Thomasine and Bushrod

THOMASINE & BUSHROD-1974-This neglected blaxploitation film is set in 1911 and follows the exploits of Thomasine (Vonetta McGee from HAMMER and BLACULA), a bounty hunter when she teams with outlaw Bushrod (Screenwriter Max Julien, a year after starring in THE MACK).  They rob banks, dressed in various outfits and make their getaways in a car (and later a motorcycle with a sidecar) stolen from a banker Thomasine killed. They give a lot of their stolen swag to poor folks and are obviously patterned on BONNIE & CLYDE (made by Arthur Penn in 1967). They are pursued by a U.S. Marshall played by George Murdock. After they become infamous "folk heroes" they start to argue a lot about money. When Thomasine is captured and held in an old church Bushrod dresses as a nun to rescue her. Veteran actress Juanita Moore plays a blind Comanche mystic who tells Bushrod: "you don't have much time". Glynn Thurman (J.D.'s REVENGE) shows up toward the end as their weird friend Jomo who plays blues harmonica before he's dropped into a snake pit by the Marshall.

The film isn't bad but the ending could have been better. The one kind of dumb part is when the duo steal the car. At first they look at it with awe, having never seen one before but then they steal it and Bushrod has no trouble operating it! Herb Robins (director of THE WORMS EATERS) is also in it. Arthur Lee & Love perform the theme song which Lee wrote. It was one of only four movies directed by Gordon Parks Jr., made between SUPERFLY and THREE THE HARD WAY. He made one more film AARON LOVES ANGELA before being killed in a plane crash in Kenya in 1975.

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Revenge Is His!

J.D.'S REVENGE-1976-This unheralded blaxplotation possession flick has Glynn Thurman as Ike, a hard working cabbie studying to be a lawyer getting taken over by a scar faced New Orleans gangster (named J.D.) killed in a slaughterhouse in 1942. He's coming back because he was framed for a murder.


Ike gets a lot of headaches so a doctor recommends he smoke some weed! He rants and cries, abuses his girlfriend and gives a white female passenger an unforgettable cab ride! Lou Gossett is a flamboyant preacher who may be responsible for setting J.D. up. When the ghost finally takes over completely Ike uses a razor on various gangster victims.

Thurman gives a nice shizo-performance. He had been in COOLEY HIGH the year before and was in Ingmar Bergman's THE SERPENT EGG (with David Carradine) the next year. In 1978 he married Aretha Franklin (they divorced in '84). He still makes occasional TV appearances but this movie is pretty much overlooked.

Producer/Director Arthur Marks made BUCKTOWN (with Fred Williamson) and FRIDAY FOSTER (with Pam Grier) and several other movies but worked mostly in TV.

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