Major Blaxploitation genre films

I was transferring material from the old forum, and came across list of Blaxplpoitation films I published a few years back. There’s some good ones in here, and all of them are available from the Film Fetish Store RIGHT HERE.

SERGEANT RUTLEDGE
Warner Bros.
1960

Cast: Woody Strode, Jeffrey Hunter, Constance Towers
Director: John Ford
Plot: Sgt. Rutledge, a Buffalo Soldier- a Black cavalry soldier- is accused of raping a white woman. During his court martial, in a series of flashbacks, his bravery and innocence is revealed. One of Strode’s biggest roles.

NOTHING BUT A MAN
Cinema V
1964

Cast: Ivan Dixon, Abbey Lincoln, Yaphet Kotto
Director: Michael Roemer
Plot: Fired and labeled a troublemaker, Dixon portrays a black laborer trying to maintain a relationship and dignity in a small Southern racist town.

BLACK JESUS
Plaza Pictures
1968

Cast: Woody Strode, Jean Servais
Director: Valerio Zurlini
Plot: An African leader is determined to save his people through passive resistance to a dictatorial regime that is being propped up by European colonialists. In the end, he is imprisoned and tortured. Loosely based on the life of Patrice Lamumba.

FOR LOVE OF IVY
Cinerama
1968

Cast: Sidney Poitier, Abbey Lincoln, Beau Bridges, Carroll O’Connor
Director: Daniel Mann
Plot: A trucking executive, with a gambling operation on the side, wants to marry the Black maid of a rich white family.

IF HE HOLLERS, LET HIM GO
Cinerama
1968

Cast: Dana Wynter, Raymond St. Jacques
Director: Charles Martin
Plot: A falsely accused man escapes from prison. With the help of lovely nightclub singer, he restores his good name.

CHANGE OF MIND
Cinerama
1969

Cast: Raymond St. Jacques, Susan Oliver, Janet MacLachlan, Leslie Nielsen
Director: Robert Stevens
Plot: The brain of a white DA is transplanted into the body of a Black man. He tries to go back to his former life but he is rejected by his friends and family. He returns to the woman who was married to the dead man. He wins a court case against a bigoted sheriff.

SLAVES
Galleon
1969

Cast: Ossie Davis, Stephen Boyd, Dionne Warwick
Director: Herbert J. Biberman
Plot: A rather eclectic cast tries its hand at this peculiar revisionist look at the life of an independent slave in Kentucky. Boyd is effectively evil as the abusive “”massa,”” and Ossie does a nice turn as the slave standing up for his rights.

…Tick…Tick…Tick
MGM
1970

Cast: Jim Brown, George Kennedy, Fredric March, Janet McLauchlin
Director: Ralph Nelson
Plot: The arrest of a wealthy young white man sets the stage for a violent confrontation between bigoted citizens and the Southern town’s first elected Black Sheriff.

COTTON COMES TO HARLEM
UA
1970

Cast: Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques, Calvin Lockhart, Judy Pace, Redd Foxx
Director: Ossie Davis
Plot: A slick connan of a Reverend fleeces this flock of $87,000 for his “”Back to Africa”” boat. Armed men take off with the money. They hide the money ia a bale of cotton, which falls off the getaway truck. The two policemen investigating the robbery, Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones, suspect the reverend is behind the whole thing. But it takes a series of mishaps, twist and turns before the money is found and the bad guys are in jail. Based on the novel by Chester Himes. This was Ossie Davi’s directorial debut.

THE GRASSHOPPER
National General Pictures
1970

Cast: Jacqueline Bisset, Jim Brown, Joseph Cotton, Ed Flanders
Director: Jerry Paris
Plot: A beautiful teenager flees Canada for fame and fortune in L.A. but ends up a jaded call girl.

WATERMELON MAN
Columbia
1970

Cast: Godfrey Cambridge, Estelle Parsons, D’Urville Martin
Director: Melvin Van Peebles
Plot: A bigoted, big-city insurance salesman wakes up one morning and finds that he’s turned into a Black man. A provocative, for the time, comedy. Van Peebles used the money he made from this film to finance Sweet, Sweetback BaadAsssss Song.

THE LIBERATION OF L.B. JONES
Columbia
1970

Cast: Lee J. Cobb, Anthony Zerbe, Yaphet Kotto, Rosco Lee Brown
Director William Wyler
Plot: A Black man returns to the Southern town where he was born to seek vengeance against the white cop who beat him when he was a child. He gets caught up in web of intruige involving the white cop who is having an affair with the wife of a wealthy Black businessman.

SHAFT
MGM
1971

Cast: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi
Director: Gordon Parks Sr.
Plot: Hired by a Black gangster to find his daughter, Shaft encounters militants and mafioi before the case is solved. The prototype for Films that were later called “”blaxploitation.”” The Isaac Hayes score won an Oscar.

BIG DOLL HOUSE
New World
1971

Cast: Sid Haig, Judy Brown, Pam Grier
Director: Jack Hill
Plot: A group of women prisoners are subjected to torture and sexual abuse. Finally, with help from sympathizers, they escape. This film started a cycle of women-in-prison films. It also launched Pam Grier’s career.

HONKY
Jack H. Harris Enterprises
1971

Cast: Brenda Sykes, John Neilson, William Marshall
Director: William A. Graham
Plot: A white, suburban teenage boy falls in love with an upscale Black Girl in a midwestern town. They learn about bigotry people have toward them. Considered a daring film when it was released. Features a score by Quincy Jones.

SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSSS SONG
Cinamation
1971

Cast: Melvin Van Peebles, Simon Chuckster, Hubert Scales
Director: Melvin Van Peebles
Plot: The police raid a brothel and take sweetback in for questioning. Along the way, they stop and beat a young Black. Much to his own surprise, Sweetback saves the youth and kills the cop. With the police in hot pursuit, Sweetback makes successful run to the border and escapes. This film’s impact was immediate and long lasting. While Shaft is the progenitor of the “”blaxploitation”” era, without Sweetback, Shaft would have been a white detective story as was originally written. Many current African-American filmmakers, like Spike Lee, cite the influence of Sweetback.

