User reviews

If you like early 70's sexploitation films,woman in prison,cat fight,or are a fan of Pam Grier then this movie is worth a watch

good action,plenty of nude women,and cat fights,

although this movie is very bad acted and cheesey,

Its not boring and not sooooo dumb that you cant watch it. The action is smooth and not hard to follow with a major gun fight climax. overall 7 out of 10 ..

Pam Grier and Margaret Markov are the Black Mama and White Mama respectively, Two escapees from a womens' prison, in this exploitation flick. Actually pretty good in a B-movie way. It's not Jonathan Demme's best writing credit ( that would be Caged Heat), and not Pam Grier's best movie (or 5th best movie... or 10th best movie.. or even.. well you get the gist), but it IS Margaret Markov's best film AND it does have Sid Haig (who's good in anything,pretty much the ONLY actor i liked in that "House of 1,000 Corpses" travesty)

My Rating: B-

Eye Candy: shower scene, Pam & Margaret topless in the "hot box", Various hookers, & a 3-way

Where i saw it: TMC Extra

Eddie Romero's "Black Mama, White Mama" aka "Chained Women" of 1972 is a stylish and funny 'Women in Prison' exploitation flick full of the usual ingredients like violence, catfights and shower- and lesbian scenes. The movie's highlight is, of course, the great Pam Grier.

Locked up in a brutal prison camp on a tropical island, blonde revolutionary Karen Brent(Margaret Markov) and former black prostitute Lee Daniels (Pam Grier) are constantly having beef with each other. Chained together by the sadistic lesbian prison wardens, the two escape from a con transport. Chased by henchmen of the drug-lord who used to have Lee locked up as a harem-girl, gangsters and the police, the two fugitives have different destinations. While Karen has to find her guerrilla friends, Lee must reach a boat with a case full of cash. On the run, the two have quite some fights, but since they are chained together, they have to get along.

"Black Mama, White Mama" is pretty violent and a typical exploitation flick, lots of shootouts, occasional torture, many catfights and naked breasts. The acting in this movie differs. Pam Grier is great as always, and so is sexy Margaret Markov as Karen. Sid Haig's performance as Ruben, a slightly insane gangster in a cowboy outfit, is another highlight in "Black Mama, White Mama" and makes the movie a lot funnier. The rest of the acting is nothing special, typical B-movie performances, some better some worse. A fan of Pam Grier and lover of blaxploitation classics like "Coffy" as well as films like "Jackie Brown", I found "Black Mama, White Mama" very entertaining. Not one of Pam Grier's best movies, but better than most 'Women's prison' flicks, this is a violent and fun film and definitely worth watching.

Wow, this one just about defies description! Although the filmmakers seem to take the project a bit too seriously, our stars (Pam Grier and Margaret Markov) seem to be enjoying themselves. There's sadistic female guards, showers, a prison break, shootouts between revolutionaries and police. This film really typifies the genre.

Despite some of the dire happenings (blood flows like water) the film has a light-hearted feel. It's pure entertainment material, and doesn't pretend to be anything else. The heroines, Grier and Markov, really are the shining lights of this piece. One wonders how they could roll in the mud and catfight their way cross-country without mussing their uniforms. Talented women, they are. A funny note, at least in my opinion, is that Grier's character wears black underpants, and Markov's white.

See it, enjoy it, have a good giggle.

When two trouble-making female prisoners (one a revolutionary, the other a former harem-girl) can't seem to get along, they are chained together and extradited for safekeeping. The women, still chained together, stumble, stab, and cat-fight their way across the wilderness, igniting a bloody shootout between gangsters and a group of revolutionaries.

From a story by pre-fame Jonathan Demme, this is partly an homage to the 1958 classic "The Defiant Ones", which structured the same type of situation for its leading characters, played by Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier. Then we bring on director Eddie Romero, who was an actual Filipino director who worked primary in the Tagalog language. Well done, AIP, for not bringing in your own guy.

