Poor Albert & Little Annie (1972) User Reviews

Well acted by Hall and atmospheric, but let down by moments of boredom

[tomgillespie2002 · 4/10 · 30 October 2011]

Rich kid Albert (Zooey Hall) is in an institute. We meet him at the beginning of the film trying to rape a nurse before he is apprehended. His doctor tells his mother that he is a lost cause and must be moved to a hospital for the insane. While being taunted by one of the male nurses there, Albert tricks him into watching one of the 'films' he's made, and ends up killing him and escaping. He arrives at his mother's house to kill her - he sees her as a whore who is not 'pure' enough. He instead comes across her housekeeper, who he taunts and kills. Yet when he meets her 11 year-old daughter Annie (Geri Reischi), they form a bond and Albert takes her away. For once he has met a girl who is pure and innocent, but the only problem are his violent sexual urges.

The original name for this film was Poor Albert and Little Annie, which is a much more apt title for a film that is relatively unexploitative and character-driven. While they are scenes of violence, they are brief and contain very little blood or gore. The film concentrates more on the relationship between Albert and Annie, and the creepy fascination Albert has with her. Albert is clearly a misogynist, viewing every woman as filth who have lost their purity. Annie is sweet and innocent, and so Albert begins a strange love affair with her. He understands his urges are wrong, but he goes with it all the same.

As interesting as I'm making the film out to be, you have to remember that this is a 70's grindhouse film marketed under the name of I Dismember Mama and was usually shown in a double bill with The Blood Spattered Bride (1972). This generally means that although the idea is certainly quite interesting, the execution is bad. Whereas the low- budget works in it's favour - the film has a grime to it that creates a feeling of sleaze - the film is peppered with long sections where nothing at all happens. The 80 minute running time feels much longer than it actually is, and although Hall in the lead is generally quite effective as the rich-boy psychopath, he cannot save the film from being a meandering missed opportunity.

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Poor Albert is a charmer but Little Annie might just be the death of him

[edeighton · 5/10 · 17 October 2020]

*WARNING SPOILERS* I Dismember Mama is a terribly misleading title. Nobody gets dismembered and the Mama survives the film. I am embarrassed to admit that I actively avoided watching this film for thirty years because I feared it would be too intense of a gore exploitation film. The video cassette box art and name of the film frightened me in 1986-1987 and I have avoided it ever since. The original title Poor Albert and Little Annie, while boring, is a much better label for this film. At its heart this film centers on the weird and creepy relationship between Albert and little Annie. Albert (Zooey Hall) is a rich and spoiled man-child who tortures and kills defenseless women because he believes them to be wanton. Little Annie is an eleven year old school girl (Geri Reischl) who spends the day with Albert, not knowing that he had just finished raping and killing her mother. Albert eschews his violent ways as he becomes charmed by little Annie and he reverts to a childlike persona. Albert shields Annie from viewing the body of her murdered mother and spirits her away for a fun day of playing games, talking and laughing together, riding paddleboats and a small train and then that night he takes her to a hotel where they conduct a mock wedding ritual. A lot of the tension in this movie is created by the viewer knowing what naïve Annie does not: the fact that she's in danger of rape, at least, and likely murder as well. Yet Zooey Hall masterfully portrays Albert in such a way that he manipulates even the viewer into believing, for a stretch of the movie, that because Annie is the only pure female, uncorrupted, that Albert has ever known, that Albert will keep her safe from his violent side. In fact, the viewer watches Albert wrestle with his dark urges as he gazes on a sleeping little Annie and the viewer even feels relieved when Albert decides to focus his sexual energy on a hooker instead. Zooey Hall could have played Albert as a maniacal killing machine, but he brings to the character a likable side, which is far more chilling when he lapses into his ultra-violent behavior. The scene where Albert threatens Alice (little Annie's mother) and makes her strip, dance and sing is disturbing as we watch Alice slowly become resigned to her fate, even after giving Albert all he demanded. The only reference to dismemberment in the whole movie is the final scene, a bizarre sequence, the camera following Albert chasing little Annie through a mannequin factory, surrounded by artificial female bodies in various stages of assembly. Albert hallucinates and sees the mannequins wearing makeup and then finally spots little Annie and hallucinates her with cosmetics on: she now must die like all of the rest of the wicked women. My favorite part of this movie was the soundtrack. I like 1970's television and movie background music and this movie has a lot of it. Herschel Burke Gilbert did the music for this film. His use of the song 'Poor Albert' was effective as the lyrics reflect the main character's state of mind. I still cant believe I spent thirty years believing (and telling people) that this was some over the top gore-fest exploitation film. The director seemingly went out of his way to avoid delivering any bloody scenes in this film. Even the killing scenes are restrained. The film is more a psychological thriller than a slasher movie. The camera cuts away from the actual death scenes and shows only the aftermath of violence. The hype for this movie had me running away from it for over thirty years, but once forced to watch it, I found it rather tame. Actress, Marlene Tracy, had an amazing performance of desperation and resignation in her death scene. The orderly REALLY wanted to watch Albert's hidden movie reel. Maybe it was just home movies of his family. All we know is that the female nurse was not shocked when she walked in and saw Albert watching the films and she said that the films agitated Albert