THE THING WITH TWO HEADS
AIP
1972

Cast: Ray Milland, Rosie Grier, Don Marshall
Director: Lee Frost
Plot: A bigot, dying of cancer, has his head added to the body of a condemmed killer. The bigot plan to remove the other head but it decides to run away and prove his innocence.

SHAFT’S BIG SCORE
MGM
1972

Cast: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Drew Bundini Brown, Joseph Mascola
Director: Gordon Parks Sr.
Plot: A Black numbers man stashes $250,000 of the mob’s money in a coffin but he killed by his partner. The mob wants the money and control of the numbers racket throughout New York, which displeases the Harlem hoods. Shaft, at the police’s request, steps in to solve the problem.

SLAUGHTER
AIP
1972

Cast: Jim Brown, Stella Stevens, Rip Tom, Don Gordon
Director: Jack Starrett
Plot: After his father and mother are murdered by the Mafia, ex-Green Beret Slaughter goes after the killers. The trail leads him to Mexico where, using green Beret tactics, he slaughters the bad guys.

HIT MAN
MGM
1972

Cast: Bernie Casey, Pam Grier, Lisa Moore, Don Diamond
Director: George Amitage
Plot: A small-time hood comes to L.A. to bury his brother. When he learns his brother was murdered, he stays to solve the murder. A remake of the British film Get Carter. A first rate performance by Casey.

ACROSS 110TH STREET
United Artists
1972

Cast: Yaphet Kotto, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Franciosa
Plot: Three Black men, disguised as cops, rob $300,000 from a Harlem numbers banks, killing five mafiosos and two real policemen during the robbery. They hide from both the cops and the mob. The theme of the uptown Black ghetto vs. downtown Italian mob was the prototype for the Black gangster movies that followed.

BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA
AIP
1972

Cast: Pam Grier, Sid Haig, Margaret Markov, Lynn Borden
Director: Eddie Romero
Plot: Two female inmates from Latin American prison, one a Black prostitute and the other an idealistic white guerilla fighter, are chained together and transferred to another prison. Enroute, their bus is ambushed by revolutionaries and they escape. Using nun’s habits, they flee from the police, the revolutionaries, and a criminal gang. A remake of The Defiant Ones.

BLACK GIRLS
Cinerama
1972

Cast: Brock Peters, Leslie Uggams, Claudia McNeil, Lousie Stubbs, Ruby Dee, Gloria Edwards
Director: Ossie Davis
Plot: The story of a aspiring dancer and the conflict between her two half-sister and a girl who was raised by her family.

BLACK GUNN
Columbia
1972

Cast: Jim Brown, Brenda Sykes, Bernie Casey, Martin Landau
Director: Robert Hartford-Davis
Plot: Jim Brown is an L.A. nightclub owner seeking revenge on the mob who killed his brother.

BLACK JACK
AIP
1972

Cast: George Stanford Brown, Brandon de Wilde, Keenan Wynn
Director: William T. Naud
Plot: All kinds of complications occur when three anti-war activists hijack a B-52 bomber. This comic adventure ends with Fort Knox getting nuked.

BLACULA
AIP
1972

Cast: William Marshall, Denise Nicholas, Vonetta McGee, Thalmus Rasulala
Director: William Crain
Plot: An African prince is bitten by Dracula and becomes a vampire. Two hundred years later, his coffin is brought to Los Angeles and he begins searching the night for victims.

BLAST
New World
1972

Cast: Billy Dee Williams, Raymond St. Jacques, D’Urville Martin
Director: Frank Arthur Wilson
Plot: This a re-edited version of The Final Comedown, with producer, director, and writer credits given to Frank Arthur Wilson when in fact Oscar Williams performed all three functions. A group of Black militants are in a shootout with the police. The charismatic leader of the militants has been critically wounded. As the battle rages, he relives key moments of his life leading up to the present situation.

BUCK AND THE PREACHER
Columbia
1972

Cast: Sydney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, Cameron Mitchell
Director: Sidney Poitier
Plot: A Black former Union cavalryman leads wagon trains of former slaves to freedom in Western lands. They are attacked by bounty hunters who want to keep cheap Black labor in the South. A series of clashes lead to a final conformation and the Black settlers receive help from the Indians.

COME BACK, CHARLESTON BLUE
Warner Bros.
1972

Cast: Raymond St. Jacques, Godfrey Cambridge, Jonelle Allen, Adam Wade
Director: Mark Warren
Plot: Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones return in this sequel to Cotton Comes to Harlem. A man is found dead on a meat hook in the freezer of the Harlem club, with a folding blue steel rezor next to him. The razor is the trademark of Charleston Blue, a legendary gangster last seen in Harlem in 1932. Gravedigger and Coffin Ed’s investigation finds links between a Vietnam vet turned photographer, a beautiful debutanted, an old psychic, and a power struggle to control the drug trade in Harlem. Based on the Chester Himes novel, The Heat Is On.

COLD BREEZE
MGM
1972

Cast: Thalmus Rasulala, Judy Pace, Lincoln Kilpatrick, Raymond St. Jacques
Director: Barry Pollack
Plot: A Black man, just released from San Quentin, is under surveillance by a white L.A. police captain. Along with Vietnam vet and his half brother, a bookie, a part-time safe cracker who’s a minster the rest of time, and a respectable businessman, the man pland a $3 million diamond heist to establish a Black people’s bank. But greed undoes the plan and they end up dead, in jail, or on the run. This is the third remake of The Asphalt Jungle. It had been done once a Western, The Badlanders, and as an international adventure, Cairo.

LEGEND OF NIGGER CHARLEY
Paramount
1972

Cast: Fred Williamson, D’Urville Martin
Director: Martin Goldman
Plot: Charley is given his freedom by his dying owner but the evil overseer tries to keep him a slave. He kills the overseer and flees with two other slaves to the West with a bounty hunter on their trail. The bounty hunter catches up with them in a frontier town but he and his men are killed in a shootout with the Blacks.

TOP OF THE HEAP
Fanfare
1972

Cast: Christopher St. John, Paula Kelly, Alan Garfield
Director: Christophe St.John
Plot: Sick of being a cop, and trying to jugle family life and a mistress, George Latimer (St. John) escapes into a a rich fantasy life ( a la Slaughter House-Five).

