Blaxploitation Movies--Breaking the Race Barrier in the Sensational Cinema of the 1970's Part 3

Pam Grier & her pet shotgun in Coffy (1973)

BLAXPLOITATION CINEMA & THE RACE HATE FILMS: PRECIOUS PAM, RUDY RAY & WHITE DOGS

The foxy Pam Grier as Coffy (1973)

Going back to 1973, an actress named Pam Grier would shake up the blaxploitation world with a double punch of Ebony classics from the great exploitation director Jack Hill (SPIDER BABY, SWITCHBLADE SISTERS). The films were COFFY (1973) and FOXY BROWN (1974). Before starring in these two unforgettably violent vehicles, Grier had appeared in SCREAM, BLACULA, SCREAM! (1973), the Filipino lensed THE TWILIGHT PEOPLE (1973), THE BIG BIRD CAGE (1972) and BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA (1973) also starring Margaret Markov. It wasn't until COFFY (1973) that Grier really got hot.

Coffy (1973)

Here, she plays a nurse by day, shotgun packin' vigilante by night aiming to snuff out the drug pushers who killed her sister. Robert Doqui is on hand as a pimp and the always reliable Sid Haig is here as a nasty villain. The violence level is extremely high and the tone is very serious. One of the best scenes involves Grier in a cat fight with a handful of women. Grier has a nasty surprise for them after putting razor blades in her hair! Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers even did their own version of COFFY in 1976 topping it in violence and sleaze entitled THE SEXY KILLER.


FOXY BROWN was just as nasty and violent as its predecessor but there was a playfulness and sarcastic aura about this film that alleviates the general uneasiness of COFFY (1973). FOXY BROWN (1974) is also much better remembered than the previous film, although COFFY is better made and also preferred by its director. FOXY has Grier avenging the murder of her cop boyfriend by infiltrating the crime ring that killed him and even aligning with a local branch of Black Panther-like vigilantes to help take out the villains. Grier's character is brutally beaten, raped and forcefully shot up with drugs.

Pam Grier is Foxy Brown (1974)

She comes back with a vengeance at the end culminating in a shockingly memorable final moment that involves a "pickle jar". If ever there was a film to see in this genre, this is a good place to start. Filled with many notable and occasionally offensive moments, FOXY BROWN (1974) is a colorful exercise in the blaxploitation genre replete with everything found in the best of Brown or Williamson's movies. Grier obviously had a ball shooting the film, changing from one vibrant or revealing outfit from one sequence to the next. The opening credit sequence is worth the DVD alone.

Pam Grier in Bucktown (1975)

Grier would also co-star in BUCKTOWN (1975) with Fred Williamson, Tony King and Carl Weathers. Her role here is diminished to damsel in distress as opposed to her role as the tough heroine. It's about a man who comes to a small southern hamlet to take over his dead brothers bar only to find trouble with the racist law in the town. He enlists the help of some of his gang friends from the city to get rid of the dirty racists. After the black gangsters eliminate them, they decide to stay in the town and ultimately become worse than the racial discriminators ever were. Now, Williamson has to take out his friends using his fists, guns and a tank. Pam didn't get to participate in the action here settling instead for the role of damsel in distress.

Yahphet Kotto & Pam Grier in Friday Foster (1975)

The same year Grier starred as FRIDAY FOSTER (1975) also starring Yaphet Kotto and Carl Weathers as a silent hitman out to silence Grier who plays a photographer out to get some shots of the richest African American in the US. She inadvertently photographs an assassination attempt and plunges herself into a deadly conspiracy. A lively cast with Godfrey Cambridge, Thalmus Rasulala, Eartha Kitt, Jim Backus, Scatman Crothers and Ted Lange round out the performers in this average actioner. Possibly Pam's fans were expecting something along the lines of her two previous hits. Her character of Friday Foster is a big departure from the tough, ass kicking fighting female of COFFY and FOXY BROWN but a bit more spunky and less timid than her role in BUCKTOWN (1975).

Sheba, Baby (1975)

SHEBA, BABY (1975) is a PG rated Pam Grier vehicle directed by the late, great exploitation director, William Girdler. Here, she plays a detective in Chicago that goes back to her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky to protect her father after gangsters move in on his loan company. Austin Stoker and D'Urville Martin co-star. If you don't mind seeing Grier in a movie where she doesn't reveal her ample assets, you at least get Grier in a skin tight wetsuit, the major highlight of this PG Pam program.

