Director: Henning Schellerup
Year: 1973
Rating: 3.5
An obscure Blaxploitation film distributed by MGM right in the middle of that genre's popularity. Not that it is very good, but it was Roger Mosley's one chance for fame until he showed up as TC in Magnum P.I. seven years later. He isn't bad in this at all, but it didn't do for him what it did for Richard Roundtree or Ron O'Neal. But Magnum was a pretty good gig - living in Hawaii and showing up in a few scenes every show. Very little of this makes much sense, it is cheaply shot and a lot of it is poorly acted. But it is interspersed with a few rough action scenes. And it is pure Blaxploitation - with crooked white cops, corrupt politicians, drug selling, prostitution and a few nude scenes. And sermons.
Mosley plays a hitman for his white boss Martelli played by William Smith. The first five minutes of the film are pretty good as Mosley gets ordered to kill three guys and he does so efficiently and imaginatively, You can almost smell the burnt flesh in the sir. Then Martelli gives him another assignment - someone is moving in on his territory in a black neighborhood, but he doesn't know who. Go in and take care of it. As a preacher. He begins giving sermons to the faithful about the evil in the neighborhood, asking around, beating up a few folks, bedding a few women. Him deep kissing Marla Gibbs of The Jeffersons may keep me awake tonight. There is also an underground organization fighting the drug dealers. It all gets confusing, but he is the Preacher Man and he figures out all the angles and players and thinks maybe he should take over. It was disappointing that Smith just gives orders and does none of the fighting - unusual for him to play the boss and not the muscle.
Year: 1973
Rating: 3.5
An obscure Blaxploitation film distributed by MGM right in the middle of that genre's popularity. Not that it is very good, but it was Roger Mosley's one chance for fame until he showed up as TC in Magnum P.I. seven years later. He isn't bad in this at all, but it didn't do for him what it did for Richard Roundtree or Ron O'Neal. But Magnum was a pretty good gig - living in Hawaii and showing up in a few scenes every show. Very little of this makes much sense, it is cheaply shot and a lot of it is poorly acted. But it is interspersed with a few rough action scenes. And it is pure Blaxploitation - with crooked white cops, corrupt politicians, drug selling, prostitution and a few nude scenes. And sermons.
Mosley plays a hitman for his white boss Martelli played by William Smith. The first five minutes of the film are pretty good as Mosley gets ordered to kill three guys and he does so efficiently and imaginatively, You can almost smell the burnt flesh in the sir. Then Martelli gives him another assignment - someone is moving in on his territory in a black neighborhood, but he doesn't know who. Go in and take care of it. As a preacher. He begins giving sermons to the faithful about the evil in the neighborhood, asking around, beating up a few folks, bedding a few women. Him deep kissing Marla Gibbs of The Jeffersons may keep me awake tonight. There is also an underground organization fighting the drug dealers. It all gets confusing, but he is the Preacher Man and he figures out all the angles and players and thinks maybe he should take over. It was disappointing that Smith just gives orders and does none of the fighting - unusual for him to play the boss and not the muscle.