Favorite Blaxploitation movies of the 70's
by garephj | created - 08 Jul 2011 | updated - 08 Jul 2011 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Hit Man (1972)
R | 90 min | Crime, Drama
An ex-cop discovers that his brother's recent death is intertwined with both the Los Angeles underworld and the city's porno movie scene.
Director: George Armitage | Stars: Bernie Casey, Pam Grier, Lisa Moore, Bhetty Waldron
Votes: 1,109 | Gross: $1.06M
2. Foxy Brown (1974)
R | 92 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A voluptuous vigilante takes a job as a high-class prostitute to get revenge on the mobsters who murdered her boyfriend.
Director: Jack Hill | Stars: Pam Grier, Antonio Fargas, Peter Brown, Terry Carter
Votes: 12,052 | Gross: $2.46M
3. Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
R | 97 min | Action, Crime, Drama
After saving a Black Panther from some racist cops, a black male prostitute goes on the run from "the man" with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels.
Director: Melvin Van Peebles | Stars: Melvin Van Peebles, Hubert Scales, John Dullaghan, Simon Chuckster
Votes: 5,869 | Gross: $15.18M
4. Which Way Is Up? (1977)
R | 94 min | Comedy
Orange picker Leroy Jones inadvertently becomes a union leader and is forced out of town, leaving behind his wife Annie Mae and his sexually-obsessed father Rufus.
Director: Michael Schultz | Stars: Richard Pryor, Lonette McKee, Margaret Avery, Morgan Woodward
Votes: 1,991 | Gross: $17.00M
5. Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)
R | 97 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Two Harlem cops investigate a robbery, believing that a reverend has staged it in order to steal the money he's collected for a local fundraiser.
Director: Ossie Davis | Stars: Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques, Calvin Lockhart, Judy Pace
Votes: 2,690 | Gross: $4.39M
6. Let's Do It Again (1975)
PG | 110 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Two Atlanta men raise funds for their charity by rigging boxing matches in New Orleans, but their tricks attract the mob's attention.
Director: Sidney Poitier | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Calvin Lockhart, John Amos
Votes: 3,301
7. Slaughter (1972)
R | 92 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Slaughter, a former Green Beret, avenges the killing of loved ones by the Mob, and in so doing is coerced by the Feds into traveling to Mexico to finish off surviving mobsters.
Director: Jack Starrett | Stars: Jim Brown, Stella Stevens, Rip Torn, Cameron Mitchell
Votes: 1,314
8. Slaughter's Big Rip-Off (1973)
R | 94 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Vigilante Slaughter comes under attack from Duncan, a local money launderer whose hit-man traps Slaughter in a car at a cliff, but Slaughter escapes, arms himself, and goes after Duncan's hideout.
Director: Gordon Douglas | Stars: Jim Brown, Ed McMahon, Don Stroud, Brock Peters
Votes: 598
9. Black Caesar (1973)
R | 87 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Raised in Harlem, Tommy Gibbs becomes a successful mob boss but he clashes with the rival Mafia and his old enemy, dirty cop McKinney.
Director: Larry Cohen | Stars: Fred Williamson, Gloria Hendry, Art Lund, D'Urville Martin
Votes: 3,894
10. Hell Up in Harlem (1973)
R | 94 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A gangster in Harlem must rescue his ex-wife, who has been kidnapped by the Mafia.
Director: Larry Cohen | Stars: Fred Williamson, Julius Harris, Gloria Hendry, Margaret Avery
Votes: 1,759 | Gross: $1.45M
11. Coffy (1973)
R | 90 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A sexy Black nurse takes vigilante justice against inner-city drug dealers after her sister becomes their latest victim.
Director: Jack Hill | Stars: Pam Grier, Booker Bradshaw, Robert DoQui, William Elliott
Votes: 12,946
12. Bucktown (1975)
R | 94 min | Action, Crime, Drama
After being hassled by The Man in a southern town, a cool operator asks some violent friends for help. After all, if you can't trust another brother, who can you trust?