TROUBLE MAN
20th Century-Fox
1972

Cast: Robert Hooks, Paul Winfield, Ralph Waite, Paula Kelly
Director: Ivan Dixon
Plot: When floating crap games are held up, rival syndicates begin a turf war. Mr. T is called in to solve the dispute.

MELINDA
MGM
1972

Cast: Calvin Lockhart, Rosalind Cash, Vonetta McGee, Jim Kelly
Director: Huge A. Robertson
Plot: A self centered DJ tosses out his business executive girlfriend for an alluring and mysterious woman. When she if found dead in his apartment, he is trouble with the police and the mob. A forgotten classic.

SOUL SOLDIER aka RED, WHITE AND BLACK
Fanfare Film Productions
1972

Cast: Rafer Johnson, Robert DoQui, Lincoln Kilpatrick, Cesar Romero
Director: John Carlos
Plot: The first of the Black Westerns of the 70’s , the one that started the craze. The men of the 10th Cavalry, the Buffalo soldiers, fight Indians in Texas. Despite their battles, they feel empathy for another oppressed minority, the Indians.

SUPERFLY
Warner Bros.
1972

Cast: Ron O’Neal, Carl Lee, Sheila Frazier
Director: Gordon Parks Jr.
Plot: A super cool, super tough coke dealer decides to “”stick it to the man”” with one last big score and then retire. With a great musical score by Curtis Mayfield and a strong performance by the charismatic Ron O’Neal, this is one of the defining films fo the ’70s Black Cinema. Roundly denounced by some for glamorizing drug dealers, others saw a tale of the limited options open to bright young men in the ghetto.

SUPERFLY TNT
Paramount
1973

Cast: Ron O’Neal, Roscoe Lee Browne, Sheilla Frazier
Director: Ron O’Neal
Plot: A pale sequel to the original finds Priest living in Rome with nothing to do. He becomes involved with African revolutionaries fighting colonialism.

THAT MAN BOLT
MCA/ Universal
1973

Cast: David Lowell Rich, Fred Williamson, Byron Webster
Director: Anthony Dawson
Plot: Bolt is hired to deliver a million dollars from Hong Kong to Mexico City with a stop in L.A. But the mon ey turns out to be criminal loot and after his girlfriend is killed, Bolt returns to Hong Kong to extract revenge.

SWEET JESUS PREACHER MAN aka SWEET JAMES PREACHER MAN
MGM
1973

Cast: Roger E. Mosley, William Smith, Michael Pataki, Marla Gibbs
Director: Henning Schellerup
Plot: A Black hit man poses as a Baptist preacher in a ghetto church. He decides to take over the local rackets.

THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR
UA
1973

Cast: Lawrence Cook, Paula Kelly, Janet League
Director: Ivan Dixon
Plot: In order to avoid charges of discrimination, the CIA hires its first Black agent, Dan Freeman. But after five years of guiding tours and suffering discrimination, Freeman quits and goes home to Chicago to work in a social service agency. Recruiting from the streets, he trains a cadre of revolutionaries and begins fighting an urban war of Liberation.

MEAN MOTHER
Independent International
1973

Cast: Clifton Brown, Dennis Safren
Director: Al Adamson
Plot: Two Vietnam deserters go their separate ways. They become criminals and are finally reunited. This movie was made by taking footage from an older film, edited together with newer scenes.

CLEOPATRA JONES
Warner Bros.
1973

Cast Tamara Dobso, Bernie Casey, Brenda Sykes, Antonio Fangas, Shelley Winters, Esther Rolle
Director: Jack Starrett
Plot: 6’2″” CIA agent Cleopartra Jones destroys a poppy field worth $30 million. Mommy, queen of the L.A. underworld vows to destroy Jones and the battle is joined. After fighting corrupt cops and Mommy’s henchmen, Cleo and Mommy have their final confrontation in a junkyard. Cleo wins.

COFFY
AIP
1973

Cast:: Pam Grier, Booker Bradshaw, Robert DoQui, Allan Arbus
Director: Jack Hill
Plot: When the 11-year old sister is turned into a hopeless addict, a nurse goes on a rampage of revenge and death. This extremely violent film firmly established Grier as the queen fo the genre.

THE ARENA aka Naked Warriors
New World Pictures
1973

Cast: Pam Grier, Margaret Markov, Lucretia Love, Paul Muller
Director: Steve Carver
Plot: A voluptuous Nubian slave and a Druid high princess leas a gladiator’s revolt against their Roman oppressors.

BLACK CAESAR
AIP
1973

Cast: Fred Williamson, Art Lund, Val Avery, Julius W. Harris, Gloria Hendry
Director: Larry Cohen
Plot: The saga of Tommy Gibb’s rise to power, from shoeshine boy to number one crime boss. Very much in the tradition of the 30’s gangster film like Little Caesar and Scarface, Black Caesar contains many fine cinematic moments. The scenes between Gibbs ad his father show first rate acting and emotional truth. One of Williamson’s best performances.

BROTHER ON THE RUN aka SOUL BROTHERS DIE HARD
Hamell Independent
1973

Cast: Terry Carter, Kyle Johnson, Gwenn Mitchell, James Sikking
Director: Herbert L. Strock
Plot: A Black teenager is hunted by the police for a crime he didn’t commit.

DETROIT 9000 aka POLICE CALL 9000; DETROIT HEAT
General Film Corp.
1973

Cast: Alex Rocco, Hari Rhodes, Scatman Crothers, Vonetta McGee
Director: Arthur Marks
Plot: A group of robbers steal $400,000 worth of jewels and other valuables from people attending a Black congressman’s gubernatorial campaign fund raiser. Two cops, one white, the other black, are assigned to the case. Conflict between the cops, a dead American Indian with no legs, a madam and her call girl, a murderous group of thugs, and an unknown fence for the stolen goods are all part of the mix in this police code for “”officer needs assistance.””

THE HARDER THEY COME
New World Pictures
1973

Cast: Jimmy Cliff, Janet Bartley, Carl Bradshaw,
Director: Perry Henzell
Plot: The rise and fall of a would be the music star. Most notable for a sensational soundtrack, which captures reggae music of the era. The actors speak the Jamaican patios so completely that the film is often subtitled.