Sheba, Baby (1975)

Desiring at this point in her career to act in more serious work, Grier took a supporting role in the incendiary sequel to MANDINGO (1975), 1976's DRUM, one of the most over the top films in the blaxploitation genre. Pam Grier never did escape the blaxploitation roles that made her famous appearing in a lot of action films typifying her previous exploitation glories. She did gain one of the best roles of her entire career in JACKIE BROWN (1997) and has never stopped working getting roles in various movies and television shows.

Robert Doqui receives a cruel death sentence from Sid Haig in Coffy (1973)

Meanwhile, there were many other black action movies being churned out--BAMBOO GODS & IRON MEN (1974), THE BLACK GESTAPO (1975), THE BLACK SIX (1974), IF HE HOLLERS LET HIM GO (1968; an early entry before the genre became fashionable), BLACK VENGEANCE (1975), HITMAN (1972), DR. BLACK & MR. HYDE (1976), BLACULA (1972), BLACKENSTEIN (1973), MEAN JOHNNY BARROWS (1976), BROTHERHOOD OF DEATH (1976), EMMA MAE aka BLACK SISTER'S REVENGE (1976), PENITENTIARY (1979) and on and on. There were also some seriously twisted entries such as DARKTOWN STRUTTERS (1975), WELCOME HOME BROTHER CHARLES (1975) and BLACK DEVIL DOLL FROM HELL (1984) which had quirky subject matter or offensive and distasteful darkly comical moments.

Rudy Ray Moore as Dolemite (1975)

One film in particular would become one of the most famous and most raunchy and crude examples of the genre--DOLEMITE (1975) starring Rudy Ray Moore, a stand up comedian who utilized very rude and dirty rhymes in his acts akin to what Andrew Dice Clay would do years later. DOLEMITE (1975) is a pretty bad movie but its badness works in its favor. Moore is hilarious in the role. Especially in his entrances.

"Who?"

Whenever an opportunity arises for him to appear, the bad guys will say something like "Who's gonna help you?" followed by Moore appearing out of nowhere and proclaiming, "Dolemite, mother fu**er!" before either filling the bad guys with machine gun fire or beating them to pulps with his kung fu skills. Moore did a handful of these movies like DISCO GODFATHER (1979), THE HUMAN TORNADO (1976) and PEATY WHEATSTRAW, THE DEVIL'S SON-IN-LAW (1977). Moore is quite a character and at least DOLEMITE (1975) is required viewing for fans of the genre.

Isaac Hayes gets serious in Truck Turner (1974)

Fred Williamson would keep the genre afloat through the remainder of the 70's and into the early 80's with many films but most of them were forgettable. When the genre died out, Williamson moved on to Italy (he was a popular actor there) where he did a string of MAD MAX rip-offs (among other things) that were briefly popular over there.

The brutal death of a pimp in Coffy (1973)

In 1996, there was an attempt to revive the genre with the release of ORIGINAL GANGSTAS. The film was about a group of adults attempting to take back the streets of their hometown from rampant gang activity. This was an ambitious production bringing together the most popular stars of black action cinema. Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, Pam Grier, Richard Roundtree, Ron O'Neal and Paul Winfield round out the cast. Director Larry Cohen, who helmed one of the best entries in the genre, BLACK CAESAR (1972) which was discussed in part one of this overview handled directing chores on this homage to the genre that made so many African Americans famous as well as American pop culture icons.

Jim Brown & George Kennedy join forces

Since this overview discusses the blaxploitation movies as well as the race hate subgenre, I want to close out the piece by discussing two important films of the latter category-- Ralph Nelson's TICK...TICK...TICK...(1970) and Sam Fuller's WHITE DOG (1982). Nelson's film is sometimes classified as blaxploitation. However, I think it transcends the genre as the movie is a telling story of one man's journey to prove to a racist town that a black sheriff can be just and upright, if not more so than any white sheriff could ever be.