Director: Arthur Marks | Stars: Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, Thalmus Rasulala, Tony King
Votes: 1,599
13. Three the Hard Way (1974)
R | 89 min | Action, Thriller
Blaxploitation film about three martial-arts specialists who prevent white supremacists from tainting the U.S. water supply with a toxin that's only harmful to black people.
Director: Gordon Parks Jr. | Stars: Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, Jim Kelly, Sheila Frazier
Votes: 1,756 | Gross: $1.28M
14. Shaft (1971)
R | 100 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A crime lord hires black private eye, John Shaft, to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.
Director: Gordon Parks | Stars: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi, Christopher St. John
Votes: 21,039 | Gross: $16.69M
15. Dolemite (1975)
R | 90 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
After he is released from jail, a pimp takes on the criminals and corrupt police officers who framed him in the first place.
Director: D'Urville Martin | Stars: Rudy Ray Moore, D'Urville Martin, Jerry Jones, Lady Reed
Votes: 6,855 | Gross: $0.24M
16. Cleopatra Jones (1973)
PG | 89 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
During the 1970s, U.S. Special Agent Cleopatra Jones proves to be an invaluable asset to the local police forces in the war on drugs.
Director: Jack Starrett | Stars: Tamara Dobson, Bernie Casey, Brenda Sykes, Antonio Fargas
Votes: 3,536 | Gross: $2.98M
17. The Human Tornado (1976)
R | 96 min | Action, Comedy, Drama
Dolemite flees to California, where he helps Queen Bee and her Kung Fu prostitutes battle a local gangster.
Director: Cliff Roquemore | Stars: Rudy Ray Moore, Lady Reed, Jimmy Lynch, Howard Jackson
Votes: 1,959
18. Across 110th Street (1972)
R | 102 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Two New York City cops go after amateur crooks who are trying to rip off the Mafia and start a gang war.
Director: Barry Shear | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Yaphet Kotto, Anthony Franciosa, Frank Adu
Votes: 7,152 | Gross: $3.60M
19. Gordon's War (1973)
R | 90 min | Adventure, Crime
Four Vietnam Vets go to war against the drug dealers and pimps of Harlem.
Director: Ossie Davis | Stars: Paul Winfield, Carl Lee, David Downing, Tony King
Votes: 449 | Gross: $0.82M
20. Friday Foster (1975)
R | 90 min | Action
At Los Angeles airport, magazine photographer Friday Foster witnesses an assassination attempt against billionaire Blake Tarr and is drawn into a murky political conspiracy.
Director: Arthur Marks | Stars: Pam Grier, Yaphet Kotto, Godfrey Cambridge, Thalmus Rasulala
Votes: 2,548
21. Black Shampoo (1976)
R | 85 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A promiscuous heterosexual black hairstylist and businessman has sex with his white female customers, but when he begins a relationship with his black secretary, her white mobster ex-boyfriend resorts to violent measures to get her back.
Director: Greydon Clark | Stars: John Daniels, Tanya Boyd, Joseph Carlo, Skip E. Lowe
Votes: 979
22. Black Belt Jones (1974)
R | 85 min | Action
A Mafia buy out of Papa Byrd's karate school downtown ends in his death. Byrd's daughter, Sydney, refuses to sell, and wants revenge. Byrd's students call the Black Belt Jones for help. Jones reluctantly teams with Sydney in many battles.
Director: Robert Clouse | Stars: Jim Kelly, Gloria Hendry, Scatman Crothers, Eric Laneuville
Votes: 2,724 | Gross: $0.73M
23. Car Wash (1976)
PG | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A comedic take on the daily life of car-wash employees, chronicling their hopes, fears, joys, dreams, and tribulations, and meeting some eccentric customers along the way.
Director: Michael Schultz | Stars: Richard Pryor, Franklyn Ajaye, Sully Boyar, Richard Brestoff
Votes: 8,198
24. Super Fly (1972)
R | 91 min | Action, Crime, Drama
The daily routine of cocaine dealer Priest who wants to score one more super deal and retire.
Director: Gordon Parks Jr. | Stars: Ron O'Neal, Carl Lee, Sheila Frazier, Julius Harris
Votes: 8,606
25. Truck Turner (1974)
R | 91 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
While tracking a strong-armed pimp who has skipped bail, a bounty hunter discovers a contract has been put out on him and must go on the run.
