Movie review - "Black Mama, White Mama" (1973) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

One of the best of the Philippines-shot women in prison movies - I'd probably rank it second to The Big Doll House (though I haven't seen them all). It benefits from a strong central idea, albeit one that rips off The Defiant Ones (but that can't claim complete originality - remember The 39 Steps?)... two prisoners who dislike each other, one black and one white, escape while handcuffed together.

The stars are Pam Grier and Margaret Markov - Grier of course was the great female star of blaxploitation, with that amazing hair and athlete's physique. A raw acting talent, but she had charisma and presence in spades. Markov is less well known in part because she retired in 1974 but she teams brilliantly with Grier - she's got an athlete's build too, with long legs, and her pale skin and blonde hair provide a striking visual opposite to Grier. The two of them proved popular as a team and were later reunited on The Arena.

For the first half or so this is fantastic. Markov and Grier are thrown into prison, which seems dominated by predatory lesbian guards. One of the prisoners had an Aussie-ish accent if I'm not mistaken. There's plenty of showers and catfights. And some of the fellow prisoners seem interesting characters - it's a shame we don't see them again after the opening act. (I know it's tricky considering the story has the leads go on the run... still, it's a shame.)

Then Markov and Grier make a run for it, and dress up as nuns to hide, leading to some comedy and with a whole bunch of promising sub plots introduced (Markov's fellow revolutionaries, Grier's former pimp Victor Diaz, military baddy Eddie Garcia) I thought this was primed to be a classic.

Around the half-way mark though, it gets wobbly. The subplots don't really develop interesting - there's no extra twists or things to flip on it's head. Grier and Markov's adventures are linear - I felt they badly needed to run into a third person, like say the Brad Pitt character in Thelma and Louise - to complicate things. They were too isolated.

The climax does have a lot of action and explosions and is well done. It's a downer, though - Grier gets away on a boat but Markov and all her revolutionary mates are killed and Garcia wins.

Production values are high and Grier and Markov make a strong team. Worth watching, just a bit disappointing because I thought it was going to be awesome and it never gets there.