Let's Go To The Movies # 2 Fri. 10 Aug. 1973

It Fri. night in Detroit, MI (and probably hot & humid as all hell) so let's go to a nice air-conditioned theatre or head over to a drive-in.

The world premiere of DETROIT 9000 is downtown at the Madison and at the Camelot and Norwest. Filmed on location in Detroit "It's the murder capital of the world, The Black rip-off of the decade, and a White cop squeezed in the middle", it stars the great Alex Rocco along with a host of Detroit area '70s personalities in cameos.

Featuring an ad campaign that promoted Detroit's infamous sky-rocketing homicide rate (a record 751 would be recorded in 1974), its a favorite of Quentin Tarantino and was directed by Arthur Marks who had a great run in the '70s with BONNIE'S KIDS ("Thank God She Only Had Two!"), THE CANDY SNATCHERS, FRIDAY FOSTER, and THE ROOMMATES among others.

The magnificent Tamera Dobson stars in the surprisingly "PG" rated CLEOPATRA JONES ("She's 6 Feet 2" of Dynamite!") which has been held over at the Grand Circus and the Mercury. Directed by 70's drive-in guru Jack Starret (best known as the sadistic Deputy Gault in FIRST BLOOD), it also co-stars a full-on scenery-chewing Shelly Winters (who as to be seen to be believed here). 

The Grand Circus along with the Fox and the Adams were the giant old movie houses in downtown Detroit located around the Grand Circus Park area. In the '70s they specialized in blaxploitation, kung fu, and stuff like the ILSA films. And on the way home, you could stop at Lafayette Coney Island.

 Dwain Esper's infamous VD warning film SEX MADNESS (which harkens back to 1937) is getting one of its countless revivals in several area theatres. Hopefully, there was a white-coated guy in the lobby hawking pamphlets warning you of the ill-effects of pre-marital sex. "She Sought Thrills And Caught Trouble!"  Plus as a double feature, you get the 1927 "weed western" HIGH ON THE RANGE with famed Hollywood stuntman Yakima Canutt.

The sequel to 1972's BLACULA, SCREAM BLACULA SCREAM is held over at the downtown theatre the Palms. Starring the very effective and Shakespearian-trained William Marshall the ad really plays up co-star Pam Grier's involvement along with her recent hit COFFY ("Pam Grier-That Coffy Spitfire is a Voodoo Priestess Now!") which shows how big a box office draw she was in the '70s.  

With a big 1/8 page ad the porno-chic, THE DEVIL IN MISS JONES from the previous year is still in its exclusive run at the Krim. Like DEEP THROAT, many theatres ran this almost 24/7 and it racked in tens of millions (if not hundreds of millions) of dollars for it's mob-controlled distributers during the '70s. 

Sporting another surprising "PG" rating the drive-in classic WHITE LIGHTNING is playing multiple locations including (appropriately enough) six local drive-ins. Directed by the vastly underrated Joesph Sargent (THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE) and starring a pre-mega-star Burt Reynolds, it's a surprisingly nihilistically brutal (and often really sweaty) film. Co-starring a thoroughly evil Ned Beatty and a gaggle of character actors including Bo Hopkins, Dabbs Greer, Matt Clark, Diane Ladd. R.G. Armstrong and the wonderful Jennifer Billingsley.

This and its follow-up GATOR from 1976 played drive-ins in the south well into the '80s. 

Hey, look at this! There's a spook show happening at the Holiday Drive-In hosted by local Detroit horror host Sir Graves Ghastly. The spook shows are fascinating and now forgotten bit of film-going history. Usually featuring one (or maybe two) old "B" horror films they featured costumed monsters and guys in gorilla suits jumping out at the audience or rampaging through the drive-in lot all of which was hosted by a local celebrity (usually as here the local Saturday TV horror host). Sometimes at drive-ins, they would bury somebody in a box just under the surface of the drive-in lot (hopefully with an air outlet) and they would pop out at the appropriate time as a zombie. 

