Black Belt Jones

BLACK BELT JONES-Black Belt Jones (Jim Kelly) is a Kung-Fu cop who beats up bad guys, makes loud noises and has terrible fights. Mob boss “The Don” (Andre Philippe) wants the land a karate school is on. It's run by Poppa Bear (Scatman Crothers) and his two sons. A black gangster named Pinky (Malik Carter) tries to horn in but Poppa's students beat him and his inept gang up. After the gang accidentally kills Poppa his daughter Sidney (Gloria Hendry) takes over the school. Later Pinky kidnaps a young student, so Jones puts together a team consisting of himself, Sidney, Poppa's son Toppy (Alan Weeks) and some female gymnasts! They dress as ninjas and infiltrate The Don's place and steal photographs and money to pay Clarence's ransom. After a ludicrous fight on a train car (the thugs just stand in line and get beat up), Jones turns the two gangs against each other. He also takes time to frolic on the beach with Sidney. The unintentionally funny climax takes place in a car wash where Jones beats up the bad guys amid a sea of soap suds (no one bothers using a gun)!

Despite being directed by Robert Clouse who made ENTER THE DRAGON the year before (also with Kelly) this isn't very well done. Maybe they were in a rush to play off the success of DRAGON and Kelly who pumps his fist a lot while doing a bad Bruce Lee imitation. A made in Hong Kong sequel showed up a few years year.

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Hammer's Other Time

BLACK CAESAR-1973-Blaxplotation classic starring Fred Williamson (who had starred in HAMMER the year before) as Tommy Gibbs who rises from abused shoeshine boy (who helps with a mob hit) to Black Caesar, the head of the Harlem underworld. He gets help from a phony black preacher (frequent co-star D’Urville Martin) and a corrupt white lawyer (William Wellman Jr.) to secure some ledgers that can expose some corrupt politicians and nearly kills his own father (Julius Harris). In the wildest scene he puts shoe polish on the face of a corrupt white cop (Art Lund) and makes him sing “Mammy” while beating him to death.

Gloria Hendry (who had a role in LIVE AND LET DIE the same year) plays his girlfriend who later betrays him. Val Avery is a mob leader Gibbs muscles out and Don Pedro Colley is Crawdaddy, Gibbs’s right hand man who causes a lot of trouble. The ending finds Gibbs seemingly dying near a burned out building in his old neighborhood after being beat up by local kids. 

He doesn’t die though. Gibbs/Williamson returned in HELL UP IN HARLEM later in the year.

BC was the second feature directed by Larry Cohen (who also wrote and produced). Besides the sequel he also made IT’S ALIVE around the same time and went on to make other quirky features. He and Williamson re-teamed (with Jim Brown, Pam Grier, among others) for ORIGINAL GANGSTAS in 1996.



HELL UP IN HARLEM-1973-This sequel was pushed into production and it shows. It’s a major letdown after the incredible BLACK CAESAR and has a lot of unintentional laughs.

Gangster Tommy Gibbs apparently didn’t die. Despite being shot and beaten he manages to phone his dad (returning Julius Harris) who comes to his rescue, hides the ledgers and gets “some brothers who can still be trusted” to help out. They take Gibbs to a hospital and hold the staff at gunpoint and force a surgeon to operate (with no anesthesia). This part is pretty funny. Eventually the Gibbs character is re-molded into a force for good battling drug dealers and corrupt politicians. For a while he turns over his gang to dear old Dad who starts a gang war and kills his ex-girlfriend (the also returning Gloria Hendry). D'Urville Martin repeats his role as the preacher who is now legit and believes Tommy is doing good.

It’s entertaining but kind of a letdown. It’s been said the role of Tommy Gibbs was first offered to Sammy Davis Jr. who turned it down!

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"Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared." Henri Nouwen