Disco Godfather.

Review #2507: Disco Godfather.

Cast: 

Rudy Ray Moore (Tucker Williams), Carol Speed (Noel), Jimmy Lynch ("Sweetmeat"), Jerry Jones (Dr. Fred Mathis), Lady Reed (Mrs. Edwards), Hawthorne James (Ray "Stinger Ray"), Julius Carry ("Bucky")", Hazel Spears (Ellen Davis), Frank Finn (Lieutenant Frank Hayes), Fitz Houston (Kilroy), and Pucci Jhones ("The Angel of Death") Directed by J. Robert Wagoner.

Review: 

This was the fifth and final movie where you could reasonably see Rudy Ray Moore on the big screen in a substantial role (okay so he wasn't in The Monkey Hustle [1976] that much, but he was on the poster, so...). Honestly, he pretty much peaked with his first one with Dolemite (1975), which somehow soared in its amusement and entertainment value despite clear and obvious flaws (the filmmaking, for one). The Human Tornado (1976) could've gone better. Petey Wheatstraw (1977) was flat out weird. By this point, Moore was actually in his fifties. Okay, so here is a movie written by two people: Cliff Roquemore (who directed Moore in The Human Tornado and Petey Wheatstraw and did a performance film of Moore's act in 1982) and J. Robert Wagoner. For the rest of his life, Moore would make bit appearances in a variety of programs of television and direct-to-video and theatrical works while doing his comedy albums and even being invited to appear in songs. Needless to say, he lived a colorful life that very well could be a hero of what he called "ghetto expression"*.

Well, there were a few disco-related movies at the time too, so why not cross that with a message about angel dust? Sure won't see that in Roller Boogie (1979), I imagine. I'm not exactly sure why the movie is called "Disco Godfather", because the lead character is an ex-cop that goes on a double-sided crusade: cracking down on where the drug structure is coming from and pushing along with a community alliance of activists to (no I'm not joking) "Attack the Wack". What I wish I could know about the movie is what type of atmosphere this film was made under: sure, it was probably a B-movie made fast and cheap (Moore was also co-producer) but was there any sort of substances involved to come up with such an incoherent movie? You get plenty of hallucinations (get it, because PCP is like being in hell) for a movie that actually does feature plenty of blood from its array of goofy fights (and one suicide because, yes, a guy gets busted for being an informant) and even goofier stakes, at least when not detailing PCP-affected people that may or may not recover from their addiction while others apparently deal with the ramification of roasting babies when high. Consider one scene where our hero has a hit put on him where the hitmen are right at the disco ready to shoot him...only for the bad guy to put a hit on the hitmen! Because he wants the hero to be alive to deal with. You might wonder how the movie lasts 97 minutes. Well, between all of the goofy sequences involving disco (don't take a shot every time someone says "weight"), I think you can understand. There is a sense of tiredness that becomes apparent in the imagination of all involved with Moore (suffice to say, one does miss the kung-fu trained prostitutes of Dolemite). Here you just get a movie that would probably make a goofy doubleheader with Reefer Madness (1936). As a whole, the film is a goofy hit-or-miss experience that never really clicks into serious gear for any of its interests but is at least committed enough in its vision to provide curiosity that may be up your alley if you like old-time oddball movies.

 

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

*I'm not sure if I ever linked to this article, but it is interesting to note that Moore apparently was in the closet: My Coke-Fueled Nights With Dolemite - OZY | A Modern Media Company + New Doc Reveals Details Of ‘Dolemite’ Actor Rudy Ray Moore’s Sexuality

The Human Tornado.

Review #1974: The Human Tornado.

Cast: 

Rudy Ray Moore (Dolemite), Lady Reed ("Queen Bee"), Jimmy Lynch (Mr. Motion), Howard Jackson (Himself), Gloria Delaney (Annie "Hurricane Annie"), Jerry Jones (Pete), Sir Lady Java (Herself), J.B. Baron (Sheriff Beatty), Jack Kelly (Captain Ryan), Herb Graham (Cavaletti), Barbara Gerl (Mrs. Cavaletti), James R. Page (Jimmy), and Ernie Hudson (Bo) Directed by Cliff Roquemore.

