User Reviews

"Ma Parker" sees Shelley Winters' title character now in charge of the penitentiary, Warden Crichton (David Lewis, in his third appearance) helpless to prevent the Batmobile from blowing up at 65 mph. Fortunately, the Caped Crusader recalled an odd comment from the suspicious trusty (James Griffith) about the warden speeding at 70mph, something that Batman knows he'd never do. When the bomb explodes, Ma and her brood of 3 boys and one girl celebrate, a bit prematurely, but with the prison the perfect hideout a new crime wave begins in Gotham City, no one daring to look for the culprits already behind bars. Milton Berle has a cameo as a prison guard (only 48 more years before parole!), but it's luscious Julie Newmar who captivates in an unbilled Catwoman sighting, lamenting that The Joker and The Penguin remain in solitary confinement for refusing to acknowledge Ma Parker as the one in charge. No other arch criminals get a mention, with Ma's boys meeting their match after the Dynamic Duo foil a plot to perish in the electric chair at midnight. The indomitable Shelley Winters proved to be a fine choice for this one shot two parter (original title "Mother's Day Madness"), which led to the more dramatic challenge of starring as the real Ma Barker in the 1970 "Bloody Mama," directed by Roger Corman, where her boys were played by Clint Kimbrough, Robert Walden, Don Stroud, and Robert De Niro. One wonders how it would have turned out if Bette Davis had accepted the role, for Shelley was forever complaining and holding up production.

This is part 2 of the arc and it's a very good follow up. Really like how Batman and Robin get out of the car bomb, it's just funny despite Batman always going at high speed with the Batmobile he still abides by traffic laws.

We see more of Mama's scheme where now the penitentiary has become their new base of operations. It's funny how she proposes a very unhealthy eating schedule which is steak and potatoes every night; with that diet there's going to be plenty of heart attacks each week.

But anyway, we see they have their army of criminals, there is even a small cameo by Catwoman which was funny even though not essential to the story, though how she would be incarcerated in a man's penitentiary is anyone's guess (overcrowding in the women's penitentiary?).

Really like the one scene where we see Ma launching one of her robberies in Gotham's stores and as usual Ma and her boys can't shoot for crap, it always cracks me up how much they miss much like in the TV show "The A Team" where no one hits anyone except cause plenty of property vandalism and destruction. Liked the fight in the store along with the fight in the Death Row room which were both solid as they both take place in condensed space.

Ma is about to learn; you can't outsmart Gotham's greatest parent.

Rating: 3 and a half stars

We have here the multi-award winning Shelley Winters doing a parody of Ma Baker. The dynamic duo arrives at the house where the villain is with her children and after a great fight manages to capture one of them, from there they chase Ma Parquer and arrest her children one by one until they finally manage to capture her. Her and take her to the penitentiary. What they ignore is that the villain has been replacing members of the police with her henchmen for months and thus manages to take control and manage the jail at will, keeping the mayor prisoner. One of the convicts tries unsuccessfully to blow up the batmobile with dynamite, this causes Batman to discover Ma Parquer's plan and go to the penitentiary to bring order. An extremely entertaining and dynamic episode, with some mistakes such as when Ma's children get on the back of a truck and immediately appear seated in the front, or when Robin hears the villain say that she is going to rob a pharmacy, being impossible for her to have couldn't hear because he wasn't even close.