Mediocre but watchable seedy psycho trash

[Bloodwank · 5/10 · 6 November 2011]

It seems like I Dismember Mama as become the standard release title for this one, originally Poor Albert and Little Annie. It really shouldn't have been renamed, as no one gets dismembered and there isn't even any gore (unless you count a split second stabbing), so anyone who hit this one at a drive in or grabbed a VHS copy expecting gruesome goods would have been severely disappointed. The original name is pretty suitable though, there's an Albert and an Annie, and the Annie is little. I wouldn't call Albert poor though, he seemed like a pretty run of the mill ass hole psycho to me. Still, the title suggests strange drama and strange drama makes up a considerable portion of the film, so it works. The titular Albert is a misogynist mama's boy creep who got institutionalised for attempting to off said mama, but breaks out in order to finish the deed. Along the way he befriends the young daughter of his mothers maid and they have a happy day out. Which is where things get weird and the film scotches its previously decent efforts at being a grimy little exploiter. The first third is pretty promising, attempted rape and strangulation, hateful and arrogant chatter and then a rather disconcerting episode of naked torment followed by murder. But when Albert meets Annie it all shifts, there's some suspense but only in vague currents through overall dullness, their dynamic is somewhat interesting and ambiguous but young Gerri Reischl is a tedious cute young girl and events are utterly prosaic and cheesy. Zooey Hall is decent as Albert though, aloof and malign with a definite sense of threat to him, he carries things as best he can but its difficult when substantial portions of the film are so uneventful, only perking up for a fairly intense closing ten minutes or so. Mostly the score is more exitable than the film, tense strings, saccharine romance and a fair amount of brash and brassy jazz moments, its good fun to boogie along to even when not much interesting is happening. The direction is stolid and other performances tend to be quite weak, but there's enough low key unease for things to be just about passable, and an interesting palpable air of misogyny. Not only is good time given over to Alberts unpleasant blather the portrayal of women in the film does little to contradict him, I'm sure the effect wasn't especially intentional but its notable nonetheless and gives the film a creepier feel than it might otherwise. Altogether this won't do much for anyone other than the more thoroughoing of early 70's trash enthusiasts but if you're the kind of person that just has to see it, its worthy enough. 5/10.

Psycho's obsession with purity and virgins

[suelyon · 11 June 1999]

In this film, Albert is a rich psycho, who goes around looking for sex, then killing the woman if they are not virgins.When he sees little 11 year old Annie, he falls in love.But,since he doesn't want to ruin her purity, he finds another woman, and Annie catches them,starting the finale.

This is a rare film to find=majority of video stores don't have it...But, its really crazy and unrelated, worth a look!

