Just the sight of her makes people feel more animated.
The immortal Pam Grier, star of seminal ’70s action cinema, ’80s cinema and television, and an underrated ’90s Quentin Tarantino crime movie, watches a portable television in this semi-nude promo image made in 1971. We have another shot from this session and we can see what she’s watching. It’s The Flintstones. Which makes sense—sometimes Grier seems like she must have come out of an animator’s imagination like Jessica Rabbit. At this point she’d appeared on the big screen in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, The Big Doll House, and, depending on what time of year this was shot, maybe Women in Cages. She’d soon graduate to starring roles and become the brightest light in blaxploitation cinema.
Now we go from a million eyes to one eye. Black Eye, which premiered today in 1974, stars Fred Williamson in his eighth leading role, and though you may not have heard of the film, it’s one of those rare blaxploitation flicks in which you can see a bit of money on the screen. We’re talking in terms of lighting, framing, locations, night shooting, and more areas where cheaper movies were forced to cut corners. Despite the high production value and the gloss it produces, movies depend mainly on acting and that’s something that only talent can solve. Williamson does mostly okay, but he’s stretched to a few lengths that prove difficult for him to reach, with a predictable effect on the movie’s overall quality. He plays Shep Stone, an erstwhile police lieutenant drummed off the force for killing a drug dealer. He finds himself involved in the murder of his girlfriend’s upstairs neighbor, which had something to do with a silver-tipped cane stolen from a casket in the movie’s opening minutes. Naturally the case unfolds to reveal more than just theft and murder. Expect the expected.
However, Black Eye also has some unusual elements. Williamson is annoyed that his girlfriend Teresa Graves has indulged in a lesbian fling, but gets schooled by her in a very modern way on sexuality, male expectations, and labeling. Graves: “I’m not a lesbian. It just so happens that somebody I find very interesting and have a great deal in common with happens to be a woman.” And speaking of sexuality, some viewers may enjoy this flick a little extra thanks to an unihibited beachfront display by Williamson—we’re talking big-dick-in-a-Speedo action. In slow motion, too, so you can get a really good look. We imagine Williamson at the premiere, nudging people in the ribs: “You see that? That big old thing flopping around? That’s all me. It’s a grower too.” Graves, for her part, offers some lovely buttcrack in the same beach sequence. She’s really beautiful, so it’s a good thing. It’s the two of them, in their second screen pairing, that make Black Eye worth watching. You can’t help but be charmed, just a little.
When it comes to blaxploitation cinema we’re going to plow through every entry even if it kills us. If you haven’t heard of Velvet Smooth, well, you can be forgiven—it’s bottom-of-the-barrel, low-low rent cinema, possibly known only because of its passable promo poster and cute leads. When a group of masked men begin robbing bookie King Lathrop’s regular drops he brings in his girlfriend, private eye Velvet Smooth, played by Johnnie Hill, to get to the bottom of the conspiracy. Hill in turn brings in her two hot assistants Elsie Roman and René Van Clief, and they go into karate kicking action against mystery assailants who turn out to be employed by— Well, we won’t give it away. Unfortunately, this flick is so cheap there are no production photos, and the screengrabs look like they’re from Sanford & Son, but we do what we can. We would recommend giving this a total pass, but there’s no accounting for taste. Film school students, do better than this. Velvet Smooth premiered today in 1976.
Above: a promo image of actress Tamara Dobson made for her trailblazing role in the blaxploitation classic Cleopatra Jones. See another nice image of her here.
You can't predict when it'll happen. You can only hope not to be there when it does.
We’re back to blaxploitation today. We screened the Fred Williamson actioner That Man Bolt last night, and you see its poster above with Fred in dual mode—in a tuxedo, and in a martial arts gi. Range, baby. Our range runs from t-shirts and shorts to t-shirts and jeans, but with good accessories. Williamson plays Jefferson Bolt, an ex-Special Forces captain-turned-industry best international courier, who’s strongarmed into carrying a million dollars from Hong Kong to Mexico City via Los Angeles.
Naturally, the moment he sets off people are trying to relieve him of the money, which he carries in a briefcase chained to his wrist. These aren’t ordinary thieves. It doesn’t take Williamson long to figure out that he’s being double-crossed. At first he thinks the million dollars is counterfeit, but he won’t know for sure what’s happening until after using fists, feet, and whatever happens to be handy to defeat the villains and get to the center of the plot.