Director: Jonathan Kaplan | Stars: Isaac Hayes, Yaphet Kotto, Alan Weeks, Annazette Chase
Votes: 3,592 | Gross: $0.18M
26. Shaft's Big Score! (1972)
R | 104 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Shaft is back to find the murderer of an old friend on the cold hard city streets with a little help from his new friends.
Director: Gordon Parks | Stars: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Drew Bundini Brown, Joseph Mascolo
Votes: 3,597 | Gross: $10.00M
27. Black Gunn (1972)
R | 96 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A black militant group robs a Mafia bookie joint and also steals the incriminating ledgers which, in turn, prompts retaliation from the mob.
Director: Robert Hartford-Davis | Stars: Jim Brown, Martin Landau, Brenda Sykes, Luciana Paluzzi
Votes: 874 | Gross: $1.10M
28. Shaft in Africa (1973)
R | 112 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
Private investigator John Shaft is recruited to go undercover to break up a modern slavery ring where young Africans are lured to Paris to do chain-gang work.
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: Richard Roundtree, Frank Finlay, Vonetta McGee, Neda Arneric
Votes: 3,218 | Gross: $3.18M
29. The Black Godfather (1974)
R | 90 min | Crime
J.J., a rising star in the crime scene, is in the process of consolidating his power over the neighborhood. One of the only remaining obstacles is the heroin cartel is understandably reluctant to abandon such a lucrative market.
Director: John Evans | Stars: Rod Perry, Damu King, Don Chastain, Diane Sommerfield
Votes: 567 | Gross: $0.49M
30. Blacula (1972)
PG | 93 min | Fantasy, Horror, Romance
An 18th-century African prince, turned into a vampire by Dracula, finds himself in modern-day Los Angeles.
Director: William Crain | Stars: William Marshall, Vonetta McGee, Denise Nicholas, Thalmus Rasulala
Votes: 7,868 | Gross: $3.00M
31. Scream Blacula Scream (1973)
PG | 96 min | Fantasy, Horror
The vampire Mamuwalde (a.k.a. Blacula) is resurrected by voodoo and forced to kill again.
Director: Bob Kelljan | Stars: William Marshall, Don Mitchell, Pam Grier, Michael Conrad
Votes: 3,060 | Gross: $2.18M
32. 'Sheba, Baby' (1975)
PG | 90 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A Chicago private detective returns back home to Louisville, Kentucky, to help her father fight mobsters.
Director: William Girdler | Stars: Pam Grier, Austin Stoker, D'Urville Martin, Rudy Challenger
Votes: 1,809
33. The Slams (1973)
R | 91 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Everybody is after the money stolen by Hook before he ended up in prison, including the villainous head guard Capt. Stambell.
Director: Jonathan Kaplan | Stars: Jim Brown, Judy Pace, Roland Bob Harris, Paul Harris
Votes: 323 | Gross: $0.26M
34. TNT Jackson (1974)
R | 72 min | Action
A young karate expert searches for her brother's killer in Hong Kong.
Director: Cirio H. Santiago | Stars: Jeannie Bell, Stan Shaw, Pat Anderson, Ken Metcalfe
Votes: 1,408
35. J.D.'s Revenge (1976)
R | 96 min | Action, Horror, Thriller
Murdered on Bourbon Street in 1942 New Orleans, a gangster returns from the dead 34 years later possessing the body of a young, black law student in his quest for revenge.
Director: Arthur Marks | Stars: Glynn Turman, Louis Gossett Jr., Joan Pringle, Carl W. Crudup
Votes: 1,448
36. Mandingo (1975)
R | 127 min | Drama, History, Romance
An 1840s slaveowner trains one of his slaves to be a bare-knuckle fighter.
Director: Richard Fleischer | Stars: James Mason, Susan George, Perry King, Richard Ward
Votes: 4,224 | Gross: $2.43M
37. Drum (1976)
R | 110 min | Action, Drama
A mid-19th-century mulatto slave is torn between his success as a pit-fighter and the injustices of white society.
