Sexually abused as a young girl, Kate "Ma" Barker (Shelley Winters) grows into a violently powerful woman by the 1930s. She lovingly dominates her grown sons, and grooms them into a pack of tough crooks. The boys include the cruel Herman (Don Stroud), who still shares a bed with Ma; Fred (Robert Walden), an ex-con who fell in love with a fellow prisoner; and Lloyd (Robert De Niro), who gets high on whatever's handy. Together they form a deadly, bizarre family of Depression-era bandits.
Shelley Winters | 'Ma' Kate Barker | |
Bruce Dern | Kevin Dirkman | |
Robert De Niro | Lloyd Barker | |
Pat Hingle | Sam Adams Pendlebury | |
Don Stroud | Herman Barker | |
Diane Varsi | Mona Gibson |
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