Darktown Strutters

"Darktown strutters" uses the most elaborate, colorful, and huge props and sets like the interior of the "pot-sicle" freezer complete with an igloo. The costumes are some of the most outlandish in the blaxploitation genre. The biker women wear rhinestoned pink and bright yellow jumpsuits and feather head dresses. The comedy is very basic slapstick which relies a lot on the props and action (like kung-fu moves, pies in the face and other uninteresting activities) rather than interesting dialogue or inventive action. Its overall "weirdness" was so obviously trying to be weird that it became sort of routine.

Nothing to really recommend about this unfunny attempt at a mid-'70s "blaxploitation" "musical" featuring a group of jive-talking' mamas on three-wheeled motorcycles who constantly tangle with a group of incompetent L.A. cops while simultaneously dealing with the threat of an evil Colonel Sanders-look-a-like who plans on creating a cloned race of...well, actually I was never really sure what he was trying to do. The boring plot is razor thin, the performances are sub-high school drama class and there's just not enough good music to make it worthwhile. The highlight of the film is a sequence with the Stax-signed vocal group The Dramatics performing their hit "Whatcha See is Whatcha Get" on a dungeon set(?). That was cool. The rest is barely worth a look. You have been warned.

Looking for the weirdest blaxploitation movie ever? Look no further! This piece of cinematic insanity is incomprehensible and chock full of lame humour, yet it is just so out there that you cannot but admire its sheer audacity. Its story, such that it is, has a female motorcycle gang (dressed in the coolest biker gear I have ever seen) ride into town and encounter a never-ending conveyor belt of weirdos. There's no point in detailing the synopsis beyond this as I am not sure it really matters. There are some outrageous colourful sets, comedy relief racist cops(!?), a drug dealer in a white cowboy suit who pedals an ice cream cart with all his wares in it, a karate fanatic who busts moves ALL the time, a colour-co-ordinated KKK biker gang, soul groups who break into song at the drop of a fedora hat, pig men in capes, a minstrel performance(!?) and a human cloning device devised by a mad scientist. Its more an experience than anything else. Points awarded for sheer nerve.

Once upon a time, back in the mid-1980s, I had a boyfriend who didn't own a television set. Often we would lay awake late into the night, listening to the stereo simulcast of a local "all-night movie" channel (XETV, Ch. 6)beamed from Mexico into our snug, San Diego homes. Imagine our surprise and delight upon the discovery of "Get Down and Boogie," A.K.A. Darktown Strutters! If you think WATCHING this flick is a surreal,disorienting experience, just imagine trying to decipher the plot without the visuals!!! Every since that fateful night back in 1988, i've been trying to procure my own copy of this flick, to no avail. (I got an incredibly sparse n' sleazy one-sheet for it one year @ The Comic-Con: "Get Down and Boogie --This movie will fry your eggs!")

It seems to've lapsed into a "public domain" kinda thing, as the only 'official' release I can find is from East/West DVD,one of those 99-cent-store outfits, wholesale only. I do not own a credit card, which severely limits my options here... What's a blaxploitation-struck gal to do?

....March 2008 UPDATE: I FINALLY got myself a DVD copy o' this flick through Amazon.com!! Sure, it's just the $1-Store, edited for television version jacked up to $9 for a used copy, but it looks like this is the best/closest i'll ever get, and I am, for the moment, fulfilled!!! (Now if I could just get that copy of "Black Devil Doll From Hell"...

DARKTOWN STRUTTERS is pure soul-crazed 70s entertainment at its maximum! I strongly urge all archivists of blaxploitation cinema to go out and hunt down this one-of-a-kind rarity, a blaxplo-comedy-musical that knows no bounds when it comes to absolute weirdness. Everything from the opening sequence ("Any similarity between this true life adventure to the story Cinderella...IS BULLS--T!") to the rest is genuine cinematic trash, but it's well worth the agony! ALABAMA'S GHOST was just as weird! I'm not too crazy about comedies, but the erraticly innovative formula was far ahead of its time (for 1974). Still, this is a one-way ticket to Funkland Junction! Among the highlights you'll get to see are a police car with a gargantuan siren and a cloning machine, which are hard to believe. The oddball taste does appear to fit well in DARKTOWN STRUTTERS, making this an enjoyable trip through a time when fashion trends and moral values have gone through mass transition. It does contain a familiar musical number by The Dramatics, singing "What You See Is What You Get". It's more than just a classic TV sitcom taped in front of a live audience, it's a campy experience that has recently gone timeless while it improves with age. See this film only once in your life and your infatuation with CAR WASH will be all over! Too bad a lot of you have missed this one!