Mama's Dirty Girls (1974) User Reviews

Decent Exploitation Movie

[Michael_Elliott · 4 June 2017]

Mama's Dirty Girls (1974)

** (out of 4)

Mildly entertaining exploitation film has Gloria Grahame playing Mama, a single mother who with the help of her sexy daughters marries rich men and then kills them. The gang sets up shop in a small town where mama finds a hotel owner with some cash but one of the daughter's falls for a local cop.

MAMA'S DIRTY GIRLS features a great title and a great poster and, to be honest, that's all you needed back in the day to get some people to view your low-budget movie. Director John Hayes put his footprint all over 70s exploitation and while this film isn't a classic it's at least entertaining enough to make it worth watching if you enjoy such trash.

The biggest problem with this film is that it has a very weak screenplay that's pretty much one-note from the start to the finish. The film opens up with an extremely good sequence as we see mama and her girls take care of a man who finally breaks down and goes after one of the daughters. I thought this sequence was well-directed and crossed the line into horror territory but sadly nothing that follows is near as good. There are way too many stretches where not much is happening and after a while the film just begins to drag.

With that said, it is fun seeing someone like Grahame eating up this exploitation role. By this time there were countless movies out there where former stars, now up in age, turned to playing bad people and the actress does a good job with it. The supporting performances are decent for the most part but the main thing is that the ladies get naked. After all, this is an exploitation movie.

Thank God for Gloria!

[Greensleeves · 2/10 · 23 July 2003]

If this film had been directed by Russ Meyer it would have been so much better. The gals sure look good and the guys are either dumb or studs (or both) and Meyer's cartoon style of film making would have turned this threadbare romp into good fun. Oh well, one can't have everything and we do have down on her luck Hollywood old-timer Gloria Grahame in good form as the feisty 'Mama' looking for gullible men to marry so she can bump them off for their money. When she is not on screen however, boredom stretches to the horizon and you may want to read a newspaper or find something else to do until she returns.

Pretty good seventies trash flick.

[The_Void · 7/10 · 29 August 2007]

Mama's Dirty Girls is a gritty little seventies thriller, which reminded me a lot of 1974's other mother and daughter seducing men flick, Big Bad Mama; only with less humour. Typically, the production values are not very good and the film doesn't have a great deal of credibility when judged against serious films. However, like many seventies thrillers; Mama's Dirty Girls makes for a fun watch and while things like the acting aren't up to much; it's not important as nobody goes into a film like this expecting great acting and there's more than enough in the way of sleaze and nudity to make up for it. The plot focuses on 'Mama' and her three daughters. Mama marries men with money and then sets up situations that end with their death, leaving her to inherit the fortune. Naturally, she decides to teach her daughters to do the same thing and the four of them move to a new town. There, Mama meets Harold; a rich man whose wife died under questionable circumstances. Mama marries him, but he doesn't play along with her plans for him to go the same way as her previous husbands.

The film begins with a scenario in which Mama's current husband plays away with one of the daughters and ends up "committing suicide". It's not great or all that well put together, but it sets the film up nicely; and actually ends up being one of the best parts. While the film is mostly fun throughout, there are times when the plot isn't entirely interesting and this does bring the whole piece down a bit. At just eighty minutes, Mama's Dirty Girls doesn't really have time to get too boring, however, and I'm sure most viewers won't have much of a problem with the 'downtime'. The girls don't particularly impress with their performances, but they do well in other ways. The film features a fair bit of nudity, which is always welcome in films like this (and, films not like this) and the girls look nice too, which is a bonus. There's a fair bit of violence too; though nothing too shocking. It all boils down to a suitably downbeat conclusion which sees the lead characters pretty much get what they deserve! Overall, this is a decent slice of seventies trash and fans of such films could do a lot worse!

Sleazy fun!

[cfc_can · 7/10 · 18 December 2000]

Mama's Dirty Girls is a grimy, murder melodrama about a despicable woman (Gloria Grahame!) and her three sexy daughters whom she uses to seduce and manipulate men for money. It doesn't offer much in the way of performances. The actors often look like they wish they were elsewhere. The story though has some interesting twists and the fact that there isn't really anyone to root for makes the film fun in a sleazy, low class kind of way. It has an early 70s, soap-opera-ish pace to it but it's OK to watch if you have nothing better to do.

