This movie starts off with a guy getting gasoline poured all over him and burned alive while pleading for his life! If that's not a great attention grabber I don't know what is. Amazingly this thing was shot in 1959 and features stuff like cops being shot down and run over in the streets, actual blood and holes when someone gets hit by a bullet, Russian roulette and a strong female lead character. I don't think the feminist message was meant as anything positive though and probably works better as a cautionary tale about what happens when you have a weak father figure. More importantly, to me, this was a great kitschy gangster tale with a bunch of famous names from the 30s including Machine Gun Kelly, John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Al "Kreepy" Karpis and others joining up with Barker's crew from time to time. While wildy historically inaccurate(apparently the real Ma Barker never picked up a tommy gun and mowed down policemen) this works great as an old-timey exploitation great with some great over-the-top acting by Lurene Tuttle as the titular gangster matriarch.
Tuttle would go on to be in PSYCHO and a gazillion TV shows over the years. One of her sons here(the sissy one that she slaps around on occasion for not having enough guts), Don Grady, would go on to become Robbie on MY THREE SONS.
Spanish title = WITH CRIME IN THE BLOOD
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