HELP UP IN HARLEM
AIP
1973

Cast: Fred Williamson, Julius W. Harris, Geral Gordon, Gloria Hendry, D’Urville Martin, Margaret Avery
Director: Larry Cohen
Plot: This sequel to Black Caesar finds Tommy Gibbs fighting both his father and the Mafia for control of Harlem. The Mafia kidnaps his two children and later murders his wife. After numerous killings and a double cross, Tommy leads a group of frogmen against the mob compound in the Florida Keys where he kills the Mafia Don and rescues his children.

HIT!
Paramount
1973

Cast: Billy Dee Williams, Paul Hampton, Richard Pryor, Gwenn Welles
Director: Sidney J. Furie
Plot: After his teenage daughter dies from a drug overdose, a federal agent recruits his own commando team to kill the members of the Marseilles drug gang that supplied the heroin. After undrgoing special training, the commandos make thir way individually to Marseilles and kill the nine members of the drug syndicate. Then they escape.

FIVE ON THE BLACK HAND SIDE
UA
1973

Cast: Clarice Taylor, Leonard Jackson, Virginia Capers, D’Urville Martin, Glynn Turman, Godfrey Cambridge
Director: Oscar Williams
Plot: The comic adventures and misadventures of a Black barber who tries to cope with his family and running his business.

FOX STYLE
Presidio Productions
1973

Cast: Chuck Daniel, Juanita Moore, Richard Lawson, John Taylor, Jovita Bush, Denise Denise
Director: Clyde Houston
Plot: A wealthy nightclub owner struggles to reconcile his country roots with his newfound city sophistication.

GORDON’S WAR
20th Century Fox
1973

Cast: Paul Winfield, Carl Lee, David Downing, Grace Jones
Director: Ossie Davis
Plot: A Vietnam vet returns to Harlem to find his wife dead from a drug overdose. Declaring war on the pushers, he organizes his Green Beret buddies into a strike team and they clean up the ‘hood.

I ESCAPED FROM DEVIL’S ISLAND
UA
1973

Cast: Jim Brown, Christopher George, Rick Ely
Director: William Witney
Plot: Two prisoners in 1918 revolt against the inhumane treatment of the French prison and escape. It features alligators, a shark attack, hostile Amazon natives, and a leper colony.

ZEBRA KILLER aka COMBAT COP
General Film Corp.
1973

Cast: Austin Stoker, James Pickett, Huge Smith, D’Urville Martin
Director: Stoker plays detective tracking down serial killer. Sensational plot twist makes this a memorable finale to Girdler’s career cut short by helicopter accident.

WATTSTAX: THE LIVING WORD
Columbia
1973

Cast: Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, Luther Ingram, Rev. Jess Jackson
Director: Mel Stuart
Plot: A concert film shot over several shows at the LA coliseum. The shows, staged by Melvin Van Peebles, were a celebration of Black life and music and were sponsored by Schlitz Beer. The film was a collaboration between Stax Records and Wolper Productions. Richard Pryor was the MC.

TRICK BABY aka DOUBLE CON
Universal
1973

Cast: Kiel Martin, Mel Stewart, Dallas Edward Hayes
Director: Larry Yust
Plot: Two Black con men run afoul of the Mafia when one of their cons causes a man connected to the mob to have a heart attacks.

THE MACK
Cinerama
1973

Cast: Max Julien, Don Gordon, Richard Pryor, Carol Speed
Director: Michael Campus
Plot: After being released from jail, a pimp battles corrupt cops and the Mafia on his way to the top of the hooker trade. But after a series of clashes, his mother and best friend are killed by the corrupt cops. He and his politicized brother kill the cops and the pimp leaves penniless for Alabama. One of the most highly respected films of the ’70’s Black cinema. The Mack was a huge box office success.

RUN NIGGER RUN aka THE BLACK CONNECTION
Box Office International
1973

Cast: The Checkmates Ltd., Bobby Stevens, Sweet Louie, Sonny Charles
Director: Michael J. Finn
Plot: A man, caught between warring mobsters, runs for his life. Shot in Las Vegas, there’s lots of music by The Checkmates Ltd.

SAVAGE!
New World
1973

Cast: James Iglehardt, Lada Edmund, Carol Speed
Director: Cirio Santiago
Plot: After ambushing a rebel leader in a Latin American country, a soldier is charged with the Leader’s murder by the government he served. Feeling betrayed, he escapes and goes over to the rebel side. With the help of all female commando squad, he rescues a girlfriend and kills the bad guys.

SCREAM, BLACULA, SCREAM
AIP
1973

Cast: William Marshall, Pam Grier, Don Mitchell
Plot: A voodoo ceremony reincarnates Blacula. William Marshall returns as Mamuwalde, the vampire he made famous, leaving a bloody trail until he meets his match in Pam Grier.

SHAFT IN AFRICA
MGM
1973

Cast: Richard Roundtree, Frank Finlay, Vonetta McGee
Director: John Guillermin
Plot: Shaft goes undercover to find the killer of an Emir’s son and who is behind a modern slave trade. The action takes place in Paris and Africa. The last of the Shaft movies.

THE SLAMS
MGM
1973

Cast: Jim Brown, Judy Pace, Roland Harris
Director: Jonathan Kaplan
Plot: After stealing $1.5 million dollars from the mob and destroying a suitcase full of heroin destined for the ghetto, Curtis Hook is double-crossed and shot by his partner. He ends up in prison where he has to avoid warring Black and white gangs, the FBI who wants information about the mob, the mob who has a contract on his life, and the prison guards who want the money.

SLAUGHTER’S BIG RIPOFF
AIP
1973

Cast: Jim Brown, Ed McMahon, Brock Peters, Gloria Hendry
Director: Gordon Douglas
Plot: The mob kills one of Slaughter’s friends and he wants revenge! Slaughter steals a list of people on the mob’s payroll but he and his girlfriend are captured. The girlfriend is killed and the list taken but Slaughter survives. With machine gun in hand, Slaughter raids the mob compound, kills everybody who needs killing, and retrieves the list. He then leaves for Paris and a life of quiet relaxation.

