{"id":3443,"date":"2024-08-28T16:36:13","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T16:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3443"},"modified":"2024-10-14T11:24:30","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T15:24:30","slug":"black-shampoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/28\/black-shampoo\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Shampoo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Black Shampoo <\/strong>(1976)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dimension Pictures\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 85 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong sexual content, graphic nudity, language, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Greydon Clark\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Greydon Clark and Alvin L. Fast\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Gerald Lee\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dean Cundey and Michael Mileham\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 5, 1976 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Daniels, Tanya Boyd, Skip E. Lowe, Gary Allen, Joseph Carlo (as Joe Ortiz), William Bonner (as Jack Mehoff), Bruce Kerley, Sheldon Lee (as Salvator Benissimo), Anne Gaybis, Heather Leigh (as Diana St. Clair), Fred D. Scott (as Fred Scott), Marl Pero, Kelly Beau, Ruby Williams, Helene Farber, Jacqulin Cole (as Edith Wheeler), Stephen Stucker (uncredited).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0The title Black Shampoo<\/strong> certainly would appear to indicate it\u2019s the black version of the Warren Beatty comedy Shampoo from the previous year. Well, that and the fact that the main character is a popular hairdresser who provides more than hair care for his female clientele. That\u2019s where the similarities end and the blaxploitation begins. There\u2019s none of that jive about politics and societal mores. It\u2019s been replaced by gratuitous sex and violence.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Greydon Clark (Satan\u2019s Cheerleaders), Black Shampoo <\/strong>is a real hoot! It stars John Daniels (The Candy Tangerine Man) as Mr. Jonathan, the proprietor of a successful hair salon on L.A.\u2019s Sunset Strip. Women seek him out not just for his skill as a stylist, but for his talent in another area as well. This dude is a real sex machine! If it\u2019s female and has a pulse, he\u2019ll do her. Rather, they all want to do him. In an early scene, the two teenage daughters of a client attempt to seduce him when he makes a house call to their mansion. Mom chases them off and immediately mounts Mr. J right there by the poolside. All the while, he never once lets go of his hairdryer. Note to Freudians, a hairdryer is just a hairdryer in this scenario.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What happens next is something I\u2019ll bet Warren Beatty never had to deal with at his Beverly Hills salon. During the boss\u2019 absence, a group of hoods working for the movie\u2019s main villain, a white Mr. Big type named Mr. Wilson (Ortiz, Satan\u2019s Cheerleaders), shows up wanting a word with the new receptionist Brenda (Boyd, Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks). It seems she used to be Mr. Wilson\u2019s main squeeze until recently when she walked out on him. He wants her back and won\u2019t take no for an answer. They rough up one of the salon\u2019s employees, the flamboyantly gay Artie (talk show host Lowe), before leaving without Brenda.<\/p>\n

\u00a0This leads to a scene of Mr. J and Brenda revealing their true feelings to each other followed by a romantic montage showing them doing all the things new lovers do- e.g. walking hand-in-hand in a beautiful place, riding a paddle boat, gazing meaningfully into each other\u2019s eyes, etc.- with the soulful \u201cCan You Feel the Love\u201d (by The Gerald Lee Singers) playing over the soundtrack.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Meanwhile, Wilson\u2019s thugs return to the salon and trash the place in order to show their boss means business. By the time Mr. J gets back, his dutiful staff is already at work cleaning up the mess. This leaves him free to share a night of tender, softcore loving with Brenda. She\u2019s gone by the time he wakes up the next morning. He drives around the city looking for her, not once stopping to consider the possibility that she went back to her ex. She did, but only to protect the one she really loves.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Upset over how things turned out, Mr. J decides to take some time to himself at his cabin in the mountains. He engages in activities like shooting pool and cutting logs with a chainsaw. Meanwhile, Brenda decides to split again, this time taking with her a ledger containing information that could destroy Wilson\u2019s criminal empire. He can\u2019t let that happen, so he finds out where she\u2019s hiding (at the cabin with Mr. J, of course) and heads there to deal with them. This is where Mr. J goes full bad ass and fights to rid them of that pesky crime boss (and his barely competent henchmen) once and for all. Yes, the chainsaw figures into the finale. How did you ever guess?<\/p>\n