There were a number of jungle revolutionary films in the early 1970s, starting with Jack Hill's "Big Doll House" (1971), also starring Pam Grier. Actually, Grier was the queen of 1970s Filipino jungle women-in-prison films, also appearing in Hill's "The Big Bird Cage" (1972), plus Gerardo de León's "Women in Cages" (1971). Grier really made her name in these type of films before transitioning to "Foxy Brown".

Grier's co-star Margaret Markov also appeared in "The Hot Box" (again written by Jonathan Demme). She starred opposite Pam Grier again in "The Arena" (1974). She never quite reached the level of Grier because during the making of the latter she started dating producer Mark Damon (who had risen to fame through Roger Corman); the two later married and Markov retired.

The Arrow Video disc features an audio commentary with filmmaker Andrew Leavold, director of "The Search for Weng Weng". He loves to recommend the documentary "Machete Maidens Unleashed", and I would second that if you want to see how "Black Mama" fits into the whole Filipino action film cycle.

We also have new interviews with stars Margaret Markov and Sid Haig. Markov covers the entire breadth of her career, even spending time discussing Rock Hudson and Gene Roddenberry on "Pretty Maids All in a Row" (1971). Haig had many films in Philippines, so he has a few tales to tale. We are treated to a previously unseen archive interview with director Eddie Romero. (Exactly why an interview would have been filmed and not used, I don't know.) What is missing? An interview or commentary from David Sheldon, as on the disc for "Sheba Baby". Sheldon has contributed by far the best audio commentary in years, and we really need more of those from him.

***

Prostitute Lee Daniels (Pam Grier) and revolutionary Karen Brent (Margaret Markov) are prisoners who don't get along. They are chained together on a transport to maximum security when Karen's friends try to free her. The two women manage to escape while the revolutionaries battle with the police. The women dress up as nuns and bicker with different plans. Captain Cruz wants them Dead or Alive and recruits gang leader Ruben (Sid Haig).

It's blaxploitation. It's sexploitation. It's a B-movie beyond a doubt. There are lots of boobs. The girls are bad mofos and one of them is Pam freaking Grier. Their uniforms are short. There are surprisingly funny moments like the dick measuring. It's not winning any awards although it's not trying to be that. It does what it intends to do. The title is ridiculous and perfectly memorable. All in all, it is better than it has any rights to be.

Imagine an exploitive remake of The Defiant Ones with a black chick and a white chick attached to each other. Set the story on some Caribbean island where the drug dealers rule and the revolution has arrived. And have the black woman be from Huggy Bear's stable of ladies and the white woman be a watered down Patty Hearst and you've got Black Mama, White Mama.

In those waning days of the drive-in theater this item must have been a big old hit. All the hot buttons of the Seventies are pushed in this one. Even though they both fill out their clothes better and will get a few whistles from the males in the audience no one is ever going to mistake Pam Grier and Margaret Markov for Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis. All right, Halle Berry and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Margaret and Pam are prisoners where the guards and the warden look lasciviously at the new fish arriving. Margaret is a rich girl from the state who took up 'the revolution', whilst Pam's your basic high priced call girl who's been servicing the local drug kingpin and grew tired of it and tried to leave the island.

Margaret's fellow revolutionaries ambush the bus transporting them from the women's prison to town, but they get lost in the escape. Both have their different agendas, but like Sid and Tony they can't quite agree on whose agenda comes first. Makes for some interesting times as the police, the drug dealers, and the revolutionaries are all looking for these two illfated chain buddies.

Just so you don't get any wrong ideas the head of the revolutionaries and Markov's kanoodling partner is named Ernesto played by Filipino actor Zaldy Zshornack. The whole mess was shot in the Phillipines who were getting their own film industry started.

Nice location photography in the Phillipines is all that Black Mama, White Mam has to recommend it. But if you're a fan of really bad black exploitation flicks, this is one for you.

