves us with a bunch of clothed men? Pam Grier and Margaret Markov, two bad "B"s on the run almost play second fiddle to a supporting cast of revolutionaries, bad cops and gangsters. How do you squander such jiggly potential? Maybe if you develop those supporting characters who gobble up so much of the screen time, this wouldn't be an issue. Play up the humor a bit, more ladies with less clothes, you get what I'm saying. This is not difficult.

It's always worth it to see a mad as hell Pam Grier (you don't mess with her), but this movie needed a lot more of that. It needed a lot more of the titillation it seems to promise. It's a slog even at 90 minutes. Everything about this movie promises a lot more ass-kicking than it delivers.

This is awful.

3/10