Alice, Alice, Alice

[Cineanalyst · 5/10 · 23 August 2020]

"Poor Albert and Little Annie," alternatively titled "Crazed" and, better yet, "I Dismember Mama," is a collage of misappropriations from probably better and certainly more respected sources. The title recalls the play-turned-film "I Remember Mama" (1946), the protagonist Albert mentions a Vincent Van Gogh painting ("Le Café de Nuit") in one scene also set amid billiards at a bar, and the climax set in a warehouse of mannequins is ripped off from Stanley Kubrick's "Killer's Kiss" (1955). More fundamentally, the entire production follows in the long tradition of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960), with the insane murderer who kills out of a conflation of his obsession with his mother and misogyny for the promiscuous women he desires. The other landmark horror film of 1960, Michael Powell's "Peeping Tom" is co-opted, too, early on, for the metaphor of movie-as-monster, with the madman attacking nurses at the asylum who get in the way of his viewing presumably pornographic or snuff pictures. The "Peeping Tom" similarities are dropped as soon as Albert escapes his captivity, but, besides an extended variation on the scene from "Frankenstein" (1931) between the creature and Maria, is substituted by what may be interpreted as allusions to Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland," which is the reason I came to this.

The only one I know of to point out this connection is fellow IMDb reviewer Tedg (Ted Goranson), who also amusingly takes note that the girl playing Annie here (Geri Reischl) subsequently played Jan in "The Brady Bunch" TV show, which also featured a maid named "Alice." Nominally, the Alice in this movie is Annie's mother, as well as the maid for Albert's mother's home, but characteristic of the picture's practice of misplacement, or dismemberment, it's Annie herself who displays the appearance and some of the characteristics of Carroll's Alice. Her and Albert even enjoy a boat ride and a detour on a children's train that, as Goranson also mentions, are reminiscent of episodes from the Alice books.

The rest of "I Dismember Mama" is a slipshod production that possibly may only be appreciated as a so-bad-it's-good film. Besides Zooey Hall, as Albert, who's affected manner of speech is effectively creepy, the acting is poor. The bumbling bobbies are clichés, including the cop repeatedly munching on junk food and sipping coffee in phone booths. The pacing tends to be bad, although the montage of Albert and Annie in the boat cut with flashbacks of his slaying Alice is an exception.

Irrespective of the deficiencies in the rest of the picture, however, reading references to "Alice in Wonderland" into "I Dismember Mama" is a disturbing exercise. I don't put much stock in the claims of pedophilia against Charles Dodgson, but that notion is in some ways more effectively exploited here for pure horror than by Dennis Potter's peculiar sense of literary honor in "Dreamchild" (1985) and, earlier, the TV movie "Alice" (1965). In the late 20th century, Dodgson's Victorian-era photography has been argued to sexualize their children subjects, and in this film, we see the same sort of nude pictures in the background at the mannequin warehouse, as Albert chases after Annie. His perverse interest in her pre-pubescence and virginity is further underscored in a scene where he waxes poetic re the purity of women in the Victorian era. The inference, then, is if Annie is the movie's Alice, Albert is its Dodgson.

Extremely boring thriller.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 5/10 · 26 March 2005]

After he escapes from a mental hospital,deranged Zooey Hall sets out to kill his mother(who sent him there),but along the way attacks and kills any "loose women" that cross his path.Eventually,he falls for a young girl,the daughter of his mother's housekeeper."I Dismember Mama" is an extremely boring and ugly thriller.I actually suffered watching this one and that's saying something.Exploitation and horror fans will be disappointed,because there is absolutely no gore.There is a little bit of sleaze and perversion(for example photos of naked children in the warehouse filled with mannequins),and the denouement is almost intense,unfortunately "I Dismember Mama" is too dull to be enjoyable.Watching paint dry is far more interesting than suffering through this turd.5 out of 10 and that's being kind.

