The film is a riff on the Bonnie & Clyde story with common folks hard-up for cash who end up turning to a life of crime. The film starts in 1930's Arkansas when Melba's father is killed by the sheriff who were trying to evict him off his land. Film then switches to modern day 1958 Long Beach where Melba and her mom are about to be evicted from their hair salon. Having been down this path before they refuse to pay and decide to fight back the building owner (Jim Backus) by stealing his car.

Melba along with Sheba, her daughter Cheryl (Linda Purl) and her Boyfriend Shawn (Donny Most) all hit the road and head to Vegas. Once there they gamble a bit and hook up with three more desperadoes none of whom are connected to one another until they join 'Mama's Gang'. One is a greaser named Snake (Bryan Englund), one is an old woman named Bertha (Merie Earle), and the other a hardy good-natured small town mayor named Jim Bob (Stuart Whitman) who after one week proposes marriage to Melba.

Together they head to Arkansas to live the better life and buy back the old farm that was lost to the bank years before. But they need cash so they go on a crime spree and begin to commit small time robberies. Soon they attempt to hit the jackpot by robbing a bank and then staging a hoax by pretening to kidnap Jim Bob with the hope that his real wife will cough up a few million. It's all fast and furious and before it's over has a good number of car chases and shootouts.

The film is good fun and fairly well directed by Jonathan Demme. It's easy to categorize it as just a Roger Corman picture but Demme showed early talent not only with actors but with his aesthetic directing ability: he keeps the action moving along quickly and fills each frame with movement. He also shows off his ability (as most young directors are apt to do) of using music in a scene. The film boasts a good 1950's soundtrack and (much like Scorsese does) is used to the fullest.

Audio:
The audio is in Dolby Digital stereo and sounds good. The soundtrack is particularly notable since it uses so many great 50's songs. There is alot of dialogue in the film and it seems a bit muffled at times, which may have something to do with the original elements but it can be heard nonetheless.

Video:
Much like the other Corman films released by New Concord this one is presented in full screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Do to some of the framing I believe the film was shot in 1.78:1 so some of the image is lost. Even though the film has been digitally restored (as the box says) the images and the colors are a bit washed out. The image may look better than it looked in the drive-in years ago but it still doesn't look as good as one would expect these days on DVD.

Extras:
There are only a couple good extras. One is an Audio Commentary Track with Jonathan Demme and Roger Corman, which is fairly good although neither of them give much insight into the film. Demme doesn't seem to remember much of it and Corman remembers even less. It seems they should have included Cloris Leachman to liven the commentary up a bit. The other notable extra is Conversation between Demme and Corman that is not bad but has nothing to do with the movie itself. It lasts 14 minutes and in it Demme tells how he first met Roger and the way they came to work with one another but they never actually talk about Crazy Mama. There are also three trailers. One for Crazy Mama, which is very funny in the way it uses Howdy Doody to liven up the action and two other Corman pictures: Eat My Dust and Rock 'N Roll Highschool. The DVD offers 25 chapters.

Overall:
Crazy Mama is a good comedy exploitation flick about a group of people on the run from the cops hoping to get to Arkansas where they can find the good life. It's full of good humor, a few car chases, a couple shoot-outs and even some nudity. The DVD provides just enough extras to make the DVD worth collecting if you are a fan. If not it's still worth checking out if you are a Roger Corman, Jonathan Demme, Cloris Leachman or Ann Sothern fan.