Review: 

"I wasn't saying dirty words just to say them... It was a form of art, sketches in which I developed ghetto characters who cursed. I don't want to be referred to as a dirty old man, rather a ghetto expressionist." - Rudy Ray Moore

I'm sure you remember Dolemite, the 1975 blaxploitation crime comedy directed by D'Urville Martin that saw Rudy Ray Moore as cowriter/star. As the story goes, Moore took the idea for the character from stories he had heard from a man that was around the record store Moore was working at, who did them in rhyme. Moore took the idea and did it himself to the tune of jazz and R&B music for comedy albums, which he distributed from word-of-mouth. The movie that came from it was one that (to put it mildly): kicked ass from all sides of the street. Granted, it was ridiculous in execution to see a hero with sexual prowess and kung-fu fighting skills with profanity galore in a movie that couldn't even keep the boom mic from being seen (at least if one was watching it on a VHS or DVD). Moore would appear in a starring role in four further feature roles after Dolemite: The Human Tornado (1976), The Monkey Hustle (1976), Petey Wheatstraw (1977), and Disco Godfather (1979). Moore has been cited as an influence in rap, as cited by noted icons such as Snoop Dogg, and Moore was the subject of Dolemite Is My Name (2018), which had Eddie Murphy play him in the process of making Dolemite, and the 2009 film Black Dynamite (a parody/homage of the blaxploitation era) even honors the first film with visible boom mic shots. As for the director of the sequel, Cliff Roquemore was behind the director's chair.  The Detroit native studied theater at Wayne State University and directed a variety of regional productions before becoming involved in film, for which he was behind the production of a handful of blaxploitation features, with him directing Moore in this film Petey Wheatstraw. Jerry Jones wrote the script for this film just like he did for Moore's last film, albeit without Moore serving as a writer this time. 

You know, this may actually be slightly a better-made feature than Dolemite, but that isn't exactly saying much. Saying random highlights might be a disservice when one could see it for themselves, really. The original film was sheer ridiculousness in the level of things it wanted you to go with when it came to general staging. The sequel isn't quite as ridiculous, but there are still various little moments of "of course that happened" here and there, such as trying to pass off the opening as taking place not in California when you can see the Hollywood sign and then find yourself looking at Bronson Cave, the familiar cave of countless B-movies. Hell, Dolemite is shown doing a routine in various clothes, as if they could only film some the funny bits of Moore's act and have to come back on random other days without regard for if the clothes matched or not. The "kung-fu" action is just sped-up regular moving (complete with funny noises), which somehow is sillier than when Dolemite was blowing people away the first time around (since he had a stable of women that were trained in kung-fu). Hell, now you have scenes of Dolemite doing a scene of lovemaking in, uh, a trippy sequence where the "bed" is first seen as building blocks. It even has an "Instant Replay" scene right before the character rolls down a hill (naked, I might add).  It is a weird movie that sees Moore talk mostly in rhymes (which seems more noticeable this time around than the previous film). The actors that return from this film aren't any different than before, which sure says something when one deals with a plot involving kidnapping and brief appearances from folks best known for either Maverick or Ghostbusters. The villain this time is just a bunch of weirdo white folks, which is a bare change from the minimally developed villain of the last film (well, at least when you consider that the first film not only had hustlers as adversaries but crooked cops). Hell, the climax is scattershot to the max, considering it ends with our hero having a bullet taken for him only to see him minutes later trick the villain into shooting him in the back due to his convenient bullet-proofed vest (considering all of this started because of adultery, you would think the man would check for more than five seconds about a man he just shot). Calling this a sleazy B-movie is like calling your dumb friend a dumb friend when they do something dumb: what do you expect?  These were movies made for audiences that wanted to see Moore and some fun action, which works to the benefit of a viewer who knows what they are going for with Moore: silly weird fun that is clearly of the 1970s. That doesn't mean I endorse the movie as "good", but there isn't anything here that is reprehensible (unless one really expected a "film" rather than a "movie"). A man unlike no other in terms of vibrant ambition, Rudy Ray Moore made a worthwhile second feature after Dolemite that continued the entertainment value found within a persistent and distinctive personality that clearly has a place within black cinema, or cinema in general when it comes to movies that might as well qualify as outsider art. 

