Rockne

 

 

 (imdb)

BLACK SAMSON-1974-Samson (Rockne Tarkington) is a righteous dude who owns a bar and a pet lion. White mobster Johnny Nappa (William Smith) wants to take over the turf despite opposition from his uncle (Titos Vandis). Samson's main squeeze is played by Carol Speed and John Alderman and Marilyn Joi have small roles, There's a lot of stupid fights and way too much talk. Gene LeBelle gets beat up. 

This interesting time capsule of a movie was directed by Charles Bail (also an actor) who went on to make CLEOPATRA JONES AND THE CASINO OF GOLD (1975) and THE GUMBALL RALLY (1976). Star Tarkington was well known to some for his role in “Danger Island”, a segment of TV's “The Banana Splits Show (1968-69).

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Put Your Weight On It!

DISCO GODFATHER-1979-Oh my god! Now I know why I don't miss the '70's! The legendary Rudy Ray Moore stars as Tucker Williams, a retired cop who now runs his own disco where he is the main DJ (He says "Put your weight on it!" over and over). At first when his nephew Bucky (Julius Carry) freaks out on angel dust Tucker just says "Get a hold of yourself". Bucky imagines his uncle as a skeleton and an old hag with a sword. ("Bucky what has you done to yourself?!"). After they take Bucky away Tucker takes a tour of a PCP facility where he sees a lot of nutty addicts and hears the story about how a woman roasted and served her baby to her family. ("Haven't you heard, godfather? Our children are dying"). Later Tucker starts a "beat the whack" campaign which leads to him being targeted by Stinger Ray (Hawthorne James), an entrepreneur who runs the PCP making factories. Meanwhile a pastor and his congregation try to cure a girl on angel dust with an exorcism! The craziest part is Tucker's own PCP nightmare with scary faces and even a quick animated scene. "You're not my mother! You're E-vil!". Tucker seems to have lost his mind by the end of the movie. Carol Speed (later the star of the horror film ABBY) plays Tucker's girlfriend Noel. Keith David makes his movie debut in a small role.

DISCO GODFATHER is full of dancers in outrageous over the top '70's style clothes, terrible acting, awful fight scenes and funny out of place Moore reaction shots. It's the only film directed by J. Robert Wagoner.

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