Bernie Casey (right)

Director Ralph Nelson directs this fascinating movie with an assured hand and never lets the film fall into exploitation trappings. Just when you think it will throw some blatant shock value your way, the scenes of incendiary dialog and malicious acts of aggression are presented in a thought provoking manner.

George Kennedy

A subplot concerns the newly ejected sheriff who preceded Jim Brown's election as lawman. There is a conflict with the previous sheriff being replaced by an African American officer of the law. As played by George Kennedy, there is much resentment in his performance. He is a good man, but deals with personal humiliation as well as that of the townsfolk who expect him to retaliate in some way. As the film progresses, Kennedy realizes the African American sheriff is as capable as any man regardless of his color.

Don Stroud (right)

The one detail that carries over from the race hate films is portrayed in character actor Don Stroud's performance. He plays a deputy with an aversion for people of color. He wants the new sheriff dead. A rich and dirty politician shares this sentiment after Brown's character imprisons his son for murdering a little girl (and a white girl, too), the result of drunk driving. The politician gets a posse together to kill the sheriff.

Help from an unlikely source

Amazingly, this film could have ended as so many others do with a big blow out action set piece, but Nelson's picture is more concerned with the humanity involved. Instead, some of the racist townsfolk, including several of the klan members(!) rally behind the black sheriff and force the murderous posse to turn back followed by the convicted son of the mayor being escorted to his trial without reprisal.

Jim Brown & George Kennedy

The entire film leaves you with a lot to ponder. In times of need, man can work together for good putting aside personal differences to do what's right and maybe, possibly live in peace. Unlike the more flamboyant nastiness of the race hate and blaxploitation films, TICK...TICK...TICK (1970) gives you something more than visual shocks and callous verbal assaults to think about.

Paul Winfield & the White Dog

Samuel Fuller's controversial WHITE DOG (1982) is another curious film that found itself abandoned by its studio, Paramount when they got cold feet over the films subject matter as well as not knowing quite how to market the picture. The persistent objections from the NAACP also didn't help the nervous distributor in releasing the picture. Originally, studio brass wanted an exploitation type horror film, but what they got was something entirely different. The story deals with a young actress (played by Kristi McNichol) that hits a dog with her car late one night. Unable to locate the owner, she takes the dog home with her and becomes attached to the canine.

White Dog (1982)

Soon thereafter, it becomes quickly apparent that there is something horribly wrong with the dog. It's discovered the animal is a 'White Dog', a dog that has been trained to attack black people. After several individuals are viciously attacked, the animal is taken to a trainer named Keys who attempts to deprogram the abused and sick dog. Things take a turn towards the shocking when the original owner shows up to lay claim to his dog as well as Keys performing his last test to see if the animal is truly cured.

White Dog (1982)

Despite all the troubles this picture has had obtaining a US theatrical release (it finally saw release in 1991 as part of an art film festival), seeing it now, it's indictment against racism and the monsters that can be created by any number of hate filled 'Frankenstein's', is obvious. Though the film isn't nearly as incendiary as similar movies that present the subject of racism in a more sensational manner. Fuller treats the material respectfully and several scenes are very powerful. Possibly the tone, or the constant pervasive air of racism (the film preaches that racism is taught and not instinctive) was simply too much at the start of the 1980's?

Paul Winfield in White Dog (1982)

The 70's was rife with so many daring and explosive movies that couldn't possibly be done today. By the 80's, cinema had settled into more comfortable, less salacious conventions populated by huge budgeted action adventure films. This onslaught of a more family friendly cinematic experience was led by the efforts of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Art films and those that presented controversial subject matter were rarely done at this time or received sparse distribution being edged out by the big studio products.

Paul Winfield, Kristi McNichol, Burl Ives

The treatment Fuller's film received stateside was too much for the intellectual filmmaker to handle. His cinematic swan song on American soil was well received overseas and he soon moved to France where he remained (he did appear as an actor in Larry Cohen's RETURN TO SALEM'S LOT; 1987) until his death in 1997. Around the time WHITE DOG (1982) was made, the blaxploitation genre had come to an end with the most frequent purveyor of the genre, Fred Williamson, also making the jump to Europe to continue his filmmaking ventures.