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Next time: Killer of Sheep.

Dolemite.

Review #1451: Dolemite.

Cast: 
Rudy Ray Moore (Dolemite), Lady Reed (Queen Bee), D'Urville Martin (Willie Green), West Gale (Reverend Gibbs), John Kerry (Mitchell), Jerry Jones (Blakely), Vainus Rackstraw (Creeper), Hy Pyke (Mayor Daley) Directed by D'Urville Martin.

Review: 
"My structure has an art-form flow, and I do what I do as a form of art. I'm a ghetto expressionist, not a dirty old man."

ACTUAL FILM QUOTE: "I'm gonna let 'em know that Dolemite is back on the scene! I'm gonna let 'em know that Dolemite is my name, and fuckin' up motherfuckers is my game!"

What do you expect from a film once described as "the Citizen Kane of kung fu pimping movies"? This was the brainchild of Rudy Ray Moore, who was an comedian and singer after serving in the US Army for the entertainment unit in Germany., after realizing his desire to be an entertainer through seeing a talent contest as a teen. His first persona was "Prince DuMarr" (done at 17 while in Milwaukee), in which he performed a singing and dance act with a turban. He joined the service in 1950 and found himself stationed to perform for fellow service men, for which he served for over two years that helped inspire him to do stand-up comedy. His initial comedy albums (the first in 1961) were moderate hits on release. It was during his time working at Dolphin's of Hollywood that he would first hear about an eccentric drunk named Rico, who would trade his tall tales for money to Moore, which he was soon inspired to use a routine and persona of his own in Dolemite, with the act differing from other comedians of the time with his profanity that included rhymes and music. In 1974, he got the inspiration to further Dolemite into the public consciousness through a motion picture, for which Moore would use the money made from his records to help fund this project to the sum of over a hundred thousand dollars while Jerry Jones would write the script. Moore would prove to have a career in film (of sorts), with a sequel following in The Human Tornado the following year along with a few other blaxploitation films later in the decade while still continuing to do albums that continued until his death in 2008 at the age of 81. A film depicting the film's production was released in 2019 in Dolemite Is My Name, featuring Eddie Murphy as Moore.

It is obvious fairly quickly that this is a nonprofessional kind of film, one where the editing and shot composition seem to fight each other for whose is more obviously ridiculous, and the acting is basically nonexistent. In comparing it to other blaxploitation fare, I would say that this is probably around the level of Shaft's Big Score! (1972) in terms of general entertainment, where you will laugh plenty for this stupefying film (whether with or at what you see) with curiosity in more ways than one. It isn't great by any means, but it is admirably average enough to override flaws that could've sank in less ambitious hands. Perhaps it is like watching one of those so-bad-it's-good films, where you can poke at the holes present here and still smile a bit, such as the supposed martial arts sequences or the key fight between Moore and Martin (who apparently was not too enthusiastic in directing this film) that ends with a liver pulled out of all things. One can't resist watching Moore on screen, who generates plenty of laughs with excitement with too many actions to count. Martin may not be on screen too much as the villain, but he sure makes the confrontation scene between him and Moore worthwhile. You know why this works enough to be recommended as a winner over other certain average "cult classics"? Because this one actually managed to make me actually really care about what could happen next, whether that involved a sling of unmentionable words to make a cheeky insult by our star or where the cardboard cutouts will do next to react to what resembles a vanity project but with kung fu and style. It is a 90 minute amateur explosion that makes for a good curiosity to view and laugh as an irresistible film of its time and era.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.