I know that there are readers out there who occasionally read even my non-comics related posts, and so I thought I’d let both of you know that the grindhouse flick Black Mama, White Mama is really pretty darn good. Pam Grier doesn’t get nearly as much screen time as she should, but overall the acting is really surprisingly good (Sid Haig as a maniacal wannabe cowboy is especially fine), the plot is intricate, clever and even (within limits) plausible.. The film starts off with a exploitative women-in-prison riff, complete with predatory lesbian matrons, shower scenes, and catfights, veers through a women on the run sequence, and ends up with a satisfyingly, seedily bleak vision, in which the only ones who really win are the cops — and no, that’s not a good thing. Jack Hill, who also directed “Coffy”, is in charge here, and, yeah, the more of his movies I see the more impressed I am. Quentin Tarantino worships him, I think, and with good reason — this is really fine pulp. Classic stuff.
Update: Well, and duh, as it turns out Jack Hill did not direct this; Eddie Romero is the man responsible. I know this not because I checked my sources but because…Jack Hill himself commented on my blog! To tell me I’m an idiot! OH MY GOD! I’ll have to make foolish misstatements much more often if I get this kind of payback….
Black Mama, White Mama is still a pretty great movie, though. I’ll have to try to find more Eddie Romero movies now….
Thanks for your kind comments about me, but I had nothing whatever to do with Black Mama, White Mama, other than having kicked off the careers of two of its stars.
==Jack Hill
Holy crap! Thank you so much for commenting; I’m honored and a bit starstruck. My apologies for my boneheaded error; I will try Not To Do It Again — though I must admit that if I could count on polite corrections from great artists every time I fouled up, I would probably be tempted to do so more, rather than less often….