Bone

Larry Cohen would become famous for schlock horror and thrillers, but his directorial debut was this absurd little black comedy. The basic plot is a lot like the one that features in any number of exploitation films, although the consequences are handled differently. It would seem that Cohen was tying to make some points on race and culture classes; but that side of the film doesn't come across particularly well, and it's better to enjoy Bone for what it is. The comedy was never going to appeal to a mainstream audience because its pitch black and at times, it's difficult to tell if the film is actually meant to be funny. The plot focuses on Beverley Hill's couple Bill, a used car salesman, and his wife Bernadette. Their lives are thrown into turmoil one day when a black man named Bone breaks into their house and demands money. However, all is not rosy for him either - as it soon transpires that despite having the biggest house in the neighbourhood, Bill and Bernadette aren't well off at all, and their marriage doesn't seem to be as happy as first assumed.

This film stands out from a lot of other seventies stuff simply because it is so bizarre, and because of the odd way in which the plot plays out. Cohen sets up the film so that it's not always obvious where he's going to take it, and while there aren't a great deal of surprises with the plot; it at least isn't predictable. The acting is of a rather high standard considering that the film is very much a B-movie. Granted, none of the cast deserves an award for their performances; but all fit into their respective roles well, and none of the performances are particularly over the top. Larry Cohen would go on to prove himself as a more than capable director in the years after this film was released, with films the likes of The Stuff, It's Alive and The Ambulance; but even here, on his directorial debut, Cohen still manages to direct his film with style and panache, which elevates above the level of most similar films. Overall, despite not being as trashy as his later films; Bone is still well worth tracking down for the Larry Cohen fan, and gets a definite thumbs up from me!

Larry Cohen's BONE (1972) is a strange but interesting little film from an era when it was actually okay to lambast the capitalist mucky-mucks. Bone (Yaphet Kotto) is a young black tough who wanders into Beverly Hills and menaces a bourgeois white couple played by Andrew Duggan and Joyce Van Patten. Duggan is a slimy car salesman and Van Patten plays his trophy wife. (They have a grown son, who is in a Spanish jail for trying to smuggle hashish.) The film is supposed to be a satire of white racism and male privilege--and it is, but it's uneven at best. The film is well acted but a stronger, more coherent script would have helped. (Bonus moment: there's a hilarious moment when a hippie girl deliberately puts down a banana peel in a grocery store and--you guessed it--a hapless clerk goes sailing into a display in one of the best pratfalls ever recorded on film.)

"I'm a big black buck just doin' what's expected of him!"

"Bone" is one of the stranger films of the 1970s and is one I am not 100% sure I liked...but at least it was original! It begins with a couple rich folks, Bill and Bernadette (Andrew Duggan and Joyce Van Patten) relaxing by the pool. Soon a black man, Bone (Yaphet Kotto), arrives and the couple assume he's an exterminator or handyman coming to clear the rat out of the pool. Instead, after taking care of the rat, he sticks around...and threatens to rob them and rape the missus unless her husband returns from the bank with a ransom. The husband goes to the bank but changes his mind and goes off on some very strange adventures with a lady screaming about x- rays as well as a bizarro woman who wants to replicate her rape as a child...with Bill! As for Bernadette, despite Bone acting all rapey, it soon becomes apparent he isn't going to rape her and she is disappointed. Yes, I know this is very politically incorrect and some feminists would be offended by this notion. Soon, she realizes her husband is NOT bringing back ransom money...and the story gets even weirder. The finale is strange....and not 100% satisfying.

This film was written, produced and directed by Larry Cohen--a guy known for blackspoitation films like "Hell Up in Harlem" and "Black Caesar" (both excellent movies, actually). I would NOT consider this blacksploitation at all...but it does bring up a lot of race issues and the white folks are nasty hypocrites like you might see in a blacksploitation flick. In fact, the film is more a commentary about the banality of the upper class and their lack of ethics, values and souls. A very weird film...and one that bears re- watching simply because it's hard to determine exactly what Cohen is trying to say!!

By the way, you might be surprised to see quite a bit of Joyce Van Patten in this film. Despite her image as a 'nice girl' in films and being the sister of Dick Van Patten, here she shows some nudity and the film definitely has some very adult themes.

An superb and breathtaking movie - purely character driven, unpredictable and mesmerising. Fabulous performances all round, an intriguing script, some good satire and excellent pacing throughout.

I'd recommend seeing it without any preconceptions - don't read any plot summaries, and don't be put off by any conclusions you may draw about the movie in the first 15 minutes...

This is an absolute gem!

BONE (3+ outta 5 stars) Very odd film that gets better and better the more times you see it. The plot sounds like an average thriller... but the movie is really a comedy... a very black, very subversive comedy. A well-to-do middle-aged couple (Andrew Duggan, Joyce Van Patten) have their bickering interrupted by a mysterious, threatening black man (Yaphet Kotto) who seems to come out of nowhere. He ransacks the house, looking for money. After coming up dry he sends the husband to the bank to withdraw some cash... if he doesn't come back in an hour he is going to rape the wife. Well, the husband takes the opportunity to run out on his wife and have a one night stand with a crazy woman he meets outside of the bank. The wife and her captor, in the meantime, actually begin to form a bond... and soon take off after the errant husband to seek their revenge. Or do they? Excellent performances and dialogue. I was a little taken aback by the movie the first time I saw it because I wasn't sure where it was going... so you'll need to keep an open mind to fully appreciate it. Why was Yaphet Kotto never a big movie star? He OWNS this movie! (Then again, he pretty well owns EVERY movie he appears in.) Classic opening dream sequence of Andrew Duggan selling used cars filled with gruesome accident victims!