THE SOUL OF NIGGER CHARLEY
Paramount
1973

Cast: Fred Williamson, D’Urvelle Martin, Denise Nicholas
Director: Larry Spangler
Plot: In the post-Civil War West, free Blacks are being kidnapped by vicious ex-Confederates who still think slavery is good. They are being held in a compound in Mexico. Charley and the indestructible Toby ride to the rescue.

SUGAR HILL aka VOODOO GIRL
AIP
1974

Cast: Marki Bey, Robert Quarry, Don Pedro Colley
Director: Paul Maslansky
Plot: After a night club owner is killed for refusing to sell his club to gangsters, his girlfriend seeks revenge. Using voodoo, she calls upon an army of zombies to get the killers.

SUPER DUDE aka HANGUP
Dimension
1974

Cast: William Elliot, Marki Bey, Cliff Potts
Director: Henry Hathaway
Plot: An LAPD detective works to bring down the drug dealer who hooked his childhood sweetheart.

SAVAGE SISTERS
AIP
1974

Cast: Gloria Hendry, Rosanna Ortiz, Cheri Caffano
Director: Eddie Romero
Plot: Gloria Hendry is an interrogation officer at an island prison camp who saves two female thieves. They eventually take revenge on the priosn officials who were mean to them.

THE HOUSE ON SKULL MOUNTAIN
20th Century Fox
1974

Cast: Victor French, Janee Michelle, Mike Evans, Jean Durand
Director: Ron Honthaner

Cast: On a dark and stormy night, four relatives gather to hear the will of the mistress of the House on Skull Mountain. The voodoo practicing butler watches over the proceedings.

DEVIL’S EXPRESS aka GANG WARS
Howard Mahler Films
1974

Cast: Warhawk Tanzania, Larry Fleischman, Sam DeFazio
Director: Barry Rosen
Plot: A chinese demon come to New York looking for trouble, meanwhile two gangs are fighting a turf war. If this sounds confusing, wait until you see the movie.

BLACK BELT JONES
Warner Bros.
1974

Cast: Jim Kelly, Gloria Hendry, Scatman Crothers
Director: Robert Clouse
Plot: In order to repay a debt to a Mafia chieftain, a Black hood tries to force an old man to sell his karate school to the mob. The school is in the middle of an urban renewal area in Watts that the Mafia wants to control. When the old man is killed, his daughter and students join forces with federal agent Black Belt Jones to destroy the mob. Clouse directed Kelly in Enter the Dragon and in this film Kelly does his best Bruce Lee imitation.

ABBY
American International Pictures (AIP)
1974

Cast: Carol Speed, William Marshall, Terry Carter, Austin Stoker
Director: William Girdler
Plot: Eshu, the Nigerian god of sexuality, possesses a minister’s wife, turning her into a wanton, sexually ravenous creature. An AIP knockoff of The Exorcist.

AMAZING GRACE
United Artists
1974

Cast: “”Mom”” Mabley, Moses Gunn, Slappy White, Rosalind Cash, Butterfly McQueen
Director: Stan Lathan
Plot: “”Moms”” Mabley wages war against corrupt Baltimore politics in this light hearted comedy.

BAMBOO GODS AND IRON MEN
AIP
1974

Cast: James Iglehart, Shirley Washington
Director: Cesare Gallardo
Plot: A boxing and Kung fu epic shot in the Philippines.

BLACK SAMSON
Warner Bros.
1974

Cast: Rockne Tarkington, William Smith, Connie Strickland, Carol Speed
Director: Charles Bail
Plot: Samson, known for his gentle nature, social conscience, and the cane he carries, owns a nightclub in South Central Los Angeles. When he refuses to cooperate with a gangster who wants to take over the neighborhood, the gangster kindnaps Samson’s girlfriend. In the final confrontation, Samson uses Kendo (Japanese stick fighting) and the people from the “”hood to overcome evil. The director would later make Cleopatra Jone and the Casino of Gold.

THE BLACK SIX
Cinemation
1974

Cast: Gene Washington, Carl Eller, Lem Barney, Mercury Morris, Mean Joe Green, Willie Lanier
Director: Matt Cimber
Plot: A Vietnam vet and his five friends avenge his brother’s death at the hands of a white biker gang.

DYNAMITE BROTHERS aka STUD BROWN
Cinemation Industries
1974

Cast: James Hong, Aldo Ray, Alan Tang, Timothy Brown
Director: Al Adamson
Plot: A black man on the run and a Hong Kong martial arts expert looking for his sister join forces to find the sister and fight drug dealers in Watts.

FOX BROWN
AIP
1974

Cast: Pam Grier, Peter Brown, Terry Carter, Kathryn Loder
Director: Jack Hill
Plot: Grier, in one her classic roles, poses as a hooker to trap the mobsters who killed her cop lover. This is the last of the four films she did with director Hill.

WILLIE DYNAMITE
Universal
1974

Cast: Roscoe Oman, Diana Sands, Thalmus Rasulala
Director: Gilbert Moses III
Plot: A new hooker joins the stable of Willie Dynamite. A social worker thinks she can still be saved. A moral tug of war follows and in the end the girl is saved and Dynamite is also reformed.

TRUCK TURNER
AIP
1974

Cast: Issac Hayes, Yaphet Kotto, Alan Weeks, Dick Miller
Director: Jonathan Kaplan
Plot: Truck’s a bounty hunter who kills a madam’s boyfriend when he jumps bail. She puts out a contract on him and big crime bosses takes it. But in the end, they are both run over by the Truck.

UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT
Warner Bros.
1974

Cast: Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Harry Belafonte, Richard Pryor
Director: Sidney Poitier
Plot: Tow factory workers are robbed of a lottery ticket worth $50,000 during the heist of an exclusive club. They decide to retrieve the wallet themselves and are plunged into a world of sleazy criminals. A satire of the “”blaxploitation”” genre, this uneven comedy features some fine performances, especially Belabonte’s send up of Brando’s Godfather.

