CRAZY MAMA WITH CLORIS LEACHMAN

Bill Paxton in CRAZY MAMA 

Not to be confused with the Roger Corman production BLOODY MAMA where Shelly Winters, with sons Robert DeNiro and Don Stroud, roll the countryside robbing banks: a depression era, sometimes heavy-handed exploitation, differing from this mellow jaunt set in the fifties with a rockin' and rollin' wall-to-wall era soundtrack.

Year: 1975 CrazyScore: ***1/2

Adding to that is Donny Most, best known as "Ralph Malph" from HAPPY DAYS, as the surfer boyfriend of sexy vixen Linda Purl, the daughter of title character Cloris Leachman who, along with her chattering mother, and Purl's granny, Ann Southern, cruise around robbing just about anyone and anything and then, aided by millionaire Stuart Whitman and Leachman's real life son Bryan Englund, attempt an ingrown kidnapping plot. The ragtag bunch, despite being against the odds... cops out to kill them... have a laidback, frolicking fun time. Director Jonathan Demme keeps things moving smoothly. And keep an eye out from first-timer's Dennis Quaid, as a bellboy, and Bill Paxton, as a rookie cop.