Mandingo (1975)

The genre thrived for nearly a decade with its best examples coming during the early part of the 1970's. Often controversial, Blaxploitation cinema not only provided violent thrills to indiscriminate audiences, it also gave African Americans heroes they could identify with and root for. As already discussed, there were also those that thought these films were detrimental to black culture. The sub genre of the race hate pictures sometimes offered more controlled (and sometimes riot stirring) views of racism in America. Most of those films were crass sensationalism and only used the racially charged subject matter for a backdrop to endless scenes of degradation and inflammatory dialog.

Truck Turner (1974)

Blaxploitation movies will be remembered for some larger than life interpretations of smooth talking heroes and heroines that stuck it to the man and the establishment. They created a flood of popular African American actors and actresses that hadn't been seen since the 1930's, but in those examples, the films are most often regarded as defamatory to black culture. Sidney Poitier will likely be the one actor most closely associated with respectable defining roles for black performers with Jim Brown close behind him. All others will always have "the Hammer" or Pam Grier to represent what they liked most about this unique genre partial to the 1970's, a decade of daring.

Blaxploitation Movies-- Breaking the Race Barrier in the Sensational Cinema of the 1970's Part 2

Foxy Brown (1974)

BLAXPLOITATION CINEMA & THE RACE HATE FILMS: RACISTS, TRUCK TURNER & BIG STUDIO EXPLOITATION

Another thought provoking, but no less incendiary film, was the Made-For-TV movie, ATTACK ON TERROR: THE FBI VS THE KU KLUX KLAN (1975). A totally out of control movie that seems a bit strong for television. It was based on events that happened in a small town in Mississippi in 1964. An unbelievable film made all the more incredible by its TV roots. The searing dialog and downbeat ending speak volumes about the time period and even rings true today although the controversial subject matter is less in the limelight as it was in years past. This film has yet to turn up on the digital format but has been shown on cable television.

Bucktown (1975)

It could be said that the blaxploitation films were born out of racism as well as African Americans need to be accepted in society as equals. These films depicted strong black characters that didn't need whitey's help and these films generally depicted Caucasians as lesser individuals much like the way they thought of blacks during the tumultuous slave times through the 1960's. The Race Hate films could also be viewed as an extension, albeit a more provocative and aggressive form of the blaxploitation genre.

Watermelon Man (1970)

Some other movies such as WATERMELON MAN (1970), provided a more thoughtful approach to the form. A white racist wakes up one day in the body of a black man (Godfrey Cambridge) and gets first hand knowledge of the treatment he himself had meted out to minorities. But films like this one and the above mentioned INTRUDER (1961) were few and far between. Other films like the vile and humiliating GOODBYE, UNCLE TOM (1971) existed to shock and horrify their audience with images of scathing humilation and degradation.

Slaughter's Big Rip-Off (1973)

That film, from Italian directors Franco Prosperi and Gualtiero Jacopetti is about documentary filmmakers that travel back in time and record slavery and mis-treatment of African Americans through the eyes of their camera lens. Some re-creations of retaliation against "white oppressors" is also shown over the course of this film/documentary.

Black Caesar (1972)

Much has been said of this "movie" over the years since it's brief theatrical release. It brought much controversy for the makers, not that they seemed to mind. The duo were infamy magnets for years and seemed to enjoy the attention. It's amazing that they were able to get the black "performers" to be subjected to such demeaning acts. Supposedly, the African Americans used were prisoners of a Haitian dictator which would explain a lot.

Bucktown (1975)

Amazingly distasteful, one scene smacks you in the face while the next one punches you in the gut followed by a hard kick to the head before you can get up and recover from the cinematic beatdown you will suffer from this grueling experience. For the sadists out there, the English version is definitely the way to go as it is a near endless onslaught of mortification and cruelty. It leaves out the numerous and questionable intellectual diatribes of the narrator that are present in the even longer Italian cut.

Bucktown (1975)

Incidentally, the Italian cut attempts to coax you into viewing this movie as a serious account of slavery and wrongful treatment of blacks throughout history. Supposedly, this film is still banned in its native Italy today. It is difficult to ascertain the filmmakers true intentions here. Do they want to shock you, or educate you? For me, it's the former. This film seems to exist only as sensationalist shock value disguised as a dark document of man's inhumanity to man. J & P were used to this by now and seemed to welcome such scandal with open arms.