Sleazy but not much else

[udar55 · 5/10 · 7 September 2009]

Albert (the deliciously named Zooey Hall, previously seen on ABC's "The New People") escapes from an insane asylum and heads home to kill his mother. See, Albert is a believer that - as The Cramps would say - all women are baddddd! He arrives only to find that she is not home. Naturally, he takes the time to kill the maid right before the maid's daughter Annie shows up. Enchanted by the 10-year-old, Albert takes Annie away in the hopes of marrying her and keeping her pure. Not much can be gained from this sleazy little flick outside of its classic retitling and some gawking at the 70s aesthetics. The film does have some creepy elements (Albert's fixation on this young girl), but director Paul Leder (A*P*E) isn't about to explore them any deeper than face value. There are some nice moments, however, delivered in the film's final minutes in a darkened mannequin factory.

scummy

[ethylester · 2/10 · 30 August 2004]

This is more like a look into a perverted misogynist's head. It was creepy to me as a woman, especially since numerous films like this exist (Night After Night After Night, Terror on Tour, Pieces, Shadows Run Black and many many others). Too many films are about psychopaths obsessed with women's "purity" it makes you wonder. Why do people care so much? And why is it constantly shown in movies that virgins are better women? Why do non-virgins deserve to die? What goes on in the minds of writers of this main theme? The acting was decent. The story was awful.

Anyway, this movie creeped me out. Maybe it seemed too real. I hated it.

1/10

I Dismember Mama: All Name, No Game

[phlyax · 2/10 · 25 October 2010]

You know you're in trouble when the new title is superimposed on the opening credits with what looks like an old dymo labelwriter!

The first scene has a female nurse enter a room by herself, in a mental institute no less, and tell the male patient that he shouldn't be watching those types of films in his room because of what they do to him.

Of course, that's the end of the nurse and it only goes downhill from there.

Truly the only item of interest here is the title!

How bad is it, a re-make would be an improvement. Besides its too good of a title to waste!

Say, that gives me an idea...

A really creepy and hence pretty good sleazy 70's psycho flick

[Woodyanders · 7/10 · 20 March 2006]

This reasonably tense, aberrant and absorbing low-grade early 70's psycho picture is nowhere near as vile or awful as its unjustly lousy reputation would suggest. Yeah, it's the unsparingly grim and twisted story of a depraved Oedipal wreck Norman Bates-style misogynistic pedophile sicko who after escaping from an experimental mental home racks up a tiny body count (three folks in total) and befriends a sweet, unsuspecting 11-year-old girl (the adorable Geri Reischl) who he considers to be the sole "pure" female he's ever made the acquaintance of, but thankfully both director Paul Leder and screenwriter William Norton (who also co-wrote "Big Bad Mama" and "Day of the Animals") never let the perverse premise degenerate into total gag-inducing filthy sleaze. Instead, they show a surprising amount of taste and restraint, creating a genuinely icky and unsettling atmosphere by chiefly focusing on star lunatic Albert's seething psychosis and severe hang-ups concerning his domineering rich b**ch mommy. Zooey Hall as the outwardly calm and composed, yet internally volatile and dangerous Albert gives a believably creepy and admirably subdued performance; Hall laudably eschews the pop-eyed raving histrionics most actors tend to do in such colorfully deranged roles in favor of a more unnervingly low-key approach which in turn makes Albert's sporadic psychotic outbursts that much more convincing and upsetting. Future "Marty Hartman, Mary Hartman" TV show star Greg Mullavey lends solid support as the hard-nosed detective determined to arrest Albert before things get too out of hand. Moreover, the grimy no-frills two-cent production values further lend a certain grungy verisimilitude to the overall bleakly credible proceedings, thus making this flesh-crawling item one of the most disturbingly plausible of 70's grind-house psycho features.

A cheese feast with some cool digs for Albert

[t_brown_17 · 6/10 · 11 December 2000]

The "Poor Albert" montage alone is worth the price of admission. The relationship between Albert and Alice is bittersweet, and I found myself wanting them to end up together for some reason. The guy just killed her mother and I totally forgot about it! Zooey Hall is a real find and that little girl is so adorable. And I totally love Albert's wardrobe. He's like a psycho dressed in pimp's clothing. And that hat? Oh, my God, I just love that hat, it's just so...