There are several attractions to That Man Bolt. The most important is its ample budget. Location shooting took place not only in Hong Kong and Los Angeles, but Las Vegas, where Bolt is forced to make a detour. Another notable aspect is the film’s wide canvas and spy movie feel. Even more value is added by co-stars Teresa Graves and Miko Mayama, playing Bolt’s serial love interests. And lastly, there’s fair to decent action on land and water, including an extensive car chase that’s better than the usual fare.
You get the feeling Bolt was to be a recurring character, though it never happened. Even so, as blaxploitation movies go, That Man Bolt is a cut above. It has scope, good direction, humor that works, decent acting in parts, and a main character you can appreciate, mostly due to Williamson being a good screen presence. While many blaxploitation movies come bearing social commentary—which we consider indispensable to the form—Bolt mostly avoids it. That works out fine in this case, but let’s not make a habit of it. That Man Bolt premiered in the U.S. today in 1973.
Do you think about sex all the time? It's okay. That's how you're wired.
This photo shows U.S. actress Tanya Boyd, who was among the best elements of films such as Black Shampoo, Solomon King, Black Heat, and of course, Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks, as well as an enhancement to television shows like Good Times, What’s Happening, and the epic mini-series Roots. She’s seen here in a shot from around 1973 that makes us remember, like every good Freudian, that sex is really at the root of everything. Mid-century crime writers understood this, which is why, while all appetites are indulged rampantly, from the craving for drink to the obsession with money, sex is nearly always the catalyst for rash action. In essence: Do this insane thing and you’ll get laid. Accumulate riches and you’ll get a Boyd of your own.
Of course, women could refuse to be impressed. In that way they’re all-powerful, but like the gods of Olympus, rife with human flaws. You’ve surely wondered, if women were able to en masse deny sex to destructive men, whether about 75% of the nonsense that goes on in the world would come to a screeching halt. It’s a trite if enticing thought, but—hah hah—it could never happen because women are voraciously sexual too. It’s a cosmic chicken-egg riddle. Around and around we go, gravitationally locked binary entities, hurtling through a deep void. Amazing, isn’t it, what a single photo of Boyd can make a brain do? Well, the sophomore philosophy discussion group is over for today. We’re out. Feel free to ponder an additional time-stopping image of her here.
There, that's better. Now you can see me perfectly.
This is probably the best known shot of U.S. actress Brenda Sykes, but she’s under-documented considering her beauty and show business résumé. She launched her career on television, including the soap opera One Life To Live, before appearing in a dozen or so motion pictures. We’ve seen her in Black Gunn, Mandingo, andCleopatra Jones, plus she’s featured in nice promo images here and here. She’ll probably turn up again. There’s never a date on this shot when you see it online, but figure it’s from around 1971.
When the door Slams you can't depend on anyone but yourself.
Jim Brown went from an NFL career to become one of the most popular blaxploitation screen stars of his era, and The Slams, for which you see a promo poster above, proves it. This was the second Brown movie to hit U.S. screens in a month, coming today in 1973, hot on the heels of Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off, which had premiered on August 31. Unlike that film, in The Slams Brown is on the wrong side of the law. He’s thrown in supermax after a robbery and violent doublecross. $1.5 million in cash and a shipment of heroin are missing, and the prison authorities, the police, the mafia, and Brown’s cellmates all want a piece. He actually threw the heroin in the ocean, but the money is secreted away.
Brown is facing one to five years inside, which he figures he can do easily, but the mafia—who he robbed of the cash and drugs—wants him dead. He’s attacked even before he’s placed in his cell, and the bad guys keep coming. But Brown is saying nothing about the money. It’s the only thing keeping him alive. He could potentially leverage everyone’s greed into release, protection, or anything else he wants, but his plan is to do his time, get out, recover the cash, and disappear. But his timeline changes—urgently—when he learns from the prison television that the place he hid the money is going to be demolished. Escape becomes his only choice.
Low budget ’70s action movies rarely weather well, but we thought The Slams was actually rather good. Better acting would be helpful, but on the whole Brown is about on par with everyone else in terms of thespian talent, and he brings an intangible extra to the screen—charisma. His physicality works in his favor, and his cool delivery of dialogue provides gravity. Being a vintage movie, the language is off the charts incendiary, with n-bombs and f-bombs (not fuck—the other kind) flying left and right, so viewers who might be sensitive to that should take a pass. Otherwise, we recommend The Slams for blaxploitation fans, and give it a cautious thumbs up for fans of ’70s actioners. It premiered today in 1973.
Whatever Lola wants Lola gets—except a decent script and a sufficient budget.
