Mean Mother Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Mean Mother Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 20, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection.

Disc Eleven of The Masterpiece Collection offers two films that I guess might be termed as Blaxploitation fare, at least if you can consider a film based on what its marketing campaign proudly touts was "the book Abraham Lincoln started the Civil War" real Blaxploitation. Both films on this disc do share the frequent incidence of Adamson co-opting someone else's film for his own purposes.

If Uncle Tom's Cabin at least had the imprimatur of Harriet Beecher Stowe in terms of the 1965 German film that Adamson and Samuel M. Sherman recut to fashion a "sexier" version of the tale, Mean Mother can only claim to have incorporated a probably completely forgotten 1971 Italian film titled El hombre que vino del odio which evidently ultimately made it to the UK as Run for Your Life. (The original Italian film was helmed by León Klimovsky, whose name may be familiar to fans of gonzo European horror films.) As was their wont, Adamson and Sherman simply refashioned material to their own whims, in this case adding a Blaxploitation element involving an AWOL Vietnam vet named Beauregard Jones (Clifton Jones, a stage name for Dobie Gray, who kind of incredibly was enjoying a Top 10 hit with "Drift Away" at about the same time as this film was being exhibited). There's drug running and supposed globetrotting involved, and a nice turn by Marilyn Joi as a damsel who is hardly ever in as much distress as it may seem.

Mean Mother Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mean Mother is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. This is one of the better looking transfers in this set, with some well above average saturation, generally consistently pleasing detail levels and a nicely resolved grain field. Fine detail on elements like Beauregard's herringbone jacket resolve very well for the most part. There are some flecks and white specks, the latter unfortunately tending to show up against black parts of the frame as in some of the suits some of the men wear. The final showdown has what looks like a master shot that is considerably grainier and fuzzier than some of the coverage, for some reason.

Mean Mother Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mean Mother features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track the supports the film's kind of lunatic sound design, which can offer moments with "chop socky" over the top fight effects combined with funky underscore. Various other cues, as in the guitar in a club, sound clear and distortion free. There appears to have been some bad dubbing here, leading to the oft mentioned "loose sync", and there are a couple of bad sound edits that cut off moments of score or effects, but no dialogue. English subtitles are available via the button on your remote.

Mean Mother Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Partial Archival Audio Commentary with Producer / Distributor Samuel M. Sherman


• The Joy of Marilyn Joi (1080p; 17:00) is a good interview with the actress, which seems to have been culled from the same session seen in snippets in the documentary about Adamson also included in this set.


• Trailer (480p; 2:27)

Mean Mother Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I almost wish that Adamson had simply gone ahead and made a complete film with the "new" people he hired, because that's where most of the interest in Mean Mother resides. This does offer a hyperbolic "Clifton Brown" and some goofy action elements. Technical merits are among the best in this set, and there's another informative Sherman commentary.