Directed by Ralph Bakshi the animated (and unrated) HEAVY TRAFFIC is getting a pretty wide release. I remember seeing this later in the decade at midnight shows and this is my favorite of Bakshi's films. "More Spice From The Makers of Fritz The Cat!"

"For the Sake of Your Sanity, Pray it isn't True!" One of the greatest haunted house films ever and featuring a magnificent performance from Pamela Franklin, THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE (with another WTF were-they-thinking '70's "PG" rating) is still getting a broad release a couple months after its release date including the Northgate in Hazel Park which was a great somewhat-on-the-scuzzy-side theatre that specialized in horror and slasher. 

Arguably featuring career-best performances from Gene Hackman and Al Pacino, the ultimate downer of a 70's buddy road movie SCARECROW is in its last week and is playing four theatres out in the 'burbs after it's April opening. 

Down at the Studio 8 on 8 Mile and complete with a review quote from Family Circle (??) magazine ("It's not a dirty movie") is Bernardo Bertolucci's LAST TANGO IN PARIS. Located east of 8 Mile Road's string of topless bars, adult bookstores and massage parlors, The Studio tended to feature arthouse and foreign films. 

Last chance at the Camelot to see the really cool double feature of BONNIE AND CLYDE and BULLITT. A bit earlier than this, I saw BULLITT and NEVADA SMITH on a double feature.

"Shaft's back and twice as bad...Kickin' the Mafia up and down the world and back." The third (and final) in the Shaft series the James Bond-ish SHAFT IN AFRICA is playing two drive-ins and one theatre. The weakest of the two sequels it has a plot that doesn't hold up to much scrutiny, but Richard Roundtree's screen presence helps as he busts a modern-day slavery ring and there's Vonetta Mcgee (who's also in  DETROIT 9000) and heaps of violence of bare skin. "Wanna see Shaft again? This time bring yo' momma!"

Down at the Fox, there's SLAUGHTER'S BIG RIPOFF with Jim Brown in the follow-up to 1972's SLAUGHTER with Brown's ex-Green Beret and his '73 Dodge Charger once again taking on the mob. Which here is in the form of Johnny Carson sidekick Ed McMahon (!!) plus you got perineal 70's heavy Don Stroud, Gloria Hendrey from LIVE AND LET DIE and SAVAGE SISTERS and of course, Jim Brown killing bunches of bad guys. 

Rounding out the double feature is TRICK BABY from 1972 which is well worth seeking out.

For the adults-only inclined we've got THE FOURSOME along with the always-running DEEP THROAT and some good old-fashioned burlesque at National Burlesk Theatre (across from Crowley's Dept. Store) featuring Mademoiselle Di-Di BangBang (42-24-36).

HIT MAN 1972

"He aims to please"

     Based upon Ted Lewis's 1970 novel Jack's Return Home which was the basis for the superb GET CARTER from 1971 starring Michael Caine, director/writer George Armitage's HIT MAN moves the action from the grim industrial north of England to the seedy underbelly of 1970's Los Angeles and the porn movie industry while mixing in some film noir elements. An underappreciated and early entry in the 70's Blaxploitation wave, it has a charismatic lead turn by ex-NFL player Bernie Casey as an out-of-town and out-for-revenge mobster and best of all the ultimate 70's ass-kicking goddess Pam Grier (here billed as Pamela Grier) as a tough as nails porn star here immediate post-Filipino/ women-in prison stage of her career.

    Oakland based ex-con/mobster Tyrone Tackett (Casey) arrives in Los Angeles for his brother's funeral after an alleged suicide and to check on his niece Rochelle (Candy All THE SWINGING CHEERLEADERS). Finding the wild living Rochelle not receptive to his offer to live with him, Tyrone hooks up with his brother's business partner/ used car salesman Sherwood Epps (Sam Laws TRUCK TURNER) and begins poking into his brother's death. The trail quickly leads into the L.A. crime underworld and porno movie industry.  Meeting up with a succession of low-lives and gangsters (including Paul Gleason from THE BREAKFAST CLUB & Roger Mosley from MAGNUM P.I.) all of whom basically tell him to stop asking questions and go back home, he begins to uncover unpleasant lifestyle choices related to his niece and dead brother. 

