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Mario Merola stars in the title role as Big Mamma, a Neapolitan gangster with a heart of gold who earns his illicit keep by smuggling cigarettes across borders. The everyday injustices visited upon "little people" get his dander up, and he exerts his considerable influence to help them out. In this melodramatic crime thriller, based in part on a Neapolitan musical form popular in the 1920s (the scenegiatta), Big Mamma shows not only his good side: when an enemy's attacks hit too close to home, resulting in the death of his daughter, his dark, vengeful side comes to the fore