The mission of The Department of Afro-American Research Arts and Culture to identify the global significance of the creative contributions pioneered by an international diaspora of Blackness
Search DAARAC's Archive

Monday, September 15, 2008

Black Belt Jones (1974)























Starring:
Storyline
The Mafia's Don learns that the City is planning a new civic center, and is buying the land where it will be, to make easy money when the city council will buy it. The one piece the Don doesn't have yet, is the old African-American karate school owned by Papa Byrd. Big Tuna, the Mafia Don's right hand man, goes to Pinky, their representative in that area and they tell him that he owes them $250,000 but instead of paying, they want him to get Papa Byrd's school. Pinky tries to muscle the karate master into handing out the property title, but he throws him out. A teacher calls Black Belt Jones, a friend of Papa Byrd, to talk to him about this, but before he does Pinky and his thugs accidentally kills Papa Byrd in a second visit. Before dying in friends' arms, Byrd says that the school belongs to Sydney - whom nobody knows. Black Belt Jones knows that Sydney is Byrd's daughter, whom he hasn't seen since she was a child. Black Belt asks a friend of his who works for the Government, to ... 

Link to soundtrack review
Dennis Coffey - Black Belt Jones (1974)

Petey Wheatstraw (1977)






















Starring:


Storyline
Rudy Ray Moore is Petey Wheatstraw, whose talent for comedy is only topped by his gift for Kung-Fu. When his arch rivals, Leroy and Skillet, massacre him and his friends, Petey ends up in Hell and is given a unique opportunity: in exchange for his and his friends’ return to earth, he must wed Satan's daughter. The only problem: she's the ugliest woman he's ever seen! Will Petey be able to defeat Satan with his magic pimp cane or will he be forced to become the Devil's son-in-law?

The Monkey Hu$tle (1976)



















Starring:


Storyline
Slick Chicago street hustler Big Daddy Foxx (Yaphet Kotto) lives comfortably off petty confidence scams that he pulls with the help of loyal teenage acolytes Baby 'D (Kirk Calloway), Tiny (Donn Harper) and Player (Thomas Carter). His business is jeopardized, however, when he runs afoul of neighborhood racketeer Goldie (Rudy Ray Moore). Their rivalry escalates until the threat of a freeway being built through their neighborhood obliges them to cooperate in order to fight city hall.