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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