Cast:
Godfrey Cambridge (Detective "Gravedigger" Jones), Raymond St. Jacques (Detective Ed "Coffin Ed" Johnson), Peter Deanda (Joe Painter), Percy Rodriguez (Bryce), Jonelle Allen (Carol), Maxwell Glanville (Caspar), Minnie Gentry (Her Majesty), Dick Sabol (Jarema), and Leonardo Cimino (Frank Mago) Directed by Mark Warren.
Review:
If you remember, Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) was an interesting film for its time, one that is debatably one of the first blaxploitation films made. It was an adaptation of the Chester Himes novel of the same name that was the sixth of a series of novels Himes made involving two Harlem detectives (Grave Digger Jones & Coffin Ed) in the 1950s/1960s, one that dealt with tough cops trying to combat violent criminals, drug dealers, and pimps in their own ways (this is a trope one could identify in a variety of "loose cannon" detective media). Ossie Davis directed a fairly effective piece of entertainment with a crop of worthy talent and some interesting moments that generated some thrills and amusement. Two years later, a sequel would follow. Serving as sequel director is Mark Warren, primarily known for his television work rather than his three features, for which this was his first one (the most prevalent show he directed was Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In from 1969 to 1972). It was the time where black action movies had the chance to have follow-up films, with examples ranging from They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (the 1970 sequel to In the Heat of the Night, which had another follow-up the next year), Shaft's Big Score! (1972, followed by another film the next year), Super Fly T.N.T. (the 1973 sequel to Super Fly), while other films decided to avoid the sequel route due to the belief that sequels made less money than if one simply retained the lead actor and just did a similar story (Coffy followed by Foxy Brown, for example). The film was an adaptation of the book The Heat's On. This film was written by Ernest Kinoy and Peggy Elliott (the former is listed as "Bontche Schweig", incidentally).
You may be wondering what exactly is "Charleston Blue". Well, the film states he was a famed Harlem gangster that liked to cut throats with elegant razors made in Charleston that apparently went missing when he tried to take down gangster Dutch Schultz in the late 1930s (as told by a fortune-teller and numbers "Majesty", naturally)...and four decades later someone is taking mobsters down while leaving those razors at the crime scene. Well, really it is a ploy by someone to take over the drug trade from the Mafia, but that sometimes gets forgotten when you are seeing a variety of odd moments, such as one guy playing basketball and dunking the ball...right before he gets machine gunned to death. Oh, and folks getting killed by bombs thrown at them. And a man dressing up in a nun costume. I think it is played more for comedy this time around, although one knows the earlier film did play itself for comedy at times (the last one had Redd Foxx, remember), with the easiest example being the slapstick sequence involving a fight at a place with newly installed ping pong tables. Granted, it does have cynicism over the pursuit of advancement for certain figures trying to drive out white figures only so they can have it for themselves. The lead characters are tough on certain crime, particularly when it comes to people in their community being used. Cambridge and St. Jacques are in quality form in relation to how they handle the procedural action alongside sly comic lines or visual moments like having to dispose of their guns to the police captain (all of them). It's a shame that this was the last one they made together (more sad that Cambridge died a couple of years later of a sudden heart attack). Deanda makes for a fair adversary in terms of casual craven hypocrisy that isn't too overshadowed by the rest of the eccentric characters (but hey, who isn't when it comes to procedurals with distinct characters). By the time it gets to its climax involving graveyards (well, the second one with graves), it makes for fair action that doesn't waver too much in believability or in the aspect of depicting Harlem with an assortment of characters worth seeing. While the film is a notch below the original in terms of overall composition, it does handle its 100-minute run-time with enough charm to make it worth a viewing for folks who admire hard-boiled entertainment with both tension and humor.
Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.
Next Time: Black Girl.
No comments:
Post a Comment