The Big Bird Cage (1972)

Although J & P considered this their masterpiece, it ended up as their master disaster. considering the controversy surrounding AFRICA, ADDIO (1966), a film that made headlines instigating that the two directors may have actually paid some militants to execute some peasants in the street for the sake of the "film" (a plot point that surfaced again in Deodato's CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST), it is no surprise that GOODBYE UNCLE TOM would become one of the most incendiary works of cinematic "art" in history.

Coffy (1973)

The malicious nature of the race hate films is blatantly apparent in the 1977 grindhouse favorite, FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE. Here, three escaped convicts evade police capture and hole up in the home of a God fearing black family and subjugate them to all manner of debasement and torture. The family gets their revenge in the end. A most despicable movie that even its star, Will Sanderson, is a bit embarrassed about discussing it. Watching the film, you can't help but chuckle in disbelief at the near endless and flammable dialog Sanderson utters throughout.

Bucktown (1975)

It is so hard to believe that such films could have been made at all much less get a theatrical release. The 70's was a time when creativity and controversy was only limited by how far you were willing to take the material. Nowadays, such films could not be done. This particular film was also marketed as a blaxploitation movie under the name STAYIN' ALIVE of all titles. This films release was also short-lived issued sporadically by nervous distributors wary of the subject matter, but nonetheless trying to earn a fast buck before bicycling the film on to another town.

Truck Turner (1974)

Going back to the blaxploitation movies, many of the films were made by American International Pictures. A company founded by James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff. They specialized in all manner of exploitation cinema gaining some serious momentum and recognition with the release of Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe movies. The studio would dive head first into the black action genre in the early 1970's and unleash a massive production line of them throughout the decade. Many of these were all very low budget (some more so than others) and filled with violence. Again, that's what the producers assumed the intended audience wanted; lots of mindless and often bloody violence filled with all manner of jive talking vigilantes.

Truck Turner (1974)

This was especially apparent in one of the best examples of the genre and one of my personal favorites, Jonathan Kaplan's TRUCK TURNER (1974) starring Isaac Hayes. Here, Hayes plays a skip tracer, or bounty hunter, who, along with his partner, bust a drug pusher. This brings down some even bigger fish who all want Turner dead along with anybody close to him. Nichelle Nichols (Uhura from STAR TREK) plays the ringleader of a prostitute ring in one of the most amazingly raunchy and foul mouthed roles you'll ever see.

Truck Turner (1974)

The violence level is extremely high and bloody. Yaphet Kotto is very good as the main villain. He employs all manner of flamboyantly dressed pimps and hitmen to take out Turner. A bloody and violent shoot out in a hospital brings the film to a close. It's a true shame that there was never a TRUCK TURNER 2. The movie benefits from a wonderfully wise-crackin', jive talkin' script that's overflowing with hilarious and raucous exchanges. Truly one of the best of the genre and defines so much of what made these films so popular as well as detested.

Truck Turner (1974)

Hayes also starred in the only Italian-blaxploitation hybrid, TOUGH GUYS (1974) starring Fred Williamson as the main villain. Being a Dino de Laurentiis production, you'd expect some big set pieces but you get nothing. Some spaghetti western vets are on hand and Hayes is totally wasted. None of the hip one liners or charisma are present. What makes it an even bigger disappointment is that Duccio Tessari (A PISTOL FOR RINGO) directs. Apparently, the Italians were unsure how to approach the material.

Bucktown (1975)

Williamson also breaks his three rules for this movie as he is the main villain, he doesn't get the girl in the end and he loses his one lousy fight. Speaking of the fight scenes, even though Williamson has a lot of charisma on screen I much prefer Jim Brown as he is far more believable in his action scenes. Williamson overplays the martial arts moves he tries to employ (not to mention his facial contortions) and many times quick edits mask some very sloppy choreography in Williamson's movies. HELL UP IN HARLEM (1973) is a prime example of this. Brown always seems more at ease in his fight scenes and pulls them off flawlessly.