A low rent poster usually indicates a low rent movie. The poster you see here for Lola Falana’s crime drama Lady Cocoa, which premiered today in 1975, is obviously underwhelming. Sometimes, though, digging into the dusty archive of cheap cinema yields forgotten gems. But not in this instance. You know you’re in trouble with Lady Cocoa right from the opening theme, which is a sort of mash-up between a disco song and, “Pop Goes the Weasel.” Literally, that’s the chorus. We’ve come across some terrible theme songs (who can forget the indelible strains of “Flare-Up”?—but this one might take the booby prize.
Falana plays a Reno gangster’s girlfriend who’s spent eighteen months in prison for reasons that are obscure, possibly because she’s insanely annoying. She’s released into protective custody when she finally decides to testify against her man. She doesn’t seem to understand the gravity of her decision, but there’s a reason for that—she has no intention of testifying. She just wants out of the joint for a while. She has total confidence her boyfriend will intuit this, but she’s wrong—kingpins don’t become kingpins through trust. He sends assassins to perforate her, and the movie becomes a standard witness protection actioner. While this basic plot has been done many times, it has rarely been done with dialogue so poor.
Gene Washington: “I remember when I got it in Nam.”
Falana: “Nam?”
Gene Washington: “Yeah. Vietnam.”
Let’s fix that exchange of dialogue for them:
Gene Washington: “I remember when I got it in Nam.”
Falana: “It?”
Gene Washington: “Yeah. Syphilitic meningitis.”
See? Much better. Poor Lola never had a chance in this one. But there are a few items of note. Falana, who’s really cute even playing a grating harpy, spends a lot of the movie in a towel and flashes a backside that’ll leave a permanent impression. Late in the program she and co-star Gene Washington share a real-deal hot tango of a tongue kiss, which is something you rarely see actors do. And one of the assassins is played by Joe Greene, as in Mean Joe Greene, as in the Pittsburgh Steelers. If he’d sacked the producers before they had a chance to make the movie, Hollywood would have given him an honorary Oscar. No such luck.
Despite your ample sexual charms I’m irrationally annoyed I have to bodyguard you.
Still hate me?
Abso-goddamned-lutely.
You sure?
I can’t even budge I’m so filled with loathing.
What if I let you slowly rub this lotion all over me, we enjoy some leisurely oral sex, then fuck like beasts?
I hear they made a black panther movie. And it's not about me. How weird.
Above: a 1974 photo of Pam Grier from Players magazine, wearing a leather outfit from her movie Foxy Brown. Not much to be said here except that she looks her absolute best.
Adolf Hitler signs the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, and Germany begins sterilizing those they believe carry hereditary illnesses, and those they consider impure. By the end of WWII more than 400,000 are sterilized, including criminals, alcoholics, the mentally ill, Jews, and people of mixed German-African heritage.
1955—Ruth Ellis Executed
Former model Ruth Ellis is hanged at Holloway Prison in London for the murder of her lover, British race car driver David Blakely. She is the last woman executed in the United Kingdom.
1966—Richard Speck Rampage
Richard Speck breaks into a Chicago townhouse where he systematically rapes and kills eight student nurses. The only survivor hides under a bed the entire night.
1971—Corona Sent to Prison
Mexican-born serial killer Juan Vallejo Corona is convicted of the murders of 25 itinerant laborers. He had stabbed each of them, chopped a cross in the backs of their heads with a machete, and buried them in shallow graves in fruit orchards in Sutter County, California. At the time the crimes were the worst mass murders in U.S. history.
1960—To Kill a Mockingbird Appears
Harper Lee’s racially charged novel To Kill a Mockingbird is published by J.B. Lippincott & Co. The book is hailed as a classic, becomes an international bestseller, and spawns a movie starring Gregory Peck, but is the only novel Lee would ever publish.
1962—Nuke Test on Xmas Island
As part of the nuclear tests codenamed Operation Dominic, the United States detonates a one megaton bomb on Australian controlled Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean. The island was a location for a series of American and British nuclear tests, and years later lawsuits claiming radiation damage to military personnel were filed, but none were settled in favor in the soldiers.
1940—The Battle of Britain Begins
The German Air Force, aka the Luftwaffe, attacks shipping convoys off the coast of England, touching off what Prime Minister Winston Churchill describes as The Battle of Britain.
Argentine publishers Malinca Debora reprinted numerous English language crime thrillers in Spanish. This example uses George Gross art borrowed from U.S. imprint Rainbow Books.