The film's cheesy too, by the way. And it has the tendency to get boring in spots. It also has the tendency to be stupid too. And not all the acting is as good as Zooey's. But why carp, it's great!

BOFFO!!!

[kingblozo · 7 July 2000]

Such a marvelous film. I particularly loved the title song, sung by Rocket Roden. When Roden sings, people listen. I am enthralled by this masterpiece. This is all I have to say. Now, leave me alone.

Creepy Psycho-Sexual Thriller

[Falconeer · 7/10 · 14 December 2016]

What a shame that the distributors billed this fascinating Grindhouse classic as a splatter film; "I Dismember Mama" is not the original title of this obscure gem, and it is a misleading title as well, as nobody gets 'dismembered.' This is the story of a paranoid schizophrenic, who has been committed to a private asylum. Albert is convinced that all women are whores, and that the world must be cleansed of the evil that they bring. After sexually attacking a nurse and cutting the throat of an orderly, Albert escapes and returns to his childhood home, in search of his mother, who is his main obsession. He doesn't find her. He does find the 12 year old daughter of his mother's friend, and becomes convinced that little Annie should become his bride, as she is the only truly "pure" female left in the world.

This movie is something that could have only been made in the glorious 1970's, cinema's most notorious decade for rule breaking and boundary pushing themes and images. "I Dismember Mama" aka "Poor Albert and Little Annie" is a must for fans of the "grindhouse" films of the 70's. It has it all; extreme fashions and hairstyles, bizarre music, and a truly twisted story. The seedy, low budget production is rich with atmosphere, and a feeling of dread permeates the film from beginning to end. The subject matter is sure to make certain viewers a bit uncomfortable, but then so do many of the best movies. Sadly it is very difficult to find a watchable copy of this movie, but it is worth tracking down. I'm kind of surprised that it doesn't have more of a cult following. Recommended; along the lines of "The Baby" and "Toys Are Not for Children," other films about bizarre sexual deviations.

Sick Albert! Naïve little Annie. Poor Alice. Repulsive mother. Incompetent Doctor. Dumb police officers.

[Coventry · 6/10 · 11 April 2023]

"Poor" Albert? Poor as in "unfortunate and pitiable person"? Well, I don't know who came up with that title (and complementary theme song), but "poor" is the absolute last adjective I would use to describe the protagonist of this obscure and twisted early 70s exploitation feature. I suggest abhorrent Albert, sick Albert, pervert Albert, or pedo-Albert! We're talking about a guy who genuinely believes that all women are inferior and impure creatures that do not deserve to live and breath the same air he does. Albert attacks and rapes nurses in the mental institution where he lives, makes it his life's mission to murder his mother, and kills the most gentle and utmost innocent female housekeeper I have ever seen. And then he also falls in love with an 11-year-old girl and symbolically marries her for her immaculateness. So, poor ... didn't think so!

Whilst we're challenging adjectives, let's change and some more! Annie may be little, but she's also extremely naïve. Even in the early 70s, I sincerely hope that parents educated their children not to blindly follow strange men they only know from a picture. Housekeeper Alice is the poor one. She's a genuinely kind-hearted and respectable woman who doesn't deserve to die at the hand of a misogynist. Mother Robertson, who barely has any screentime, is a repulsive person because she refuses to acknowledge that her offspring is a freak and never warned Alice and Annie about his true nature. Doctor Burton's medical license should be confiscated because the treatment given at his institute is totally ineffective, and he even obstructs police work. And, finally, the police detective and his troops are too dumb for words. How can you fail to put a stakeout at the house of the mother whom the escaped lunatic threatened to murder? The police are responsible for the death of poor Alice.

Despite all the flaws and shortcomings, "Poor Albert and Little Annie" is a worthwhile and compelling 70s exploitation movie; - especially for the fans of this uniquely twisted horror sub-genre. There are shocks, controversial themes, and over-the-top eccentric characters aplenty. Since Albert is capable of anything, you genuinely fear for little Annie's life, and therefore the film is reasonably tense and unpredictable. Director Paul Leder also made the disturbing post-Vietnam shocker "My Friends Need Killing", so he definitely knows a thing or two about grim exploitation.