THREE TOUGH GUYS aka TOUGH GUYS
Paramount
1974

Cast: Lino Ventura, Fred Williamson, Issac Hayes, Paula Kelly
Director: Duccio Tessari
Plot: An Ex-con priest and an ex-cop cook join forces to get the man who framed the cop and cost him his badge. One of the few times Williamson plays a bad guy.

TNT JACKSON
New World
1974

Cast: Jeanne Bell, Pat Anderson
Plot: In order to find her missing brother, TNT goes undercover as a hooker in Hong Kong. She battles the Chinese mob to save the day. There is a topless Kung fu fight.

FRIDAY FOSTER
AIP
1975

Cast: Pam Grier, Yaphet Kotto, Godfrey Cambridge, Thaalmus Rasulala, Eartha Kitt, Jim Backus, Scatman Crothers
Director Arthur Marks
Plot: Based on the comic strip, Friday saves a group of Black leaders from an assassination plot by white racists.

AARON LOVES ANGELA
Columbia
1975

Cast: Kevin Hooks, Irene Cara , Moses Gunn, Robert Hooks
Director: Gordon Parks Jr.
Plot: A re-telling of Romeo and Juliet with Black 16-year old Aaron with a 14-year old Puerto Rican Angela in the harsh world of New York’s ghetto.

THE BLACK GESTAPO aka GHETTO WARRIORS
Bryanston
1975

Cast: Rod Perry, Charles P. Robinson, Phil Hoover, Angela Brent
Director: Lee Frost
Plot: A former Vietnam general forms a militia to clean up the Watts ghetto. A bloodbath follows and the group initiates a reign of terror. Finally, the people of Watts rise against them.

ADIOS AMIGO
Atlas Films
1975

Cast: Fred Williamson, Richard Pryor, Thalmus Rasulala
Director: Fred Williamson
Plot: Big Ben (Williamson) is arrested after shooting up the house of the man who drove him off his land. He is freed when the group is robbed by Sam Spade (Pryor). The two become partners with Sam always getting the pair into trouble with his constant schemes. A very uneven comedy.

BOSS NIGGER
Dimension
1975

Cast: Fred Williamson, D’Uville Martin, William Smith, R.G. Armstrong, Barbara Leigh
Director: Jack Arnold
Plot: A pair of bounty hunters take on local bad guys in order to save a small town in the 1870’s.

BUCKTOWN
AIP
1975

Cast: Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, Bernie Hamilton, Thalmus Rasulala
Director: Arthur Marks
Plot: A man comes to a small, highly corrupt southern town to buy his brother, who’s been killed by the local police. Afer reopening his brother’s gambling joint, the police try leaning on him. He calls in his Philly friends to help him and discovers he’s just replaced one set of hoods for another. He takes them on himself.

CANDY TANGERINE MAN
Moonstone
1975

Cast: John Daniels, Angel (Tracy) King, Pat Wright
Director: Matt Cimber
Plot: A man leads a double life: Respectable upscale suburbanite with a wife and two kids; and a high-living Sunset Boulevard pimp with a yellow and red Rolls-Royce and a stable of nubile girls. After battling corrupt police and mafia in a bloody war, he tires of the life and retires ot the suburbs.

CLEOPARTRA JONES AND THE CASINO OF GOLD
Warner Bros
1975

Cast: Tamara Dobson, Stella Stevens, Albert Popwell
Director: Jack Hill
Plot: Cleo arrives in Hong Kong to rescue two fellow agents from the clutches of the Dragon Lady. Refusing help from the HK Police, Cleo teams up with a female private eye and her motorcycle riding helpers. They trace the Dragon Lady to her Lair, a casino in Macao. In hand to-hand combat, Cleo kills the Dragon Lady and rescues her fellow agents.

COOLEY HIGH
AIP
1975

Cast: Glynn Turman, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Garrett Morris
Director: Michael Schultz
Plot: This movie, most often compared to American Gaffiti, follows the adventures of high schoolers in Chicago in 1964. Events range from comic to the tragic with a musical score of Motown hits from the mid 60’s. A first-rate film that effectively captures a slice of Black urban life.

COONSKIN aka STREETFIGHT
Bryanston Distributors
1975

Cast: Voices of: Barry White, Charles Gordone, Scatman Crothers, Philip Michael Thomas
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Plot: One of the earliest examples of the mixture of live action and animation. In the live action framing sequences, while waiting for the car that will enable them to escape from a Southern prison, an older con tells the younger one a modern version of the Uncle Remus tales. A slick rabbit, a confused bear and not so slick fox got to Harlem and taker over, doing in the police and the Mafia along the way. Although roundly denounced by CORE as racist and insulting, many critics found that the film had heart and artistic integrity.

DARKTOWN STRUTTERS aka GET DOWN AND BOOGIE
New World
1975

Cast: Tina Parks, Roger E. Molsey, Shirley Washington
Director: William Witney
Plot: When the mother of the leader of motorcycle riding singing group is kidnapped, the group swings into action to rescue mom.

DELIVER US FROM EVIL
Dimension
1975

Cast: Marie O’Henry, Renny Roker, Danny Martin
Director: Horace Jackson
Plot: Pushers and street thugs terrorize a kid in a wheelchair. Ghetto residents, including a bitter ex-con and a playground supervisor, work to make the street safe.

DOLEMITE
Dimension
1975

Cast: Rudy Ray Moore, D’Urville Martin, Lady Reed
Director: D’Urville Martin
Plot: Dolemite, the infamous character from Moore’s nightclub routine who only speaks in rhymes, is a pimp, martial arts master, and a sexual dynamo. After being released from prison, Dolemite sets out to clear his name.

LET’S DO IT AGAIN
William Bros.
1975

Cast: Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Jimmie Walker
Director: Sidney Poitier
Plot: When their lodge loses it lease, two Atlanta friends decide to raise the $50,000 it will take to build a new home for their lodge. Their scheme involves New Orleans bookies and a skinny boxer who wins when hypnotized. A sequel to Uptown Saturday Night.

MANDINGO
Paramount/Dino De Laurentis
1975

Cast: James Mason, Susan George, Ken Norton, Brenda Sykes
Director: Richard Fleischer
Plot: The daughter of a Southern plantation owner takes a prized fighting slave as a lover. This violent, big budget movie was less than the sum of its parts. However, it was successful enough to have spawned a sequel, Drum.

