Blaxploitation Films

In the 70’s a new genre was invented, and like all things there are some good and some bad memories. I applaud anyone that gets a film made doesn’t matter if it is bad. I have sat through my share of films that critics would say are bad. Movies are entertaining and provide a place for us to get lost for a while. For someone like me who loves movies, I can always find something interesting and it also inspires me to do better.

I remember as a kid some of the scripts I wrote. I hadn’t really grasp the language yet. I hadn’t learned to listen to people and watch how they react when they are in conversation. When I began recording my cousins and I doing different skits I began to see the flow of language.
I then began recording television shows and movies. I remember writing the original King Kong film so that I could see how the dialogue looked on paper.

This past weekend I watched four movies that were part of a set billed as Bad Mothers and Mean Brothers. The films starred Fred Williamson, Roddy McDowell, Lola Falana, Billy Dee Williams, Elliot Gould, Gene Washington, Martin D’Urville and “Mean” Joe Greene.

A film entitled Velvet Smooth was the funniest of the quartet. It starred a bunch of unknowns who never went on to do anything better. It was a lot of bad acting and even worse karate moves.

Lady Cocoa was a film vehicle for Lola Falana, the first lady of Vegas. It was okay, but when you’re used to someone singing on stage they don’t always make a great cross over into film. It made for an entertaining night.

Final Comedown starred Billy Dee Williams and dealt with the racial struggles of the 70’s. Sort of a take on the Black Panthers. This was very low budget.

Then there was Mean Johnny Barrows which starred Fred Williams as a Vietnam Veteran trying to get back into society, but having nothing available to him. He gets an offer from a mob boss to use his military skills and soon he’s raking in the money.

There was a large abundance of films which as young kids we were eager to see and imitate what we saw on the screen when we got home. Some of the films I had seen I shouldn’t have even been allowed into the theater. As long as no one was doing an inspection the theater just wanted to make money. There were some films we didn’t dare attempt to get in to see alone. Usually we got someone older to get us into the theater. I remember going to the movies with one of my uncles and my aunt.
At least once a week I was going to the movies with friends after we got our allowance.

I remember films like Shaft, The Mack, Superfly, The Doberman Gang (which I’m still trying to find on DVD.) Cotton Comes to Harlem, Come Back Charleston Blue, Shaft in Africa, Watermelon Man, Cleopatra Jones, Blacula, Scream Blacula Scream, Foxy Brown, Slaughter and Bucktown to name a few.
The one film that had a big impact on me was Coffy. I’m sure it had more to do with the voluptuous Pam Grier than the film itself, but I still feel the film holds up. Pam Grier was beautiful. I had never seen anyone on the screen like her before. Pam Grier for me is like my black version of Marilyn Monroe. (I’m also a big fan of Marilyn’s but she had already passed before I knew who she was.) Pam Grier though was more like an obsession. I felt something whenever she was on the screen. (I still do.) I read everything there was to read about her. Once I started collecting movies I knew her films had to be included, but they weren’t that easy to find. It wasn’t until the late 80’s early 90’s that her films became available. There are still some films that I don’t have either because they were just really bad or I have yet to find them on DVD.

I was talking to a friend about actresses who wait until they are older to show off their bodies and it bothers me sometimes. With Pam Grier she started out showing off her body. In later years she had stopped showing her body in love scenes and I respect that. Pam Grier has had an interesting life. One day I would hope to meet her and I know if it is meant to be it will happen.

I remember when I was a senior in High School, Pam Grier was in New Orleans to film Drum. It was a slave picture which starred Ken Norton. Pam Grier was his love interest as she later became in several movies. She had become the wife or the girlfriend.
I was tempted to skip school so that I might get a glimpse of her, but I didn’t want to make my mother angry at me and I decided against it.

I tried many times to write letters and meet her, but it never worked out.

Thanks for stopping by; keep an open mind.


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