Directors: Steve Carver, Burt Kennedy | Stars: Warren Oates, Isela Vega, Ken Norton, Pam Grier
Votes: 1,061
38. Detroit 9000 (1973)
R | 106 min | Action, Crime, Drama
After a fundraiser for a black politician is robbed, Detroit police put two detectives, one white and one black, on the case, who try to work together under boiling political pressure.
Director: Arthur Marks | Stars: Alex Rocco, Hari Rhodes, Vonetta McGee, Herbert Jefferson Jr.
Votes: 1,158 | Gross: $3.36M
39. Uptown Saturday Night (1974)
PG | 104 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
At Madame Zenobia's illegal nightclub, when Steve Jackson and Wardell Franklin get robbed of their wallets containing a winning lottery ticket, they set out to recover it.
Director: Sidney Poitier | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Harry Belafonte, Flip Wilson
Votes: 2,816 | Gross: $4.57M
40. Hammer (1972)
R | 92 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A Los Angeles dock worker becomes a boxer but his crooked manager is involved in various rackets and he's working for the mob.
Director: Bruce D. Clark | Stars: Fred Williamson, Bernie Hamilton, Vonetta McGee, William Smith
Votes: 751
41. The Mack (1973)
R | 110 min | Crime, Drama
Goldie returns from five years at the state pen and winds up King of the pimping game. Trouble comes in the form of two corrupt white cops and a crime lord who wants him to return to the small time.
Director: Michael Campus | Stars: Max Julien, Don Gordon, Richard Pryor, Carol Speed
Votes: 3,301
42. Petey Wheatstraw (1977)
R | 100 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
After being murdered by his rivals, Petey Wheatstraw is resurrected, in exchange for marrying the devil's daughter, the world's ugliest woman.
Director: Cliff Roquemore | Stars: Rudy Ray Moore, Jimmy Lynch, Leroy Daniels, Ernest Mayhand
Votes: 1,553
43. Disco Godfather (1979)
R | 98 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Rudy Ray Moore's fourth in a series of cult favorites finds him playing an ex-cop called back into action to stop an angel dust producer. The angel dust hallucinations alone are well worth the price of admission!
Director: J. Robert Wagoner | Stars: Rudy Ray Moore, Carol Speed, Jimmy Lynch, Jerry Jones
Votes: 1,790
44. Black Heat (1976)
R | 94 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Kicks Carter, a streetwise Las Vegs cop, is out to shut down an upscale hotel that is actually a front for a host of illegal activities. A gang headed by the scuzzy Ziggy is running ... See full summary »
Director: Al Adamson | Stars: Timothy Brown, Russ Tamblyn, Jana Bellan, Geoffrey Land
Votes: 268
45. Emma Mae (1976)
R | 100 min | Drama
A Naive Country Girl from Mississippi comes to town with an aunt to the Big City. She takes up with her family and goes out with them and meets a guy. A loser, pill-popping head nothing who... See full summary »
Director: Jamaa Fanaka | Stars: Jerri Hayes, Ernest Williams II, Charles D. Brooks III, Eddie Allen
Votes: 496
46. Ganja & Hess (1973)
R | 112 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
After being stabbed with an ancient, germ-infested knife, a doctor's assistant finds himself with an insatiable desire for blood.
Director: Bill Gunn | Stars: Duane Jones, Marlene Clark, Bill Gunn, Sam L. Waymon
Votes: 2,601 | Gross: $0.02M
47. Trouble Man (1972)
R | 99 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A neighborhood "problem solver" is framed for murder by a couple of local crime bosses trying to get him out of the way.
Director: Ivan Dixon | Stars: Robert Hooks, Paul Winfield, Ralph Waite, William Smithers
Votes: 1,606
48. That Man Bolt (1973)
R | 104 min | Action, Crime, Drama
To take a briefcase from Hong Kong to Mexico City, via Los Angeles, is it necessary to call on that man - Bolt? With the number of dangerous spies and gangsters who are after that briefcase, maybe Jefferson Bolt is not enough.
