Fun blaxploitation from the 70's is a better mafia movie than "American Mobster", a fictional yalw of how young mob runner Tommy Gibbs (Fred Williamson) ends up hitman for the Sicilians, eventually taking over the whole canoli. He's victimized as a youngster by evil cop on the take Art Lund. Going from teen with his broken legs in a cast to hit man, he's violent in business yet charming in life, playing up to the big Sicilian bosses while biding his time for the big payoff, and when it happems, the big kahuna is in tears begging for mercy but vowing revenge. The next thing you know he's having all the other Sicilian mob associates rubbed out at a pool party and even confronts the father who abandoned him and his mother. The parallels to real life Harlem mob boss Frank Lucas is obvious, but this is fictional outside of the racial and occupational coincidences.
It's rather nostalgic to see the Harlem of the 1970's as it really was, not some backlit vision of what they make it appear to be. Gloria Hendry is beautiful as Williamson's love interest, and Julius Harris is excellent as Williamson's father, filled with regrets. Veteran stage actress Minnie Gentry, as his long suffering mother, is really touching, equally as moving as Ruby Dee was as Denzel Washington's mother was in "American Gangster". I can see why they wanted a sequel to this ("Hell up in Harlem", not as good but a guilty pleasure of mine), so I'm glad they change the ending. Good direction by Larry Cohen and nice to see the nasty racist cop Lund taken care of of appropriately. This is stylish, subtle and fast moving, even with the violence. A well done mob movie that is much more than just a typical blaxploitation cult film.
It's rather nostalgic to see the Harlem of the 1970's as it really was, not some backlit vision of what they make it appear to be. Gloria Hendry is beautiful as Williamson's love interest, and Julius Harris is excellent as Williamson's father, filled with regrets. Veteran stage actress Minnie Gentry, as his long suffering mother, is really touching, equally as moving as Ruby Dee was as Denzel Washington's mother was in "American Gangster". I can see why they wanted a sequel to this ("Hell up in Harlem", not as good but a guilty pleasure of mine), so I'm glad they change the ending. Good direction by Larry Cohen and nice to see the nasty racist cop Lund taken care of of appropriately. This is stylish, subtle and fast moving, even with the violence. A well done mob movie that is much more than just a typical blaxploitation cult film.