We’re drawn by cool promo posters, but even though there’s nothing special about the cheap-ass art for the 1976 blaxploitation flick Black Heat, we had to watch it anyway because we love low budget vintage cinema. It’s like panning for gold. Usually you end up disappointed, but occasionally you find something shiny and nice. Black Heat stars Timothy Brown, who we last saw in an epic disaster called The Dynamite Brothers, aka Stud Brown, that probably should have ended his cinematic career. But here he is two years later still riding the blaxploitation wave. He plays Kicks Carter, an L.A. cop trying to get to the bottom of illegal activities at a fancy hotel, keep his partner’s born loser girlfriend out of gambling trouble, and make time for romance on the side.
Considering the bad luck Brown had with The Dynamite Brothers we’d love to tell you Black Heat is a major step up in his career. It isn’t. It’s terrible. The only spark is provided by co-star Tanya Boyd, who you may remember from her eye popping turn in Black Shampoo. Anything she’s in, we’ll gladly watch, because as far as heat is concerned her dial goes to eleven. But she about covers the positives here. Well, her and the fact that the movie features one of our favorite sights from ’70s cinema—the car that goes over a cliff with a dummy in the driver seat. It’s a good metaphor for the film—basically driverless, destined to crash and burn. Black Heat premiered today in 1976.