I Dismember Alice

[tedg · 11 April 2004]

Spoilers herein.

Horrible production values in every respect except for the idea behind the script. I collect films that are based on Alice in Wonderland. This is one.

The little girl is the typical Alice since the Disney version: long blond hair, light blue dress, white knee socks. Her identity shifting is the same as the books; in this case, the Red Queen (here the redhead) is named Alice who dies and is replaced by Alice.

(As it happens, this little girl goes on to play a similar role in the Brady Bunch with a similar Alice.)

They do the train thing and the boat thing more or less from the books. Then they end up in a warehouse of mannequins and mannequin parts that incongruously also features pictures of nude kids at the beach in from of which our monster stands.

This is stolen from Kubrick's `Killer's Kiss' which in turn was inspired by Wells' `Lady from Shanghai.'

There was a fairly intelligent idea here. Just botched, that's all.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Just remember that "horror" is not the main ingredient!

[emm · 6/10 · 4 March 1999]

The alternative title of this film would make much better sense. Through some extremely unrelated footage, it does very good at hiding the truth of our "Poor Albert" who killed "Little Annie's" mama. That way, we can slowly await the climax. Horror and gore fans, be warned! You will be disappointed by the lack of severed body parts and / or any detailed scenes of graphic violence, and just because it's titled I DISMEMBER MAMA! Don't blame me if I said this! I watched this film from an out-of-print Simitar version that might have been cut from any over-the-top gore. So what? A good little El Cheapola drive-in thriller, but try not to get too high on your expectations.

And here's to you, Mrs. Robertson, Albert hates you more than you will know.

[BA_Harrison · 7/10 · 25 March 2021]

Ignore the disparaging comments and relatively low score here on IMDb: I Dismember Mama is worth seeing for Zooey Hall's chilling performance as deeply disturbed Albert Robertson, whose deranged actions easily qualify him as one of grind-house cinema's more memorable maniacs. Albert, who looks like a cross between Christian Bale and Derek Zoolander, kicks things off by attacking a female nurse at the institution he has been sent to (after trying to kill his wealthy mother, played by Joanne Moore Jordan). The psycho grabs the nurse, tears open her top, smacks her about a bit, and tries to strangle her with his jacket, but is stopped when a pair of male orderlies enter the room. This brutal assault convinces Dr. Burton (Frank Whiteman) that Albert belongs in a high security hospital, but before the looney can be transferred, he makes his escape (after slashing the throat of an attendant). Having found the dead orderly, the police take Mrs. Robertson to a safe place, but fail to stake out his mother's house, or ensure that housekeeper Alice (Marlene Tracy) is made aware of the situation. So when Albert inevitably arrives home, he is greeted by Alice, who unknowingly triggers Albert's hatred of impure women by revealing that she has an 11-year-old daughter, Annie (Geri Reischl ): to punish her, Albert forces Alice to strip at knifepoint and then kills her. Soon after, Annie arrives home from school, and, unaware that her Albert is a murderous pervert, believes him when he says that her mother has gone to the doctors and that he is to look after the girl. And this is where things start to get REALLY twisted: Albert falls in love with Annie, since she is his idea of absolute purity. He takes her out for the day, plays games with her (including pretending to marry her), and pays for a swanky hotel room for the night. Having tucked her up in bed, he fights his unnatural urges to crawl under the covers with the girl, and so goes out and picks up a pool-hall floozy instead, who he takes to the hotel and strangles - just as Annie wakes up! A tense finale has poor Albert chasing little Annie into a mannequin factory, where he decides that she is just like other women and deserves to die like her mommy. With its perverse themes and Hall's convincingly psychotic turn, I found I Dismember Mama to be quite the sleazy treat: not overly explicit, but grimy and unashamedly tawdry, just the way I like my '70s exploitation. Even when the film is focussing on Albert and Annie's fun day out (a breezy montage complete with theme song), the pair boating and riding on trams, there's an deeply unsettling atmosphere, creepy Albert getting a little too touchy feely with the girl whose mother he has butchered hours earlier. Judging by I Dismember Mama's current IMDb rating of 4.2/10, a lot of people were probably disappointed by the fact that the film wasn't a straightforward gory slasher, but my fellow IMDb reviewers Woodyanders and Falconeer know where it's at, giving the film the very reasonable 7/10 rating it deserves.

