Vitals

Robert De Niro as Lloyd Barker, slow-witted bandit and junkie

Kentucky, Summer 1933

Film: Bloody Mama
Release Date: March 24, 1970
Director: Roger Corman
Wardrobe Credit: Thomas Costich

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy Mother’s Day! One of the more infamous mothers in criminal and cinematic history was Kate “Ma” Barker, whom FBI director J. Edgar Hoover posthumously bestowed with the reputation as the ruthless ruler of her sons’ Depression-era gang of killers and kidnappers… though the boys’ associate Harvey Bailey later scoffed that Ma “couldn’t plan breakfast,” let alone a criminal enterprise.

Still, Hoover’s PR smear persisted through decades with productions like an episode of The Untouchables starring Claire Trevor, Ma Barker’s Killer Brood (1960) starring Lurene Tuttle, Bloody Mama (1970) starring Shelley Winters, and Public Enemies (1996) starring Theresa Russell. (Note that the latter was a 1996 drama and not Michael Mann’s 2009 film of the same name which focused on John Dillinger’s gang, though it did feature Giovanni Ribisi in a limited role as Barker gang member Alvin “Creepy” Karpis.)

One of Robert De Niro’s earliest roles was among the ensemble cast of Bloody Mama, one of several 1930s-set exploitation movies produced by American International Pictures to cash in on the groundbreaking popularity of Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Interestingly, Bloody Mama flips the usual disclaimer by outwardly stating “Any similar to Kate Barker and her sons is intentional,” when—in fact—the movie shares very little in common with its real-life counterparts. Continue reading →