Review of Black Mama, White Mama (1973) by Stuart K — 23 Apr 2012
From Filipino director Eddie Romero, who moved to America with Beast of the Yellow Night (1971) and Beast of Blood (1971), he took on this crime thriller, co-written by Jonathan Demme, (before he became famous), which was shot in the Philippines.
It's a good film as well, lurid and bloody, but exactly what you'd expect from this kind of film. Set somewhere on an island in the South Seas, where there's a woman's prison which is ran by Matron Densmore (Lynn Borden), One of the prisoners Lee Daniels (Pam Grier) who is also the girlfriend of the island's biggest pimp and drug dealer Ernesto (Zaldy Zschornack), runs away while being moved to another facility are a group of revolutionary rebels, unfortunately Lee Daniels is chained to Karen Brent (Margaret Markov), whom Lee got into a fight with.
Karen is one of the leads of the rebels, and they end up on the run, and Lee has made off with $40,000 of Ernesto's money. Even though they're in chains, Karen wants to go and fight the rebels while Lee wants to run off with the money, but it's not long before Ernesto is looking for them.
It's quite suspenseful but fun and seedy as well, kinda like an exploitation version of The Defiant Ones (1958), but Grier and Markov play off each other well getting into unbelievable situations throughout the film.
You won't get a film like this again.
This review of Black Mama, White Mama (1973) was written by Stuart K on 23 Apr 2012.
Black Mama, White Mama has generally received mixed reviews.
Was this review helpful?