From story authors Jonathan Demme & Joe Viola, screenwriter H.R. Christian, and the prolific Eddie Romero, comes this diverting Filipino chase movie that puts an exploitative spin on the premise of "The Defiant Ones".

It starts out as your average women in prison flick, with blonde revolutionary Karen Brent (Margaret Markov) and black prostitute Lee Daniels (Pam Grier) meeting. While escorted away from the prison, they are shackled together. They soon make their break for freedom, often arguing over methodology and directions but coming to rely on each other and even care for each other.

Director Romero makes this a pretty lively affair, and it's worth noting that things take on a rather tongue in cheek tone at times. The ample humour helps to make this quite easy to watch, with Pams' frequent co-star Sid Haig given a meaty role which he plays with relish: a flamboyant, horny, loud talking dude in a cowboy costume. Romeros' pacing is effective, and the action scenes are fairly intense; there are some brief bursts of bloody violence. The location shooting is excellent, and the supporting cast features some familiar faces from Filipino exploitation cinema: Eddie Garcia, Alfonso Carvajal, Bruno Punzalan, and the always welcome Vic Diaz, who's a hoot as an oily crime lord. Sexy Lynn Borden has the role of a lustful prison guard. Stars Markov and Grier look fantastic and get some great chemistry going.

The true highlight of the movie definitely has to be the sequence where Markov and Grier masquerade as nuns; it provides the biggest laughs. But it must be said that Romero knows how to get down to business, delivering delectable nudity in the obligatory shower scene that occurs no more than four minutes into the movie.

All in all, this is solid entertainment that should please fans of the A.I.P. drive-in flicks of the 1970s.

Seven out of 10.

The title pretty much lets you know what you're getting. It's a grade-C howler but not as blatantly funny as I was hoping. Directed by exploitation film specialist Eddie Romero from a story that originally came from Jonathan Demme (long before directing "Silence of the Lambs" and "Philadelphia"), this low-budget 1972 action movie was obviously filmed in the Philippines but set in some anonymous third world country. Playing hooker and small-time drug dealer Lee Daniels, blaxploitation superstar Pam Grier plays the first half of the title role, while long-forgotten Margaret Markov is the other half, Karen Brent, an unlikely Patty Hearst-like political revolutionary looking to partner with her comrades to overthrow the oppressive local government. Naturally antagonistic toward each other, they are in a women's prison camp where they wear inexplicably bright yellow mini-skirts as uniforms. Run by a closeted warden and lecherous matron, the prison is just an excuse for a lengthy shower scene and some half-hearted cat-fighting as Lee and Karen are pitted against each other. Of course, they escape but shackled together a la "The Defiant Ones" and continue the cat-fighting until they attack a couple of nuns to steal their habits.

Meanwhile, various groups of unsavory men are in pursuit - the loutish drug lord looking for Lee who stole $40K from him, the rather passive revolutionaries looking for Karen, and the incompetent police (who suffer the humiliation of exposing their privates to the drug lord). Needless to say, everything eventually comes to a head but not before gratuitous nudity by a number of Filipino women, a dog wears Karen's panties and some of the worst of 1970's men's fashion (one beer-bellied revolutionary wears a leather halter top with a straight face). There is a rather sad ending, but what's truly sad is how much of the potential black comedy is missed entirely in this hilariously preposterous exercise. Sadly, Grier is disappointing in this outing because her character is not allowed much to do beyond dealing with all the "jive", while Markov is an Amazonian blonde whom I am convinced is trying desperately to be credible. Since no one displays any talent for acting, the rest of the cast is not worth noting, except balding, bug-eyed Sid Haig, who uses his standard psycho persona as the drug lord. The 2003 DVD contains only the original trailer as an extra.