    Taking Ted Lewis's story of honor and revenge and moving into the world of 70's Blaxploitation and urban crime seems like it would be a natural and although Armitage claimed he never saw the Caine film, his script (which the basic story was given to him by producer Gene Corman - Roger's brother) follows it with the originals downbeat ending changed. Armitage's script meanders a bit through the first while as Tackett arrives in L.A. and begins questioning his brother's friends and business associates as there even some odd humor that seems weirdly out of place including a scene where Tackett and Epps get drunk and Tackett begins talking in a high feminine voice  and a bit with Epps as he tries to film a TV commercial and mistakenly saying "mother-fucker"

     Things pick up quite a bit during the film's second half as Tackett hooks up with porn actress Grier (wonderfully named Gozelda & sporting a tremendous natural Afro) and begin his bloody vendetta. Although there are some scenes in gangsters' mansions most of the film takes place in a gritty world of low rent motels, ill-light porn theatres, brothels, and dinghy streets. For the most part, this is not the beach and palm tree L.A, all of which is beautifully captured by cinematographer and future director Bruce Davis (THE FUGITIVE). Armitage, who had started out with the Roger Corman school of film production (PRIVATE DUTY NURSES), makes great use of actual Los Angeles locations including the Watts Towers and a wild animal park that is used a couple of times, while maybe seeming odd, does figure into the climax and leads to one character's demise. 

     Although obviously staged there's a winch inducing sequence showing a dogfight which maybe can be augured shows the mindless violence in the which characters reside and be taken in the context of the era's film making & ratings, but still it's something the film could have done without as it has nothing to do with the plot. Like a lot of Blaxploitation films HIT MAN shows the higher up figures in the crime world to be white (and mostly of Italian descent it would seem) who are dealt out a bloody comeuppance during the finale

     During its later half HIT MAN lives up to his 70's R rating with bright red bloody shoot-outs (including a machine gun invasion of a gangster mansion) and nudity with most of the female cast seeming to drop their clothes in every scene. It's also worth noting some comparisons to Paul Schrader's HARDCORE from 1979 as Tackett becomes immersed in the world of porn and finds out his nieces' involvement in that world with Grier becoming his guide (as is Season Hubley for George C. Scott in HARDCORE) and his discovery of the truth while viewing a porn film with brings out slow simmering anger in him.  

     Casey is quite good here, bringing an air of dignity and family honor to the role with his graying Afro even while decked out in full 70' regalia if even though we initially see his action as noble, it's soon relieved that he is just as evil as the men he's pursuing with only his revenge lending his character some credence for the violence that he engages in. He would alternate in major studio film supporting roles like THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH and NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, T.V. and Blaxploitation titles like BLACK GUNN and DR. BLACK MR. HYDE. He passed away in 2017.

    Although she'd been sweatin' it up in the Philippines for a couple of years, this is the film where you can really see Pam come into her own and while not the tough take charge female protagonist we would see later in films such as COFFY, you can see an icon in the making here.

     Marilyn Joi (billed her as Tracy Ann-King) makes an early appearance here and would go on to appear in bunches of 70's classics including THE NAUGHTY STEWARDESSES, BLACK SAMURAI, THE CANDY TANGERINE MAN, ILSA HAREM KEEPER OF THE OIL SHEIKS and CHEERLEADERS WILD WEEKEND.  

      Released as part of the Warner Archive program, it's a great looking DVD with those gaudy 70's colors popping out and combined with a nice gritty feel that really brings out the seediness of the film's locations. Davis's cinematography makes for one of the best-looking films in this genre and hopefully, we can get a Blu-ray someday.  

