Men In Prison

PENITENTIARY-1979-A hitchhiker named Martel "Too Sweet" Gordone (Leon Isaac Kennedy) gets into a fight with two bikers over a prostitute . One of the bikers is killed and Gordone is sent to prison. There he falls in with a lot of violent (but in some respects cartoonish) black inmates. He has a weird fight with his super scary cell mate (Badja Djola) and later on gets involved in some prison boxing tournament run by a white lieutenant (Chuck Mitchell; later in PORKY'S) where the winners in each weight class get a night with a woman. He's trained by an old inmate "Seldom Seen" Jackson (Floyd "Wildcat" Chatman) who says "I'm a man. I ain't no hippy dippy fool". A transvestite comedian Wilbur "Hi-Fi" White plays Sweet Pea.

It's badly photographed, edited and acted but it is a violent, enjoyable ROCKY inspired "blaxploitation" movie. Director/producer/writer Jamaa Fanaka (nee Walter Gordon) made this 3 years after his last movie EMMA MAE and would make 2 sequels both starring the more than one emotion challenged Kennedy who retired in the late '80's to become a minister.

Special note: Two days after writing this review I read director Jamaa Fanaka (nee Walter Gordan) died on April 1 2012!

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Emma Mae in Black Sister's Revenge

EMMA MAE-1976-The seemingly shy, sweet Emma Mae (Jeri Hayes) comes to LA to live with her hip city oriented cousins. At a get together she proves she as tough as anyone else when she socks a guy. She falls for another guy at a party just before it turns into a riot. The guy seems ok but is really a dirt bag druggie.

After a riot at a party he and his friends are arrested for beating up two cops and sent to jail. Emma Mae tries to raise money for a lawyer by opening up a car wash but “the pigs” close her down. She decides the only way to get the money is to rob a bank. She gets help from an old revolutionary named Big Daddy (Malik Carter) who gives a great speech in one scene. The robbery is successful and she gets her man out of the slammer but he two times her the same night he’s sprung and she winds up kicking his ass with many well placed groin shots and returning to her home down south. It’s a pretty funny little drama but the acting especially by Hayes in the lead role isn’t very good. It’s also known as BLACK SISTER’S REVENGE.

This was director Jamaa Fanaka’s second feature. His next in 1979 would be the exploitation hit PENITENTIARY.


"Legend is always more romantic than truth"-Barnabas Collins

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