I am much more of a Pam Grier fan than a "Women in Prison" fan. While this movie offers plenty of sadism, nudity, and all the other fine features a "WiP" flick offers, its low on the Pam Grier bad attitude butt kicking. The whole "Phillipino Revolutionaries" plot is poorly done, and ridiculous. The ending is weak; the action dull. Basically this hybrid doesn't give enough of any of the genres it dabbles in. Don't watch it.

Dig it! You've got your black mama. You've got your white mama. You've got your lesbian prison guards. You've got your female prison shower scene. (That lasts about 5 minutes). You've got your tough Filipino gangsters. You've got your corrupt police man. You've got a Che Guevara like revolutionary leader. Put this together and what do you get? Pure cinematic goodness. This isn't a great movie. But hell, its a lot of fun. Pam Grier is great as usual as one of the mama's.(I'll let you guess which one.) Plenty of violence and nudity to spare. Don't go looking for this in the family section of your video store. Oh yeah, the story was written by Jonathan Demme. (Seriously!)

Give me Pam Grier anytime. It doesn't take long for her to be in the shower at the prison all naked, with one of the matrons looking through a peephole and getting all hot and bothered as some of the girls play around.

Standard prison fare: fight in the dining area, a day naked in the hot box, bare breasts, lesbian matron trying to come on to prisoners, torture; you know the drill.

One of the prisoners (Margaret Markov) is part of the revolution on the island, so she and Pam Grier get sprung. They cop some nuns habits as disguises. The cowboy drug dealer (Sid Haig) provided lots of laughs as they chased the two women. Another drug dealer provided lots of flesh to view when he was on screen. With a rebel group and the police in on the search, there was plenty of action.

I'm a big fan of Jack Hill's pair of Pam Grier-lead women in prison flicks; The Big Doll House and The Big Bird Cage, and was hoping for something similar from this film seeing as it has similar people involved with it. It has to be said that Black Mama, White Mama is nowhere near as good as the earlier two films and also isn't as good as the plot summary would leave me to believe it is...but it is, at least, an entertaining exploitation effort. The film's central idea is really good and could easily have lead to a classic; but unfortunately the film adds in a number of side plots, and these unfortunately are not as interesting. We, of course, focus on a women's prison and in particular two prisoners that don't get on (one black, one white). Their superiors decide to ship them off to another prison; and for extra security, they are chained together. The white prisoner is involved with a revolution, and her friends attack the convoy carrying the prisoners en route, and the pair is able to escape. Now, chained together, they have to battle their way across the countryside.

Naturally, the film has the same brash exploitation style (which includes a food fight and the obligatory shower scene) as Jack Hill's women in prison films; but it's clear that Eddie Romero is no Jack Hill, and it comes off looking more like an imitation than the real thing. Pam Grier once again gives a gritty turn as one half of the lead, and gets good back up from Margaret Markov; the other half. There's also a small role for Sid Haig, who plays a gangster. The parts of the film that focus on the prisoners are generally good and entertaining, and I'm sure this would have been a classic if the whole film focused on that idea. The side plot involving Sid Haig is not too bad and has some interesting moments; but the whole plot revolving around a revolution is frankly dull and I found it very hard to care for. The setting is rather nice (once again it's some banana republic) and there's some good location shots, at least. Overall, I would recommend this film to anyone that likes the work that Jack Hill did with Pam Grier; but don't go into it expecting anything on par.

The plot for Black Mama White Mama, revolves around two female inmates, at a women's prison in the Phillipines. One Black, and one White. These two women, are thrown together in the prison. Pam Grier is Lee Daniels Lee is incarcerated in the hellish women's prison, for dancing as a harem girl.

Lee's boyfriend owes her part of his profits, from his drug-dealing activities. Lee is mainly interested in breaking out of the prison to get hold of her beau's drug money, so that she can leave the Phillipines and assume a better life. Margaret Markov plays Karen Brent, a white women from a privileged background, who is also a revolutionary. Karen has joined a group of revolutionaries, determined to change the corrupt Phillipino political system. She's captured by Phillipino authorities, and held as a political prisoner.