All the above screen caps are from the Warner Archive DVD

COFFY 1973

"They call her Coffy and she'll cream you !"

     In the early 70's AIP was looking to break into the burgeoning genre of what's now known as Blaxploitation and were set to distribute Jack Starrett's CLEOPATRA JONES when the deal fell through and looking to get some product quickly into the market they turned to writer/director Jack Hill. CLEOPATRA JONES was meant to be the first Blaxploitation starring an empowered female central character and Hill going with the same basic formula (along with the undeniable presence of Pam Grier) created a classic of 70's cinema and the film that launched Pam's career. COFFY with a revenge-seeking bad-ass female character beat CLEOPATRA JONES and its similar plotline into release and ended up burying it at the box office.
     Starting off with a bang as it's wonderfully bloody & violent pre-credit sequence shows what looks to be a hooker begging her john/dealer for a fix, she quickly dispatches him by blowing his head off with a shotgun and then forcing his minion to OD on heroin. We quickly learn that the "hooker" is nurse Pam Grier (whose last name is Coffin and only referred to as "Coffy" throughout the film) whose out for revenge after her younger sister was addicted to smack and is confined to a psychiatric hospital. She is also in a relationship with up & coming politician Howard Brunswick (Booker Bradshaw SKULLDUGGERY 1970) and friends with nice guy policeman Carter (William Elliott from TV's ADAM-12) with whom it's also hinted at she had a past relationship.

     After Carter is brutally beaten and left brain dead Coffy sets her sights on the entire drug organization including drug kingpin gangster Arturo Vitroni (Allen Arbus from TV's MASH) and pimp "King George" (who has his own theme song on the soundtrack) played by Robert DoQui (GUYANA: CULT OF THE DAMNED 1979). In a scene that must rank among a highlight of 70's Blaxploitation cinema (or cinema in general for that matter), Grier decked out in a white bikini, massive sunglasses (and a hilarious fading in & out Jamaican accent) lounges by a pool on order to meet King George and infiltrate his stable of hookers. Becoming the favorite of the King, she incurs the wrath of blond-haired hooker Meg (played with spit-in-your face brass balled perfection by the wonderful Linda Haynes from ROLLING THUNDER) which leads to a massive catfight during a party with plenty of ripped off dresses and some amazing (and painful it would seem) stunt work performed by Grier, Haynes, and others.
   Grier has a magnificent presence here and although her acting is a bit wooden she carries this movie with gusto and Jack Hill's usual economical pull no punches direction and writing keeps things moving at a quick clip. Although the plot is standard stuff having a female in the lead role of the avenger was something new (along with Raquel Welch in 1971's HATTIE CAULDER) and would pretty much set the blueprint for Grier's 70's career as a kick-ass leading lady.
   She also plays the role of conflicted and confused - especially to the level of corruption she encounters and how much killing is forced upon her. Although she does have a moral compass she clearly knows what she wants to do and the villains are played to such outlandish rottenness you can't help but root for their demise.

    With the "n" word thrown out in about every other line and a very bloody dragging death behind a car, Coffy is awash in a very gritty 70's un-PC atmosphere and like many urban dramas of the period it deals with the encroachment of drugs and crime (usually perpetrated by whites with Italian surnames) into black communities. It presents the entire system of police and politicians as totally and wholly corrupt with only Coffy's policeman friend being honest and he, in turn, meets with a very bloody exit.
    Filled with familiar character faces (including Sid Haig as a gangster enforcer), Stuntman Bob Minor (THE SWINGING CHEERLEADERS), Leslie McRay (DEATH RACE 2000), Lisa Farringer (TRUCK TURNER) and an uncredited Marilyn Joi pops up as a prostitute. Pam had worked with Jack Hill previously for New World in the Philippines for THE BIG DOLL HOUSE and THE BIG BIRDCAGE. COOFY features an excellent soundtrack Roy Ayers including the title theme "Coffy Is The Color".