"The Greatest Mother of Them All" features the interesting casting of Shelley Winters as Ma Parker, matriarch of 3 gun toting sons and daughter Legs (Tisha Sterling, daughter of actors Robert Sterling and Ann Sothern). In hindsight, such casting probably led to Shelley winning the part of the real life Ma Barker in Roger Corman's 1970 release "Bloody Mama," her lone two part stint on BATMAN a kind of dry run for the feature film. Ma Parker has brought her nationwide crime wave to Gotham City, only to see each of her boys (she calls every hoodlum 'her boys') fall victim to the Dynamic Duo, one by one taking up residence at the penitentiary of Warden Crichton (David Lewis, in only his second appearance). What Batman doesn't know is that Ma Parker intends to get her entire brood incarcerated, as she has spent months replacing prison trustees with criminals loyal only to her, engaging one crooked trusty (James Griffith, later seen opposite Eartha Kitt's Catwoman) to plant a bomb in the Batmobile, set to go off once it reaches 65 mph!
3 Reviews
Bad Mama
hellraiser729 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Warning do not read unless seen episode.
This isn't exactly a favorite episode of mine but I like it in fact I think it's a bit underrated. I really like the Batvillian Ma Parker whom was obviously inspired by real life criminal Ma Barker and her crime family, whom in turn also inspired Ma Beggle and the Beggle Boys in the 80's and revival cartoon "Ducktales".
Shelly Winters is great and is cast right for the role and looks like she's having fun doing it, and in a way is ironic since she played Ma Barker for the Roger Corman autobiographical film "Bloody Mama" which was good. I really like how she basically the parental archetype but turned upside down; which is interesting and makes her all the more dangerous because she's the kind of person you expect to be caring for you as a mother figure but we see that she takes advantage of that so that your defenses will be lowered so she will stomp on you and your feelings just to get what she wants, is disarming. And she's got some memorable and funny lines and really like how she has this nasty attitude, infectious laugh as well as that Cuban cigar she is always smoking and chopping on which increases her nastiness.
But to me what makes her stand out a bit is unlike most of the bat villains she a bit more down to Earth (well sort of) as she doesn't exactly have all the fancy gadgets and ingenuity as any typical bat villain. What I like is that she uses her brain to get herself out of jams but most importantly to get the good guys to put them where they need to be in order to get the upper hand on them.
There are some really funny moments like when her family is eating lunch she is shooting at the police and their all acting like everything is just normal family affair. Or sometimes how Ma Parker is using all the usual Mother clichés and stereotypes we've seen in past film where she is playing on the police and even Batman and Robins sympathy but it's a way to buy time so she uses some sort of hairpin smoke bomb to get away. Another thing that is funny is seeing how each of the family can't seem to shoot for crap as each shot they discharge always misses the police almost more than the Joes and Cobras in the 80's "G.I. Joe" cartoon.
Her scheme is actually solid it's sort of a Trojan Horse ploy as we see each of her family one by one are letting themselves get caught. Really thought it was funny seeing Ma trying to use a rocket powered wheel chair to get away. What makes that funny is how it turns a cleche on it's head where you would expect her to crash though the wall but of course real life physics stops her in her tracks as she just simply crashes to the wall.
But that of course is just part of the ploy to get them to the prison and we then see her family and everyone on her payroll hijacks the prison to use it as a base of operations and to create a criminal army to boost her profits.
Really like the trap Ma Parker sets up at the end, that trap at the end is uncannily similar to the bomb trap used in the film "Speed" where like in that film if you go over 50 mph the bomb is armed. I remember seeing this thinking ah man Batman please don't go so fast, stop at a burger joint or something. Will they go over the limit you'll have to tune in to part 2 to find out.
Rating: 3 stars
This isn't exactly a favorite episode of mine but I like it in fact I think it's a bit underrated. I really like the Batvillian Ma Parker whom was obviously inspired by real life criminal Ma Barker and her crime family, whom in turn also inspired Ma Beggle and the Beggle Boys in the 80's and revival cartoon "Ducktales".
Shelly Winters is great and is cast right for the role and looks like she's having fun doing it, and in a way is ironic since she played Ma Barker for the Roger Corman autobiographical film "Bloody Mama" which was good. I really like how she basically the parental archetype but turned upside down; which is interesting and makes her all the more dangerous because she's the kind of person you expect to be caring for you as a mother figure but we see that she takes advantage of that so that your defenses will be lowered so she will stomp on you and your feelings just to get what she wants, is disarming. And she's got some memorable and funny lines and really like how she has this nasty attitude, infectious laugh as well as that Cuban cigar she is always smoking and chopping on which increases her nastiness.
But to me what makes her stand out a bit is unlike most of the bat villains she a bit more down to Earth (well sort of) as she doesn't exactly have all the fancy gadgets and ingenuity as any typical bat villain. What I like is that she uses her brain to get herself out of jams but most importantly to get the good guys to put them where they need to be in order to get the upper hand on them.
There are some really funny moments like when her family is eating lunch she is shooting at the police and their all acting like everything is just normal family affair. Or sometimes how Ma Parker is using all the usual Mother clichés and stereotypes we've seen in past film where she is playing on the police and even Batman and Robins sympathy but it's a way to buy time so she uses some sort of hairpin smoke bomb to get away. Another thing that is funny is seeing how each of the family can't seem to shoot for crap as each shot they discharge always misses the police almost more than the Joes and Cobras in the 80's "G.I. Joe" cartoon.
Her scheme is actually solid it's sort of a Trojan Horse ploy as we see each of her family one by one are letting themselves get caught. Really thought it was funny seeing Ma trying to use a rocket powered wheel chair to get away. What makes that funny is how it turns a cleche on it's head where you would expect her to crash though the wall but of course real life physics stops her in her tracks as she just simply crashes to the wall.
But that of course is just part of the ploy to get them to the prison and we then see her family and everyone on her payroll hijacks the prison to use it as a base of operations and to create a criminal army to boost her profits.
Really like the trap Ma Parker sets up at the end, that trap at the end is uncannily similar to the bomb trap used in the film "Speed" where like in that film if you go over 50 mph the bomb is armed. I remember seeing this thinking ah man Batman please don't go so fast, stop at a burger joint or something. Will they go over the limit you'll have to tune in to part 2 to find out.
Rating: 3 stars
Part Two Is Better Than Part One
StuOz11 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Ma Parker (Shelley Winters) takes over a prison.
Not exactly a favourite two-parter as whenever I see Winters I can only think or her climbing around an upside down boat in The Poseidon Adventure (1972).
But some nice action scenes make this adventure rather pleasing and putting a bomb in the batmobile is a clever plot point.
However, if part one is not thrilling you enough, you have something to look forward to in part two as Milton Berle makes an amusing appearance as a foolish prison guard (who bumps into Batman and Robin for a moment).
Not exactly a favourite two-parter as whenever I see Winters I can only think or her climbing around an upside down boat in The Poseidon Adventure (1972).
But some nice action scenes make this adventure rather pleasing and putting a bomb in the batmobile is a clever plot point.
However, if part one is not thrilling you enough, you have something to look forward to in part two as Milton Berle makes an amusing appearance as a foolish prison guard (who bumps into Batman and Robin for a moment).
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