The story-line takes-off, when Karen and Lee break out of the prison they were in together. The two of them also happened to be chained together at the wrist. As they flee, they also fight with each other, because they have different goals to pursue. Naturally, they hate being chained together. But they also realize that they must put aside their differences, to help each other survive while they evade capture.

If this film seems very similar to The Big Bird Cage, it's because much of the cast in the two films is the same, as well as their location in the Phillipines. Roger Corman, has always had a consistent stable of actors, that he used in all of his 70s B movies. Besides Pam Grier, Sid Haig, Roberta Collins, Claudia Jennings, Betty Anne Rees, and William Smith, were also among the many actors that were frequently cast, in Corman's AIP films.

Like The Big Bird Cage, Black Mama White Mama, relies on too much gory violence to be palatable. Pam Grier conveys her usual tough chick persona in this film, and shows her competence as a female action heroine. Margaret Markov is less effect, in her portrayal of the revolutionary Karen. She just seems to fragile and well-coiffed, to be a dedicated political guerrilla. Except for Sid Haig, as the colorful Ruben, the rest of the cast is forgettable.

This film has little entertainment value, unless excessive, heinous acts of violence are your thing. Only the performances by Pam Grier and Sig Haig, make this film worth watching.

Not a great film, not even great by exploitation standards but is a colourful and entertaining enough watch. The two leading ladies fleeing jail chained together in flimsy little costumes and traversing the Philippines landscape while two major gangs of men search them down, is bound to have some interest. The influence of the film with regard to the development of exploitation cinema including blaxploitation is undeniable. Director Eddie Romero was born in the Philippines and had worked there for many years making popular cinema, particularly war films, with the emphasis on the Japanese invasion, and later some horror with as much skin as was allowed. When Roger Corman and Co came calling he was ready to assist and not only were WIP films about to get a boost but Jonathan Demme and Pam Grier would be introduced to the world. Demme, credited with script assistance here, actually ripped off the earlier Kramer film, The Defiant Ones but crucially switched the two chained guys, Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier for Pam Grier and Margaret Markov. Pam Grier, of course, proved unstoppable and whilst her co-star here did a few more films before leaving cinema behind, she became the Queen of Blaxploitation and more. mention should also be made of that big, bad, bearded man Sid Haig, who romps through the film in a cowboy hat, taking anyone or anything as it comes and is still working today.

If you find the hopelessly amateurish acting, the uninteresting story, the fake blood and all the mindless shooting bearable, then you may actually have a fairly good time watching this trashy, low-rent exploitation film. You might also want to check out a pretty good catfighting sequence that's offered, although it's not good enough to make the rest of the movie worth sitting through. (**)

"Black Mama, White Mama" is a humdinger of a movie. It has two very dreamy leads, two very bad villains and great location photography. It also has a bunch of nudity. This movie is violent and mean but it's also a lot of fun. It's goofy at times but it's never campy. Sure you can pick a movie like this apart but what's the point? "Black Mama, White Mama" knew what it was going for and it hit the bullseye. This movie is always a satisfying watch. Honorable mention: Sid Haig.

Two women incarcerated in a women's prison bust out and go on the run. This AIP effort is a gender switched version of the 50's movie The Defiant Ones. Instead of Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis, we get Pam Grier and Margaret Markov, shackled together on the run. It basically works as a combination of a women-in-prison flick and a chase movie, with the WIP elements coming early on in the way of lesbian guards, shower scenes and cat fights, while the majority of the movie has the girls on the run pursued by three groups - gangsters led by a fat sleazy crime boss, a cowboy bounty hunter hired by the cops and a group of Marxist revolutionaries who are affiliated with Markov. Like a lot of Philippines shot efforts, there's a lot of running about in the jungle and overall, its fairly routine stuff. But its good as an example of an early lead role for Pam Grier.