{"id":8236,"date":"2024-11-12T00:24:24","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T05:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8236"},"modified":"2024-11-12T00:24:24","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T05:24:24","slug":"the-black-godfather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/12\/the-black-godfather\/","title":{"rendered":"The Black Godfather"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Black Godfather <\/strong>(1974)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinemation Industries\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, language, full frontal female nudity, sex, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Evans\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Evans\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Martin Yarbrough\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jack Steely\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 3, 1974 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Rod Perry, Damu King, Don Chastain, Diane Sommerfield, Jimmy Witherspoon, Duncan McLeod, Tony Burton, Anny Green, John Alderman, Betsy Finley, Ken Bell, Cinque Attucks.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Contrary to its title, The Black Godfather<\/strong> is NOT The Godfather with an all-black cast. HA! It wishes it was half as great as the first chapter of Coppola\u2019s iconic gangster saga. Then again, so do a lot of movies dealing with organized crime. Like all copies, some turn out better than others. The Black Godfather<\/strong> happens to be one of the ones that didn\u2019t turn out too badly.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The blaxploitation crime drama stars Rod Perry (TV\u2019s S.W.A.T.) as J.J., a young junkie we first meet trying to rob drug dealers with his friend who ends up dying in an alley from a gunshot wound. An injured J.J. is helped to safety by local crime boss Nate Williams (blues singer Witherspoon) who also imparts a few words of wisdom on successfully living a life of crime. A short time later, J.J. is one of the top guys on the streets. He wants to rid his neighborhood of drugs and the pushers that get kids hooked. He recruits militant group leader Diablo (King, Shaft) to aid him in his efforts. Their primary target is Tony (Chastain, C.C. & Company), a white gangster who isn\u2019t easily intimidated. If he has to go to war to hold onto his territory, he will.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Movies like The Black Godfather<\/strong> aren\u2019t complete without a couple of things: (1) the hero\u2019s love interest and (2) a corrupt white cop. First, we have Nate\u2019s daughter Yvonne (Sommerfield, Blackjack). They\u2019re really into each other making her a liability. Naturally, Tony snatches and holds her when push comes to shove in the escalating gang war. Second, we have Lt. Joe (McLeod, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls), a dirty cop who takes bribes from all sides. He also acts as a messenger between dealers. He really doesn\u2019t care who comes out on top, just as long as he keeps getting paid.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In true blaxploitation fashion, The Black Godfather<\/strong> has a cool poster. It shows Perry surrounded by foxy ladies while holding a gun. The tagline reads: \u201cThere\u2019s a new Godfather in town…. and everybody wants his body- the FBI, some very foxy chicks and the Mafia!\u201d It may not be 100% accurate- in fact, it\u2019s NOT- but it looks good in the lobby. The title looks great on a 42nd<\/sup> Street marquee but chances are you already know that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Like many movies of its ilk, The Black Godfather<\/strong> is rough around the edges. It\u2019s not especially well made. The acting is noticeably wooden, amateurish in some cases. Perry\u2019s a decent blaxploitation lead, but he\u2019s no Jim Brown or Fred Williamson. Sommerfield, whose body is on FULL display, is sexy. Tony Burton of the Rocky movies makes a decent debut as Nate\u2019s main henchman, ex-boxer Sonny. The pacing is off. It has more talk than action. However, the talk mainly consists of dippy dialogue like Nate telling J.J. \u201cDon\u2019t let your ass overload your mouth now.\u201d With lines like that, you can\u2019t help but be amused. The same goes for scenes that come out of nowhere like the one where a female militant in bimbo disguise kills a dealer and his wife with kung fu.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Writer-director John Evans (Blackjack) makes one big mistake with The Black Godfather<\/strong>. If he wanted to emulate Coppola\u2019s film, why didn\u2019t he focus on J.J.\u2019s rise to power? He becomes a boss before the end of the first reel. Wouldn\u2019t it have been more interesting to see how he becomes a \u201cBlack Godfather\u201d? Evans could have easily incorporated J.J.\u2019s campaign against the white dealers into such a plotline. It\u2019s not a total loss though; he adds a few nice touches. While looking for the kidnapped Yvonne, J.J. comes up with the idea of using \u201cdomestics\u201d (e.g. maids, janitors, orderlies, etc.) as an information network. All these white bad guys have black servants; why not put them to good use?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Black Godfather<\/strong> has a few decent action scenes, a car chase and airfield shoot-out being the best. I like how Diablo\u2019s men put the fear of (black) God into a (white) dealer to make him divulge the details of a big shipment coming in. Also, I like Yvonne\u2019s clever use of a cleaver in the finale. I like a lot of things about The Black Godfather<\/strong>; I just think it could have been better overall.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Black Godfather (1974)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinemation Industries\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, language, full frontal female nudity, sex, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Evans\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Evans\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Martin Yarbrough\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jack Steely\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 3, 1974 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Rod Perry, Damu King, Don Chastain, Diane Sommerfield, Jimmy Witherspoon, Duncan McLeod, Tony Burton, Anny Green, John […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-b-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/The-Black-Godfather-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\/8236","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=8236"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8441,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8236\/revisions\/8441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}