Nice slice of prime 70's grindhouse sleaze

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 5 November 2009]

Shrewd con woman Mama Love (an impressively fierce portrayal by the redoubtable Gloria Grahame) and her three lovely daughters -- shameless strumpet Becky (the ravishing Candice Rialson of "Pets" and "Hollywood Boulevard" fame), lusty Addie (delectable redhead Sondra Currie), and meek Cindy (pretty Mary Stoddard) -- fleece unsuspecting rich men out of their money. After their latest victim proves to be a bust, the gals move on to a desolate desert community to continue their naughty ways: Mama marries shady resort owner Harold (an excellent performance by Paul Lambert), Becky ruthlessly teases slow-witted handyman Willy (solid Joseph Anthony), and Addie falls for the hunky, but married Sheriff Roy Collins (a sound turn by Christopher Wines). Director John Hayes, working from a suitably sordid and mean-spirited script by Gil Lasky, makes no bones about the film being an unapologetic piece of low-grade trash that blithely panders to the lowest common denominator: From the gloriously sleazy and leering opening shot of a deliciously topless Rialson checking herself out in the mirror to the extremely grim conclusion in which everybody gets their just desserts, this picture certainly delivers the satisfyingly seamy goods. While the majority of the characters aren't remotely appealing, it's still a nasty blast to watch this nest of vipers prey on each other. Better still, there's a generous amount of tasty female nudity courtesy of the aforementioned Rialson and yummy brunette former "Penthouse" Pet of the Year Anneka di Lorenzo as Collins' bitter and possessive estranged wife Charity. Henning Schellerup's plain, but acceptable cinematography, the alternately bluesy and funky score by Don Bagley and Steve Michaels, and tough, gritty tone all further enhance the considerable scuzzy entertainment value of this worthwhile drive-in item.

Lame movie, but with a great exploitation cast

[lazarillo · 29 October 2007]

This is more early 70's "hicksploitation"; a very low-budget film that borrows heavily from already low-budget, Roger Corman-produced fare like "Bloody Mama" and "Big Bad Mama", except that it seems to be set in the present day. Like "Big Bad Mama" especially it focuses on an older female criminal and her sexy daughters as they seduce and murder wealthy men. The mother marries the men, the two older daughters seduce them, and then they all kill them. The plot of this movie is actually pretty stupid. It is not really necessary to kill these men, nor if they're going to murder them is it really necessary to seduce them. And they're also pretty dumb criminals--their first target isn't even wealthy while their second is a dangerous widower who may have murdered his own wife. The ending is a lot less than action-packed--you get the idea they ran out of both money and coherent ideas.

What really redeems this movie though is the stellar cast. The mother is played by Gloria Graham, an actress whose B-movie career stretches all the way from 50's film noir like "The Big Heat" to 70's drive-in fair like this or the underrated horror flick "Blood and Lace". Despite a weak script and no-budget she holds her own here against the likes of Shelly Winters or Angie Dickinson who played similar roles in the Corman pictures. Then there are TWO 70's drive-in queens. Candice Rialson was not a great actress and only appeared in a handful of movies (most famously as a very tempting college co-ed who tries to seduce Clint Eastwood in "The Eiger Sanction"), but she was always VERY sexy, and her character here is such a malicious minx she not only tempts her stepfather by lolling around in a skimpy bikini, but she also cruelly teases a semi-retarded handyman just for the fun of it. (She also has some memorable nude scenes). Then there's Sondra Currie, older sister to Cherie and Marie Currie of the music group The Runaways. Currie was kind of second-rate Claudia Jennings (who really should have been in this), but she's still great as the oldest sister who is not only sexy but vicious--she not only seduces her cop boyfriend into the murder plot, but commits a "criss-cross" murder to hook him in as well. (Unfortunately, Currie apparently had a no-nudity clause in her contract, which is regrettable in itself, but also results in dumb scenes where she's covering her bare breasts with her hands for no apparent reason while lying in bed with her boyfriend).

The youngest sister is the good one who's not involved with the seductions or the murders, and the actress who plays her is not very memorable. But the cast is rounded out nicely by Annika DiLorenzo as the cop's wife. While Currie and Rialson were somewhat talented, DiLorenzo was never more than a really nice piece, but she made quite an impression both on screen (where she played one of the slave girls in the extra near-hardcore footage Bob Guccione inserted into "Caligula") and off (where she was a Penthouse Pet of the Year and reputedly a mafia moll for several members of the Gambino family). This movie, as a movie, is a waste of time, but this cast might just be worth it.

pure exploitation

[trashgang · 24 March 2011]

Ahaa, the perfect example of exploitation. This flick is still unreleased on VHS or DVD, you will have to catch yourself a rental VHS only available in the US. That's weird because some famous people are involved in it. The first shot you see is nudity from Candice Rialson, famous from 'Pets' another exploitation from 1974. She surely is know for her exploitation appearances and for her beauty. She sadly died in 2006 of a liver disease. Gloria Grahame, is another famous name and past away in 1981 from cancer. Her last flick being a horror, The Nesting (1984). the story line is very simple and sometimes it keeps you wondering how stupid some things are. But it's exploitation in its purest way, nudity and a lot of it, car chasing, teasing, seduction. It's low on blood, but is still watchable. If you're into 42nd sleaze, buy it.