CRAZY MAMA June 10th at Webster University ‘A Tribute to Jonathan Demme’

CRAZY MAMA screens Saturday, June 10th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood). This is the second film in their ‘Tribute to Jonathan Demme’ The movie starts at 8:00pm.

A band of beauty shop desperadoes cartoonishly plunder their way from California to Arkansas to reclaim the old family farm in the 1975 hillbilly masterpiece CRAZY MAMA directed by Jonathan Demme and produced by Roger Corman, who made a whole series of these backwoods desperadoes flicks in the ’70s.

Cloris Leachman stars as Melba Stokes, who runs a beauty parlor in Long Beach, California with her mother Sheba (Ann Sothern) and her daughter Cheryl (Linda Purl). When the shop is repossessed by banker Jim Backus (aka Thurston Howell III in a great little cameo) Melba and the ladies head back to Arkansas and the family farm which was stolen away from them when shea was a girl. Along for the ride is Cheryl’s boyfriend, surfer boy Donny ‘Ralph Malph ‘ Most who finds out he’s going to be a daddy thanks to Cheryl. The ladies knock over a filling station, which sets about their plan to rob their way back to Arkansas earning the money to buy back the farm.

CRAZY MAMA is more comedic than Corman’s other period gangster flicks from the time, and is blessed with spirited performances by Leachman, Sothern, and especially Merie Earle as the nursing home escapee who finds a few thrills in her last days. There is some surprising violence, an eclectic 50’s soundtrack, and control over the whole crazy-quilt through the direction of Demme. The most touching scene in the film is when the weary travelers stand under a tree and remember their fallen friends by “shouting them into Heaven”.

Admission is:

$6 for the general public
$5 for seniors, Webster alumni and students from other schools
$4 for Webster University staff and faculty

Free for Webster students with proper I.D.

Here’s the rest of the line-up for the other films that will be part of the ‘Tribute to Jonathan Demme’:

6/10 – Crazy Mama  (1975)
6/16 – Melvin and Howard (1980)
6/17 – Stop Making Sense (1984)
6/23 – Something Wild (1986)
6/24 – Married to the Mob (1988)
6/30 – The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
7/1 –  Philadelphia (1993)

Look for continued coverage of these films here at We Are Movie Geeks

Advance tickets are available from the cashier before each screening or contact the Film Series office (314-246-7525) for more options. The Film Series can only accept cash or check.

The Webster University Film Series site can be found HERE

http://www.webster.edu/film-series/