POP GOES THE WEASEL aka LADY COCOA
Moonstone
1975

Cast: Lola Falana, Gene Washinton, Alex Dreier
Director: Matt Cimber
Plot: In a plot that must have been inspired by the real life exploits of actress Liz Renay, Lady Cocoa is in prison for refusing to testify against her gangster boyfriend. She’s allowed out in Lake Tahoe under the protective custody of two detectives because she promises to talk.. Gangsters try to kill her.

TAKE A HARD RIDE
20th Century Fox
1975

Cast: Jim Brown, Lee Van Cleef, Fred Williamson
Director: Anthony Dawson

Story: A cowboy and a gambler team up to deliver a big bankroll to their dying boss’s wife. They are pursued by a ruthless bounty hunter.

THREE THE HARD WAY
UA
1975

Cast: Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, Jim Kelly
Director: Gordon Parks Jr.
Plot: A trio of Black heroes swing into action when they discover a plot by white supremacists to pollute the water supply with a poison that kills only Blacks.

MAN FRIDAY
Avco Embassy
1976

Cast: Peter O’Toole, Richard Roundtree
Director: Jack Gold
Plot: In this retelling of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Friday revolts against his white master and eventually drives him crazy.

MEAN JOHNNY BARROWS
Atlas Films
1976

Cast: Fred Williamson, Roddy McDowall, Jenny Sherman, Elliott Gould
Director: Fred Williamson
Plot: Vietnam vet becomes involved with the Mafia after he is unable to get honest work. The movie attempts to deal with issue of returning Black vets facing discrimination. Williamson’s directorial debut.

DR. BLACK, MR. HYDE aka THE WATTS MONSTER
Dimension
1976

Cast: Bernie Casey, Rosalind Cash, Stu Gilliam, Marie O’Henry
Director: William Crain
Plot: In this version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale, Dr. Pride is a wealthy Black doctor working on a cure for cirrhosis of the liver. He begins to use his patients at the Watts free clinic, where he volunteers his time, as subjects in his experiments. He uses the drug on himself, which turns him into a murderous white man. The ends with violent confrontation with the police at the Watts Towers.

DRUM
United Artists
1976

Cast: Ken Norton, Pam Grier, Fiona Lewis, Warren Oates, Isela Vega
Director: Steve Carver
Plot: Twenty years after the events in Mandingo finds bordello owner Isela Vega selling Norton to Oates. Mistreated by his new master, Norton is hung upside and naked and (along with Yaphet Kotto) is whipped. Filled with anger and humiliation, they revolt. Nudity, whipping, and castration gave the original version an X rating but heavy editing reduced it to R.

DEATH JOURNEY
Po’ Boy/ Atlas Films
1976

Cast: Fred Williamson, D’Urville Martin, Bernie Kuby, Heidi Dobbs
Director: Fred Williamson
Plot: A Los Angeles PI must deliver a witness to the New York DA in 48 hours. The mob has other plans for the witness. Generally considered the best of the Jesse Crowder movies.

CAR WASH
MCA
1976

Cast: Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Antonio Fangas, Ivan Dixon, Franklyn Ajaye
Director: Michael A. Schultz
Plot: A hit theme song by the Rose Royce and numerous guest appearances make up for the thin plot line. Memorable are Richard Pryor as a phony preacher and Antonio Fangas as a militant gay.

BLACK SHAMPOO
Dimension
1976

Cast: John Daniels, Tanya Boyd, Joe Ortiz, Skip Lowe
Director: Greydon Clark
Plot: A stud hairdresser makes his salon popular by blow-drying more than his female customer’s hair. When thugs destroy his salon and beat up his employees, the hairdresser shows he can dye more than hair.

THE BLACK STREET FIGHTER aka BLACK FIST; BOGARDS
New Line
1976

Cast: Richard Lawson, Philip Michael Thomas, Dabney Coleman, Annazette Chase
Director: Timothy Galfas
Plot: A young Black man is lured into becoming a street fighter for a crooked promoter. When his pregnant wife and brother-in-law are killed, he takes revenge on all those who have abused and used him. Dabney Coleman stands out as the crooked cop.

THE MUTHERS
Dimension
1976

Cast: Jeanne Bell, Rosanne Katon, Jayne Kennedy
Director: Cirio H. Santiago
Plot: Two American women head a pirate crew called the Muthers. When the sister of one of the Americans is captured and sent to plantation prison camp, the muthers swing into action to save her.

NO WAY BACK
Atlas
1976

Cast: Fred Williamson, Charles Wollf, Tracy Reed
Director: Fred Williamson
Plot: Tough L.A.. private investigator Jesse Crowder goes to San Francisco to find a bank embezzler. He traces the man to San Diego but discovers the mob and the man’s wife have plans of their own for the missing money. The final confrontation takes place in the country where Jesse rides in on horse to save the day.

NORMAN… IS THAT YOU?
Warner Bros.
1976

Cast: Redd Foxx, Pearl Bailey, Tamara Dobson
Director: George Schlatter
Plot: This film version of the Broadway play was intended as a star vehicle for Redd Foxx. A perturbed father feels compelled to straighten out his son.

EBONY IVORY & JADE aka FOX FORCE; SHE-DEVILS IN CHAINS
Dimension
1976

Cast: Roseanne Katon, Colleen Camp, Sylvia Anderson
Director: Cirio Santiago
Plot: Three American women in Hong Kong for the Olympics are kidnapped and held for ransom.

HOT POTATO
Warner Bros.
1976

Cast: Jim Kelly, George Memmoli, Geoffrey Binney, Irene Tsu
Director: Oscar Williams
Plot: Martial arts experts try to rescue an ambassador’s daughter in Thailand.

THE HUMAN TORNADO aka DOLEMITE II
Dimension
1976

Casst: Rudy Ray Moore, Lady Reed
Director: Cliff Roquemore
Plot: We follow the further adventures of the irrepressible Dolemite. After being caught in bed with the sheriffs wife in a small Alabama town, Dolemite escapes to California. They fight the hoodlum trying to take over the nightclub owned by an friend.

