wjrprezhistorian
I agree -- it was low budget schlock at its worst -- but I enjoyed it! I enjoyed seeing a Young Don Grady (of TV's My Three Sons fame) as one of the kids in the beginning of the film...Lurene Tuttle was quite 'campy' in her portrayal of 'Ma.' I only knew her from her days as the older nurse on the late 1960's TV series 'Julia' (starring Diahann Carroll).I'll tell you how much I enjoyed this picture, I had gone to see a movie based on a Tony Award winning play earlier in the day, something that I had been looking forward to seeing, but I was thoroughly disenchanted and disgusted with it.At least, with 'Ma', I did not expect HIGH expectations of it, but I enjoyed it!
vosamis-1
It's true, Ma Barker really did nothing, other than as the man said, provide a house of refuge for her admitedly killer brood. She never had a gun in her hand (the billboard for the movie shows her blasting away with a "tommy" gun) and would not even have known how to fire one (she was not bright). Ma Barker never was charged with a crime, and was never arrested. She was shot by Hoover's "G Men" in I think 1935, and they had to justify he murder somehow, so they just made up the story of her being a criminal master mind. Anyhow, this movie stinks, not just because it is fake, but from what the young man above said so well, that it is just a junky movie.
Paul Curtis
This film is terrific fun! It makes up for its tiny budget with wild, over-the-top performances (Lurene Tuttle was sweet-voiced Effie on the Sam Spade radio show...WHAT a DIFFERENCE!), extreme violence (one part where they set a guy on fire gets shown TWICE!) and goofy, quotable dialogue.This is the kind of movie The Addams Family would watch with their kids.With these things in mind, viewers looking for an accurate, historical picture will be disoriented, or at least disappointed. This is definitely not a good source for American History term papers. It is intended as a source for giggly thrills, and is a good one.
rsoonsa
Supposedly based upon the life of Ozark matriarch Ma Barker and her four felonious public enemy sons, this meanly made low budget example of drive-in movie schlock actually treats several incidents in the real-life career of the notorious Barker/Karpis Gang which was very active during 1931/35 from the Midwest into Southeast U.S., but so contorts the truth in order to create a lurid melodrama that a viewer is alienated from the proceedings, especially in light of obvious cut-rate production values. Al Karpis was the confirmed master hand behind the Gang's string of sinful successes whereas the factual Ma Barker, although enjoying holding open house for various fugitives, only travelled with her family and was patently incapable of organizing more than luncheons, whereas in this poorly scripted travesty Lurene Tuttle as a tommygun wielding sadistic sociopath performs a raft of maniacal actions, including running over a policeman twice, all while planning the Gang's adventures and serving up heist advice to respectful triggermen such as John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly and Baby Face Nelson.
AD
