Book of Numbers (1973)

Starring: 

• Raymond St. Jacques
• Philip Michael Thomas
• Freda Payne
• Hope Clarke 
• D'Urville Martin 

Storyline
Raymond St. Jacques both directs and stars in The Book of Numbers. St. Jacques and Philip Thomas play depression-era African Americans, barely making out an existence as waiters in a deep-south community. Both men decide that there's more money to be had on the shadier side of the law, so they set up a successful rural numbers racket. All goes well until the operation attracts the attention of white crime boss Gilbert Greene. Though no one is particularly admirable in The Book of Numbers, the audience remains firmly on the side of the black characters, if only by default. The film was based on a novel by Robert Dean Phaar. 


Link to soundtrack review:
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Book of Numbers (1972)

Heavy Traffic (1973)

Starring:

• Joseph Kaufmann
• Beverly Hope Atkinson
• Frank DeKova
• Terri Haven

IMDb.com
An animated feature which begins, ends and occasionally combines with, live-action filmed on location. A white dropout struggles to create comics and animated films, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his run-down apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nut-case of a Jewish mother, he is ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. This cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, destroyed by war and pollution, where a mutant anti-hero challenges and kills God. Complications ensue when the cartoonist's parents react in irrational ways to his various involvements.


Link to soundtrack review
Ed Bogas & Ray Shanklin - Fritz The Cat & Heavy Traffic

Claudine (1974)

Starring:

• Diahann Carroll
• James Earl Jones
• Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs
• Tamu Blackwell
• David Kruger
• Yvette Curtis
• Eric Jones
• Socorro Stephens
• Adam Wade
• C. Harrison Avery
• Mordecai Lawner
• Elisa Loti
• Roxie Roker

Storyline
Claudine (Diahann Carroll) is a single mother in New York City who endures an exhausting commute to the suburbs where she works as a maid for wealthy families. In one carefully tended white community, she meets Roop (James Earl Jones), a charismatic but irresponsible garbage collector. Romance quickly ensues, but Claudine doubts that their relationship is good for her six children, and Rupert, despite his good nature, is reluctant to take on fatherhood.