Big Bad Mama II ** (1987, Angie Dickinson, Robert Culp, Danielle Brisebois, Julie McCullough, Jeff Yagher, Bruce Glover) – Classic Movie Review 5370

The 55-year-old Angie Dickinson returns as big bad Wilma McClatchie, a feisty armed robber dame, in co-writer/ director Jim Wynorski’s neo-noir crime action thriller Big Bad Mama II, an unexpected, belated 1987 low-budget $1.2 million sequel to 1974’s Big Bad Mama.

It is now 1934 and McClatchie is the Thirties Depression-era Texas widow with two gals (Danielle Brisebois as Billie Jean McClatchie, Julie McCullough as Polly) who are chucked out of their home by land baron Morgan Crawford (Bruce Glover) and set out on life of crime again with more bank jobs, as well as on the vengeance trail. When the land baron runs for governor, the trio kidnap his son Jordan Crawford (Jeff Yagher) and turn him into a gangster.

Robert Culp replaces William Shatner as Angie’s co-star, this time Wilma’s reporter partner, Daryl Pearson, who witnesses her bank heist and makes them Bonnie and Clyde-style legends by reporting on her and her daughters.

Big Bad Mama II is similar to the 1974 original but done with considerably less panache, though it is still fairly entertaining. Dickinson is still a very welcome presence, and so are Culp and Glover.

Also in the cast are Jeff Yagher, Bruce Glover, Ebbe Roe Smith, Jacque Lynn Colton, Charles Cyphers, Nick LaTour, Ace Mask and Frank Schuller.

It runs 83 minutes, is made by New Horizons and Concorde, released by MGM, written by Jim Wynorski and R J Robertson, shot by Robert C New, produced by Roger Corman, scored by Chuck Cirino and set designed by Peter Knowlton.

Wynorski can be heard as a radio announcer and he has a cameo as a cop who gets shot at the end.

Wynorski went on to Not of This Earth (1988) and The Return of Swamp Thing (1989).

Monique Gabrielle stood in for Dickinson in her nude scenes.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5370

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