\u00a0I hardly know where to begin with Black Shampoo<\/strong>. It\u2019s bad, but it\u2019s great! Its greatness lies in its badness. It\u2019s an exercise in fun-eptitude with the atrocious acting, dumb dialogue, poor editing and clumsily staged action scenes. It starts out like a softcore porn fantasy with plenty of sex and nudity packed into the first half-hour or so. Then the crime plot takes over with Mr. J taking on the mob single-handedly (unless you count the old caretaker at his cabin) after a period of brooding over the girl that got away. There\u2019s not a lot in the way of action until the finale which is actually pretty cool.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The preceding is, of course, just a general overview of Black Shampoo<\/strong>. Let\u2019s dive into it a bit deeper. It\u2019s a low-budget job all the way. The makers apparently cut corners wherever they could. Shot in just two weeks, they didn\u2019t even bother getting permits to film on the Strip. The lack of funds also shows in the technical aspects. Take the editing. Transitions between scenes are achieved by fading in and out of freeze-frame negative shots. Reportedly, this is because Clark forgot to shoot proper in-camera edit points. Whatever the case may be, it\u2019s weird. The sound editing is also faulty. In one scene, the sound of breaking glass is heard a second before the thrown object actually hits the mirror. I\u2019m sure this will get by most viewers, but I\u2019m not most viewers, am I?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The performances in Black Shampoo <\/strong>range from wooden to hammy. Wooden is the perfect way to describe Daniels, an actor who shows about as much emotion as one of the logs he cuts with his trusty chainsaw. He\u2019s likable enough, but not the most memorable of action heroes. He possesses all the usual traits. He\u2019s good-looking and muscular. He\u2019s tough on the bad guys and smooth with the ladies. He\u2019s even holds progressive views concerning the two gay men in his employ. If only he had an actual personality. Then again, that never stopped Jean-Claude Van Damme or Dolph Lundgren, did it?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Boyd, while sexy as hell, is no Pam Grier. She\u2019s easy on the eyes, but lacks the bad ass quality of the Coffy star. Also, she can\u2019t act to save her life. Her line readings are noticeably stiff. Ortiz doesn\u2019t do much with his character. Wilson is involved in some vaguely defined criminal business; possibly drugs, but who knows? He\u2019s rich, ill-tempered, controlling and violent. He slaps Brenda around when she gets too nosy. That\u2019s nothing, however, compared to what he does to poor Artie when he refuses to divulge Mr. J\u2019s whereabouts. How does a hot curling iron up the butt sound? OUCH! That\u2019s the only notable thing he does. Except for that, he may as well just be credited as Generic White Villain. I wouldn\u2019t even bring up William Bonner\u2019s lame performance as the lead henchman if not for the pseudonym under which he appears, Jack Mehoff. OMG, LOL! Say it to yourself a couple of times. It sounds like a porn actor name, no?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Hammy is an understated way to describe what Lowe and Gary Allen bring to the party. Their characters are so gay; they make the movie critics played by Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier on In Living Color look like Hans and Franz. They camp it up to 11 as the kind of super-effeminate gays you only find in movies from the pre-PC 70s. Although it goes against woke standards, these guys are a real scream. They shriek, cry and squeal \u201cOooh!\u201d I think I saw a limp wrist or two as well. Artie, proving he hasn\u2019t lost his ability to accessorize after the first assault, shows up to work with a chic scarf wrapped around his neck brace. Yeah, none of this would fly today.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Bad movies are easier to take if they\u2019re laughable. Black Shampoo<\/strong> is definitely that. It deserves the RiffTrax treatment bestowed upon its blaxploitation brother The Guy from Harlem. There\u2019s plenty to poke fun at from the opening sex scene to the very abrupt ending. Still, it\u2019s a cool flick. Its faults are really its strengths. You have to appreciate the goofball spirit of the thing. I mean, look at the tagline: \u201cHe\u2019s Bad… He\u2019s Mean… He\u2019s a Lovin\u2019 Machine! When He\u2019s Mad… He\u2019s Mean…He\u2019s a Killing Machine!\u201d Clearly, Black Shampoo<\/strong> is not meant to be taken seriously. How seriously can you take a movie that features a cameo by Stephen Stucker of Airplane fame?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Greydon Clark, whose credits also include the silly sci-fi flick Without Warning, the teen T&A comedy Joysticks, the Joe Don Baker revenge actioner Final Justice and The Forbidden Dance, one of the two Lambada musical dramas that opened the same exact day (March 16, 1990), has issues with pacing and logic, but understands that his target audience will likely not care about such trivial matters. Black Shampoo<\/strong> is a fun albeit bumpy ride. Just shut off your brain and dig it, baby.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Black Shampoo (1976)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dimension Pictures\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 85 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong sexual content, graphic nudity, language, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Greydon Clark\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Greydon Clark and Alvin L. Fast\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Gerald Lee\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dean Cundey and Michael Mileham\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 5, 1976 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Daniels, Tanya Boyd, Skip E. Lowe, Gary Allen, Joseph Carlo (as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Black-Shampoo-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3443"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4557,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443\/revisions\/4557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}