Mandingo (1975)

The big studios, which had produced one of the most enduring of the genre with SHAFT (1971) got back in the game after they saw how profitable these movies continued to be. MANDINGO (1975) doesn't really count as a blaxploitation movie although some would argue it did, it's more in the camp of the race hate subgenre and an important film in its own right. Based on a novel, the film concerns a slave named Mede (Ken Norton) trained by his owner to be a prize fighter. During this time, the slave owner ignores his wife's sexual needs resulting in her having an affair with Mede.

Ken Norton in Mandingo (1975)

At the time, never had a big studio (Paramount) picture went as far as MANDINGO (1975) in its depictions of depravity. Incest and Infanticide were among the elements that caused a critical firestorm against the film. Audiences flocked to see it despite the critical backlash launched against the director and actors. Even the poster was an incendiary take on the famous GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) artwork. The extremely controversial picture was viewed as nothing more than an expensive exploitation movie masked behind a veil of historical importance.

Mandingo (1975)

Having approached the material seriously, the picture is so in your face in its depictions of obscenities, the viewer can't help but laugh in disbelief. There's an unusual amount of nudity both male and female that borders on pornographic. Plot points inherent in most all blaxploitation movies regarding the impotence of whitey rear there limp heads here, too. Scenes showing Perry King (he plays a character with a limp) having intimate relations with his black bed wench are seen as "normal", but the moment Susan George (Perry's wife in the film) has been with Norton's character, she is immediately branded a whore. This, too, is akin to the perceived notion that the white man fears domination by the African Americans. The infamous and salacious film was recently released to DVD in America but not from Paramount, instead licensed out to Legend Films.

Mandingo (1975)

MANDINGO (1975) was successful enough to garner a sequel and again from Paramount (who also financed the 1972 Fred Williamson actioner LEGEND OF NIGGER CHARLEY). The sequel dispenses with much of the moral and immoral pondering of the first film and settles more for crass exploitation values. DRUM (1976) has them in abundance. The story is more or less the same, but amps up the sex and violence level to more sensational extremes. Whereas the first film was uncompromising in its scenes of brutality and serious depiction of slavery, DRUM (1976) was less concerned with the disintegration of Southern ideals than it was showcasing outrageous characters and dialog and leaving the audience in amazing disbelief with an ending that dive bombs into a scenario of extreme violence.

Coffy (1973)

Here, Warren Oates plays the role Perry King played in the first movie only it's some years later. Oates appears to be having the time of his life surrounded by naked prostitutes and uttering some audaciously offensive lines like, "You aint gonna go messin' in my poon tang now is you?" The presence of a fat, big breasted Aunt Jemima type house maid whom Oates speaks of during his childhood, "suckling her titties...", is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

Black Caesar (1972)

It's especially funny seeing John Colicos (Baltar from the original BATTLESTAR GALACTICA TV show) as a French faggot trying to have his way with Norton soon after bringing him a woman and expecting "payment". His speeches about castrating his "stock" are a hoot. This is one highly recommended piece of embarrassing celluloid whose participants probably wish was never made. Poor Pam Grier apparently thought that this film would be her big break into serious film work. I'm sure it seemed so on paper. Enough cannot be said of the cavalcade of offensive dialog that is said with such conviction, the film becomes high camp till the gruesome ending rolls around. A perfect exploitation movie, this and other films in the Race Hate genre yielded many a grindhouse classic.

Slaughter's Big Rip-Off (1973)

Another high point, or low point (depending on your point of view) of this curious subgenre is THE KLANSMEN (1975). Another movie based on a novel this time helmed by director Terence Young (who handled a number of the Bond movies). I'm not sure if he intentionally meant to direct an unintentionally funny exploitation movie or not, but it shows in both presentation and behind the scenes. Reportedly, stars Richard Burton and Lee Marvin were sauced the entire shoot and it was a struggle to get them to say their lines with any conviction.

Truck Turner (1974)

Also, many of the scenes are extremely hammy and replete with bad dialog that makes you wonder if you are supposed to take the film seriously at all. Adding an air of haunting dread that only foreshadows events to come, O.J. Simpson features as a black assassin out to kill klansmen in his town in reprisal for his friend being shotgunned by the Klan earlier in the film. Linda Evans is also in this mess along with Cameron Mitchell and Lola Falona who suffers a severe rape scene that was drastically cut before the films release in America. A bloody gun battle ends the film on a perfectly sleazy note.

CONTINUED IN PART 3...