Directors: Henry Levin, David Lowell Rich | Stars: Fred Williamson, Byron Webster, Miko Mayama, Teresa Graves
Votes: 433
49. Five on the Black Hand Side (1973)
PG | 96 min | Comedy
In contrast to most of the violence-laden "blaxploitation" films of the period, this low-budget effort eschews exploitation for humanity and domestic drama. Leonard Jackson plays a barber ... See full summary »
Director: Oscar Williams | Stars: Godfrey Cambridge, Clarice Taylor, Leonard Jackson, Virginia Capers
Votes: 489 | Gross: $1.72M
50. Trick Baby (1972)
R | 93 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Two Phildelphia con men try to evade gangsters they have conned and cops who are trying to put them in jail.
Director: Larry Yust | Stars: Kiel Martin, Mel Stewart, Dallas Edward Hayes, Beverly Ballard
Votes: 651 | Gross: $0.62M
51. Black Mama White Mama (1973)
R | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A Black prostitute and a white revolutionary must form an uneasy alliance when they are busted out of prison, then pursued by guerrillas, bounty hunters and the Army.
Director: Eddie Romero | Stars: Pam Grier, Margaret Markov, Sid Haig, Lynn Borden
Votes: 3,642 | Gross: $0.19M
52. Greased Lightning (1977)
PG | 96 min | Action, Biography, Comedy
The true life story of Wendell Scott, the first black stock car racing driver to win an upper tier NASCAR race.
Director: Michael Schultz | Stars: Richard Pryor, Beau Bridges, Pam Grier, Cleavon Little
Votes: 1,986
53. The Candy Tangerine Man (1975)
R | 95 min | Adventure, Action
Sunset Boulevard is a lucrative place to work for the Black Baron, a pimp with a distinctive red and yellow Rolls Royce and plenty of girls on his books. He don't take no mess from his ... See full summary »
Director: Matt Cimber | Stars: John Daniels, Eli Haines, Tom Hankason, Marva Farmer
Votes: 318
54. Brotherhood of Death (1976)
R | 90 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A group of black Vietnam vets go up against the Ku Klux Klan.
Director: Bill Berry | Stars: Roy Jefferson, Le Tari, Haskell V. Anderson III, Mike Thomas
Votes: 544
55. Youngblood (1978)
R | 90 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A gang war/drug story set in a Los Angeles ghetto about the coming of age of a 15-year-old black youth.
Director: Noel Nosseck | Stars: Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Bryan O'Dell, Renn Woods, Tony Allen
Votes: 351
56. Willie Dynamite (1974)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama
A social worker tries to get a pimp to change his ways.
Director: Gilbert Moses | Stars: Roscoe Orman, Diana Sands, Thalmus Rasulala, Joyce Walker
Votes: 1,313 | Gross: $0.48M
57. Cool Breeze (1972)
R | 101 min | Crime, Drama
Thalmus is the leader for a group of criminals who gather in L.A. to rob a bank. Their goal is to find a new bank.
Director: Barry Pollack | Stars: Thalmus Rasulala, Judy Pace, Julian Christopher, Lincoln Kilpatrick
Votes: 415 | Gross: $1.18M
58. The Legend of Nigger Charley (1972)
PG | 98 min | Western
A slave kills a white man in self-defense and heads West towards freedom, pursued by a professional slave hunter.
Director: Martin Goldman | Stars: Fred Williamson, D'Urville Martin, Don Pedro Colley, Thomas Anderson
Votes: 501 | Gross: $1.95M
59. Black Samson (1974)
R | 88 min | Action, Drama
Noble nightclub owner Samson does his best to keep his neighborhood clean of crime and drugs. When vicious mobster Johnny Nappa tries to muscle in on Samson's territory, Samson takes a brave stand against Nappa and his flunkies.
Director: Charles Bail | Stars: Rockne Tarkington, William Smith, Connie Strickland, Carol Speed
Votes: 630 | Gross: $0.09M
60. Blackenstein (1973)
R | 78 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Eddie is a Vietnam war veteran who loses both his arms and his legs when he steps on a land mine. A brilliant surgeon is able to attach new limbs, but his assistant switches the DNA injections, transforming him into a huge hulking monster.
Director: William A. Levey | Stars: John Hart, Ivory Stone, Joe De Sue, Roosevelt Jackson
Votes: 1,417
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