Mama's Dirty Girls

It must have been a hectic year for director John Hayes, as this was the third feature he made in 1974 along with Garden of the Dead and cult classic Grave of the Vampire. Mama’s Dirty Girls moves away from the horror themes of Grave and Garden, delivering slow-burn sleaze, full to bursting with bad-to-the-bone characters constantly trying to out-manoeuvre each other by any means necessary.

Gloria Grahame (Blood and Lace — also penned by writer Gil Lasky) plays Mama Love, a scheming, slippery, money grubbing ‘mama lion’ character with three dirty girls: ruthless Addie (Sondra Currie), man-teaser Becky (Candice Rialson) and the more innocent Cindy (Mary Stoddard). Mama’s game is to seduce and marry rich men, then kill them and collect any inheritance. Their first victim, George — tricked into writing a ‘farewell letter’ after being seduced by Becky — is murdered in his bath, but turns out to be penniless.

Looking for a new stooge, Mama and the gang drive out to a small mid-west town, finding the perfect victim in Harold Stritch (Paul Lambert, Death Wish II), a recent widower running his dead wife’s health resort. Mama contrives a relationship, soon gaining the affections of Harold; but Harold is no stranger to murder himself — having drowned his wife in the lake to inherit her fortune! The family stay on at the resort, with Addie minxing the unhappily married local Sherriff and Cindy forming a more sincere relationship with handsome local, Paul (Dennis Smith).

Mama and Harold tie the knot, and soon after start a cat-and-mouse game, each trying to murder the other and make it look like an accident. Eventually Mama becomes tired of the failures and together with Becky and Addie hatches a plan to get rid of Harold for good: a plan that goes spectacularly wrong!