Prosaic psycho-on-the-loose flick with recycled ideas.

[EyeAskance · 19 August 2003]

Don't let the clever I DISMEMBER MAMA title lead you to believe that this is going to be a bull's-eye grindhouse classic. Simply stated, this is a strictly par B thriller full of hand-me-down ideas, possibly a notch higher on the sicko-meter for presenting a psychotic antagonist unwholesomely obsessed with a little girl. Beyond that, a faceless dime-a-dozen vehicle with the usual kook harboring the usual resentment of females, and the usual unlucky lasses who become his victims.

It's a visually unappealing affair, with better performances from its principal cast than the base material really deserves, and a few scenes are admittedly set up fairly well. In the bigger picture, however, this is just an unimaginatively assembled exposition of something we've all seen a thousand times before, and done a thousand times better.

4/10...passable, but you'll certainly live to tell about how you didn't bother to see it.

It's okay

[mtyler20 · 30 December 2006]

Yes the title kicks ass but the film is just okay.I don't care what anyone says,I liked it because it was different.It had an awesome sample.."Breeding is the manifestation of worms" I actually rented it in 1999 and just bought it last week off Amazon.com for like $7.It's really rare.The part I didn't like was that he didn't kill his rich mother.(I'd like to dismember my mama myself).This is one of the films that inspired me to be a screenwriter because it's a low-budget film.I think I can do better though..We'll see.I talk about this movie at work and people are like "what?! I Dismember Mama? I like the guys hairstyle.He looked pretty scary.I also liked the part at the beginning when he was in the mental institution.I can relate to that.I'm glad I have this in my collection, right next to Friday the 13th.The naked girl at the end looked pretty nice too.This is worth checking out.

Low-budget thriller with little scare.

[Serpent-5 · 23 August 1999]

David "Zooey" Hall who was good in FORTUNE AND MEN'S EYES is casted as a nut who kills a little girls mother, and tries be friends with her in another 70's low grade thriller. Paul Leder made a sequel 16 years later as KILLING OBSESSION with John saxon and John Savage playing Hall's part. I think Savage is a good actor, but Hall really made this part in the first one. The film really isn't a cult classic, but seems to became one because of the constant re-pressing Video Gems and Simtar did on the video cassette release, and the film F/X mentioned this film also. Not recommended.

The Title is Actually the Best Thing

[rwint · 15 July 2001]

Original title belies what is really a bad movie. Hall plays a strange psycho who hates all women who are not virgins. Then he meets a innocent 11 year old. They take a extended trip to a amusement park. We see a long series of montages of them playing on the rides. Complete with a syrupy song titled "Poor Albert". (And you thought this was supposed to be a horror movie). The climax takes place in a abandoned warehouse full of mannequins, which the director does not take advantage of. A truly pathetic excuse for filmmaking. No scares, no suspense, no creativity; just Zooey Hall trying desperately to act. The worst film I've seen and I have seen a lot.

"Albert, You Hurt That Nurse!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 22 July 2021]

Albert (Zooey Hall) has some serious issues. He believes that all women are "whores". He also believes that his mother (Joanne Moore Jordan) is the cause of all his problems. Albert also suffers from severe WBHS (Warren Beatty Hair Syndrome).

Dr. Burton (Frank Whiteman) is convinced that Albert is dangerously disturbed and should be institutionalized. Shockingly, mum won't hear of it.

Albert begins a killing spree, sporting an awesome Fedora / turtleneck ensemble. All the while, the theme song "Poor Albert" plays on like some terribly-written accomplice.

