Sugar Hill (1974)

When her boyfriend is murdered by a group of gangsters, the sexy and tough Sugar Hill (Marki Bey) intends to get her revenge. She enlists the help of Mama Maitresse (Zara Cully) and Baron Samedi (Don Pedro Colley), which leads to a number of problematic deaths for the gangsters. It's hard to think of Sugar as being the one responsible, but it's also harder to imagine that there might be zombies, and other voodoo practices, being used as particularly effective dispatchment methods. The deaths certainly stump a cop named Valentine (Richard Lawson), who also seems to carry a torch for Sugar, which is understandable.

Written by Tim Kelly, and directed by Paul Maslansky, Sugar Hill is a bit of a minor classic thanks to the way it successfully straddles both the horror genre and the blaxploitation boom of the '70s. Unlike some other attempts to blend the two (there have been many bad examples, and a few good ones), this gets everything just right in a way that will please fans of both movie types. There may be few actual scares, but each death is a fairly enjoyable set-piece, with viewers getting a real feel for the dread that the potential victims experience. As outlandish as the premise is, Kelly grounds the horror/supernatural elements in a standard blaxploitation environment that feels easily believable, albeit easily believable in a movie world way. Maslansky treats the script as a handy guideline, moving between the darker scenes into the bright, colourful moments that show Sugar going about her daily business.

Bey is great in the title role, touch and sexy and smart. She's someone that you root for, making the movie all the more satisfying as one death leads to another and another, until you know that there's only the head baddie (Robert Quarry) left to be dealt with. Speaking of Quarry, he's a very entertaining villain. Ruthless, cool, and always sending his men along to do work that saves him from getting his hands dirty. Betty Anne Rees makes a great impression as his partner, a woman who may now have lots of disposable income, but wouldn't ever buy a touch of class, even if it was in a half-price sale. Lawson also makes a great impression as the caring cop who just knows that something is wrong with the recent deaths he ends up investigating. Cully is suitably mystical and mysterious as Mama Maitresse, but Colley is the other big draw here, playing Baron Samedi as a powerful, sly, amused, magic man who likes to stay close enough to those who ask for his help and see how things pan out for their victims. He's a man-child, laughing at flies trapped in a spiderweb.

Cool, and also a bit kitsch nowadays, this isn't a film you necessarily want to spend too much time putting a label on. It's fun, first and foremost, and that's the main thing. If you haven't seen it yet, then be sure to bump it up the list of prioritised viewings. I'm glad that I did.

8/10

http://www.amazon.com/Sugar-Hill-1974-Marki-Bey/dp/B000CQCROE/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1412110707&sr=1-3&keywords=sugar+hill

Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976).

Another blacksploitation horror movie from director William Crain (who gave us the highly enjoyable Blacula), Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde sadly fails as an enteraining horror movie, though it does provide unintentional laughs and is hardly ever dull.

 

The story, as you may have guessed from the title, is a riff on the classic tale by Robert Louis Stevenson. Bernie Casey plays Dr. Henry Pride, a good man who is desperately trying to develop a completed formula that will regenerate liver cells. Just when he thinks he’s got it all sorted he decides to test it on a lab rat, which turns white and attacks the other rats. A bad sign, you may have thought, but Dr. Pride takes this as a sign to first inject an elderly female patient and then, a little while later, inject himself. The transformation is instant, Dr. Pride immediately turns white (Stan Winston is credited as the special effects guy here but I can only assume he was simply in charge of buying the flour and throwing it on Casey’s face) and homicidal. 

 

You can have fun watching Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde, really you can, but it’s not the kind of fun you have while a movie carries you along on an enjoyable journey. Nope, this is the kind of fun you have simply by pointing and laughing. Which is still fun.

 

The script by Larry LeBron (from a story by Lawrence Woolner though that credit should go, surely, to Mr. Stevenson) is pretty awful in places. The whole thing is badly dated, and that’s not helped by the stereotypical pimp character (complete with pimp hat), completely unbelievable and doesn’t even come close to being scary once. Actually, to be fair, there is one good jump scare. That’s it.

 

Casey does well in the main role but he’s weighed down by clunky dialogue and then the indignity of the flour-faced performance that he has to give. Marie O’Henry is so-so as the prostitute/patient Linda, someone the doctor wants to help until the serum takes over. Ji-Tu Cumbuka steals his scenes once again (he also played Skillet in Blacula) as a verbose lieutenant trying to catch whoever is responsible for the spate of murders on his turf.

After a plodding start that tries to establish the character and the reason why the serum exists, the movie does lift itself gradually but it never gets too far before the ridiculous “monster” and unappealing cinematography bring it back down again. The soundtrack is another area in which the movie is lacking, almost as if nobody could work up the enthusiasm to wrote any decent music accompanying such lacklustre visuals. Overall, it’s easy to say that this entire movie could do with a shot in the arm. Ironically.

5/10. 

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share 

Blacula (1972).

Yes, it’s a blaxploitation horror and, as you can guess from the title, it’s a riff on the Dracula tale. What you may not guess is that it’s actually quite a good little film.

William Marshall plays the title role (though the character’s proper name is actually Mamuwalde), a man bitten and cursed by Dracula himself in the opening sequence. Fast forward many years and Blacula’s coffin is taken to America by some interior decorators who have managed to pick up everything contained within Dracula’s household for quite a bargain price. It’s not long before people start dying from severe blood loss and Blacula, of course, discovers someone (Vonetta McGee) who seems to be the double of his deceased ex-wife. Thalmus Rasulala plays the cop who first decides to start considering the seemingly impossible as the bodies start to pile up (and, more worryingly, disappear).

While Blacula is not a great movie, in the standard sense, it does compare very favourably when weighed against other blacksploitation movies, and especially blacksploitation horrors. The cast mostly do a very good job with Marshall cutting an impressive figure as the caped vampire, McGee quite adorable and convincingly won over by a loving man and Rasulala putting on a gruff, tough act in a role that Fred Williamson would surely have loved to chew up.

The screenplay by Raymond Koenig and Joan Torres is adequate and contains laughs both intentional and unintentional (something that’s rarely avoidable nowadays when watching anything so very 70s). Where the movie scores is in the banter between Rasulala and everyone around him, especially Lt. Peters (played by Gordon Pinsent), and in the moments of nobility that Marshall makes the most of.

The direction by William Crain isn’t anything special but it’s quite a compliment that one or two factors haven’t actually dated as badly as you’d think. The classic heart (or should that be soul?) of the tale is timeless. The vampire make-up isn’t all that bad, though Marshall is given some majorly heavy eyebrows when baring his fangs, for some reason. And then we have the vamp to bat transformation, used fleetingly but well done with some simple animation as opposed to the big rubber bats that Hammer used to be so fond of. This ties in nicely to the amusing animated credit sequence.

There’s camp in abundance, the standard funky guitar you’d expect on the soundtrack (though, to be fair, the soundtrack is bloody good and it’s only the groovy 70s dancing that distracts from the enjoyment of the music), Elisha Cook Jr. and an amusing, scene-stealing repeated line delivered by a man named Ji-Tu Cumbuka, who plays a character called Skillet. Do give it a try.

8/10.

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share