J.D.’S REVENGE
AIP
1976

Cast: Glynn Turman, Joan Pringle, Lou Gossett
Director: Arthur Marks
Plot: A hard working college student is possessed by the spirit of a gangster killed in the ’40’s. The spirit wants revenge on the man who killed him and his sister. Fine acting, especially by Turman and Gossett, an intriguing plot, and the moody New Orleans setting made this an above average film.

VELVET SMOOTH
Howard Mahler Films
1976

Cast: Johnnie Hill, Owen Wat-son, Emerson Boozer, Elise Roman
Director: Michael Fink
Director: Velvet is a tough woman who runs a female detective agency. She is hired by a local crime lord to find out who is taking his action. This involves crooked cops, disloyal co-workers, and an unexpected surprise ending. A very low budget film.

BARE KNUCKLES
TWE
1977

Cast: Gloria Hendry, Sherry Jackson , John Daniels
Director: Don Edmonds
Plot: Extremely violent action film about a bounty hunter in pursuit of a Kung fu killer.

BLACK SAMURAI
BJLJ International
1977

Cast: Jim Kelly, Bill Roy, Roberto Contreras, Essie Lin Chia
Director: Al Adamson
Plot: Warlock, the head of a cult of voodoo worshippers, kidnaps the daughter of the Minister of the Samurai Code. Her boyfriend, a top government agent, takes offense and destroys Warlock and his bloody cult.

BROTHERS
Warner Bros.
1977

Cast: Vonetta McGee, Bernie Casey, Ron O’Neal, Renny Roker
Director: Arthur Barron
Plot: A radical, beautiful college professor falls in love with a convict. A fictionalized account of the romance between Angela Davis and George Jackson. Powerful and subtle perfomances by O’Neal, McGee, and Casey are the highlights of this powerful film.

THE GREATEST
Columbia
1977

Cast: Muhammed Ali, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Duvall, James Earl Jones, Roger E. Mosley
Director: Tom Gries
Plot: Based on his autobiography, this is the story of Muhammed Ali. The film opens with Cassius Clay’s return from Rome after winning the Olympic Gold Metal in the Light Heavy Weight division. The key events in his life are chronicled: turning professional, defeating Sonny Liston, his conversion to Islam, his refusal to serve inVietnam and winning his case before the Supreme Court, and his great victory over George Foreman.

MONKEY HUSTLE
AIP
1977

Cast: Yaphet Kotto, Rosalind Cash, Rudy Ray Moore
Director: Arthur Marks
Plot: A Black neighborhood in Chicago is going to be torn down for a new freeway. A big block party is organized to save the ‘hood but the people spend too much time hustling each other.

PASSION PLANTATION
Howard Mahler Release
1977

Cast: Louisa Longo
Director: Mario Pinzauti
Plot: A white slave owner plants more than cotton with his slaves. Originally a soft porn flick called, Black Emmanuelle, White Emmanuelle, it was recut and retitled to cash in on the success of Mandingo and Drum.

PETEY WHEATSTRAW aka DEVILS’ SON-IN-LAW
Generation International Pictures
1977

Cast: Ruday Ray Moore, Ebony Wryte, Sy Richardson
Director: Cliff Roquemore
Plot: A legendary comedian and club owner makes a pact with the devil after rivals kill his friends at a funeral. This fantasy comedy features rhyming opening (an early example of rap), Petey having sex with a room full of women, fighting devils in red tights, Kung fu fighting, and numerous other delights.

A PIECE OF THE ACTION
Warner Bros.
1977

Cast: Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, James Earl Jone
Director: Sidney Poitier
Plot: Two slick con men are blackmailed by a cop into helping out a community center and reforming wayward teenagers.

BLIND RAGE
MGM
1978

Cast: D’Urville Martin, Leo Fong, Tony Ferrer, Dick Adair
Director: Efren C. Pinon
Plot: Five blind Kung fu masters plan a robbery worth fifteen million dollars.

BOOK OF NUMBERS
Avco Embassy
1978

Cast: Raymond St. Jacques, Philip Michael Thomas, Freda Payne, Hope Clark, D’Urville Martin
Director: Raymond St. Jacques
Plot: Two slick waiters setup a numbers game in a small Arkansas town. The local criminal chieftai is not amused and sends two henchmen to set thing right. St. Jacque’s directorial debut.

A HERO AIN’T NOTHIN’ BUT A SANDWICH
New World Pictures
1978

Cast: Cicely Tyson, Paul Windfield, Larry B. Scott, Helen Martin, Glynn Turman
Director: Ralph Nelson
Plot: A boy must learn to cope with the pressures of school and the new man in his mother’s life.

DISCO GODFATHER aka AVENGING DISCO GODFATHER
Generation International Pictures
1979

Cast: Rudy Ray Moore, James H. Hawrthorne, Pucci Jones, Jimmy Lynch, Lady Reed, Carol Speed
Director: J. Robert Wagoner
Plot: A retired cop becomes a celebrity DJ at the Blueberry Hill disco… he’s the DISCO GODFATHER. All is well until his nephew flips out on PCP, which is flooding the streets. Disco Godfather vows “”to personally come down on the suckers that’s producing this shit!”” From that point on, he alternates between cleaning up the streets and performing at Blueberry Hill, where exhorts the crowds to “” Put a little slide in yo’ glide!”” Moore claims this film ended his movie career.

SOUL PATROL aka BLACK TRASH
Madison World Film
1980

Cast: Nigel Davenport, Ken Gampu, Peter Dyneley
Director: Christopher Rowley
Plot: A black newspaper reporter and a white cop join forces to investigate the mysterious deaths of some drug dealers.

ONE DOWN TWO TO GO
Media
1983

Cast: Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, Jim Kelly, Richard Roundtree
Director: Fred Williamson
Plot: A New Jersey martial arts promoter is cheated out of his tournament money by a gangster. The promoter’s three tough-guy friends come to his aid.

I’M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKA
MGM/UA
1988

Cast: Keenen Ivory Wayans, Bernie Casey, Isaac Hayes, Chris Rock, Jim Brown
Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans
Plot: A spoof of the cliches of the ’70s Black action movies. Vietnam vet Jack Spade enlists the aid of Black heroes to save Any Ghetto, USA from the bad guys.