I DISMEMBER MAMA is a thoroughly preposterous experiment in early 1970's misogyny. It wavers between being a tale of sadistic terror and a hilarious parody of itself. The aforementioned, misplaced theme song is a marvel!

Albert himself is at once a repellent, murdering pig, and a complete bonehead. One simply must witness his jumping matador dance routine!

BEST SCENES: #1- Albert's theological discussion on the lake, intercut with scenes of his last homicide! #2- Abert's history lesson on the way to a hotel bridal suite! Pure cinematic genius!

Special accolades must go to Greg Mullavey's unforgettable role as the yelling cop. Really, who yells like that?

No human soul could possibly be prepared for the crying, screaming, tantrum-induced anti-doom of the finale!

No actual mannequins were harmed...

"Your mother is not a wh*re and this is not the middle ages."

[Backlash007 · 8 February 2004]

~Spoiler~

I Dismember Mama-I had to buy it because of the title alone. That was my mistake. This is by the numbers exploitation. The box claims that it's "a killing spree more brutal than any ever seen in the annals of filmmaking." That is a bit exaggerated. Poor Albert (and his theme song) only kills three people, and his mother is not one of them. He never even attempts to kill his mother. This is a stupid and dull movie. Avoid at all costs.

Poor viewer, forget Albert

[horns-1 · 25 January 2004]

Zooey Hall, I've not seen him in any other role but, boy, was he perfect for the part of Albert. He certainly is a creepy-lookin' fellow. No wonder he's credited as playing "Joanie's Weird Boyfriend" on a Happy Days episode.

I Dismember Mama is an irksome film with laughable music throughout, even for the period. The scenes where Albert is chasing Annie has accompanying music that sounds like something from the old Adam West "Batman" TV-series. It ruins the climatic scenes. Summed up, there's not much to see, well . . . some '70s nudity.

Horror oldie fails to deliver

[lor_ · 24 January 2023]

My review was written in March 1983 after a Greenwich Village screening.

A modest B-film lensed as "Poor Albert and Little Annie" in 1972, this ineffectual psycho-on-the-loose picture enjoys an enduring notoriety by virtue of its title change to "I Dismember Mama". Though the material is suitably distasteful and morbid, meek presentation will disappoint gorehounds lured by that title.

Quite impressive as the outwardly cool but deranged killer, Zooey Hall escapes form a sanitorium after the authorities prohibit him from watching stag movies in his room. Beginning a string of killings with a bald orderly, he's out to punish his rich mother (Joanne Mooe Jordan) whom he blames for having sent him there and cut off from the family's $30,000,000 nest egg.

Arriving at the family mansion, Hall terrorizes and kills the busty redhead housekeeper (Marlene Tracy). When her pre-teen daughter Annie (Geri Reischl) returns home from school, the film segues into a U. S. version of the French classic "Sundays and Cybele", as romantic music, lyrical montages and a generally pleasant mood accompany Hall and Reiscl's idyll together. At night, his warped sexual urges surface, but resisting the impulse, Hall sublimates by going out and picking up an adult blonde woman at an L. A. pool hall.

Besides the absence of gore, film relies upon unbelievable police procedure to keep its narrative going, and script is fatally flawed by the absence of a confrontation between Hall and his mom. (In fact, they have no footage together.) Among the more familiar cast members, Greg Mullavey (of tv's "Mary Hartman") is miscast as the incompetent detective on the case.

Low-budget filming is poorly lit (multiple shadows abound( and lacking in action until the derivative chase through a warehouse of mannikins finale. Punchy big band score by Herschel Burke Gilbert is a plus.

Director Paul Leder went on to film the 3-D opus "Ape", and more recently "I'm Going to Be Famous" with Mullavey in the latter. Scriptwriter William Norton would appear to be the same one who worked on a dozen Levy-Gardner-Laven productions such as "Sam Whiskey" and "Gator", distinct from the B. W. L. Norton (of "Cisco Pike", "More American Graffiti"), but confusing credits over the past decade still need to be sorted out (e.g., Bill Norton Senior of "Night of the Juggler" and William Norton Senior of "Dirty Tricks").