The Monkey Hu$tle

Rudy Ray Moore was splashed all over the poster art for this movie, so I was expecting another embarrassingly unintentionally hilarious film along the lines of DOLOMITE or DISCO GODFATHER, but this was actually a pretty good movie outside of Rudy, in his few scenes as a supporting character, try to act alongside legitimate actors like Yaphet Kotto. THE MONKEY HU$TLE reminded me of an urban AMERICAN GRAFFITI that was aspiring to be COOLIE HIGH. It's not quite that good, but it does a good job of making this neighborhood feel like a real place populated by a bunch of characters you'd like to spend time with. There's the neighborhood con man, the local cop, the mischievous group of teens, another group of younger kids, and the local player "Goldie," played badly in the most unintentionally hilarious manner by Rudy Ray Moore. Yaphet steals the movie anytime he's on-screen as the neighborhood con man. There's not a really strong narrative throughline. The closest thing to a plot is there's a new highway planned to go through their Chicago neighborhood, so various community members band together to stop it, culminating in a neighborhood block party. However, for the most part, we're simply following around a bunch of different characters doing their thing in a series of vignettes, kind of like DAZED AND CONFUSED, but nowhere as well as that film. Directed by Arthur Marks, who also directed BUCKTOWN, DETROIT 9000, and FRIDAY FOSTER, it's a competently crafted film and was always entertaining, even if the story meandered and lacked a strong narrative.

If a white producer and a white screenwriter got together to produce a film for a black audience anytime before the bicentennial, then this would be the product. The language and expressions are so exaggerated as to be excessively comic, then again perhaps this was the intended effect (though I doubt it).

I'm reminded of the final scenes of Robert Townsend's "Hollywood Shuffle," where he plays a struggling actor who just got the lead in a low budget blaxpoitation production "Jive Time Jimmy's Revenge." Townsend is supposed to have an uncredited bit part in "The Monkey Shuffle," and one is almost certain that he was referencing the ridiculous direction given the actors in "The Monkey Shuffle." A true homage to demonstrate how shallow cross cultural understanding was at the time. An understanding made clear in this film.

With lines like "You sho-is bad!" and "Yo my main man!" one can't help but wonder how the guys at MST3K missed "The Monkey Shuffle" (probably because of the race angle; it being bad form and all to make fun of a black, or blaxpoitation, film). The story revolves around a band of two-bit hustlers, shuckin' and jivin' their way to the big time. Only they're supposedly stymied by a municipal urban renewal plan, that bulldozes their base of operations. A plan that's supposed to put a highway through the neighborhood. Too bad this wasn't played up in the film, because if you miss the few minutes of dialogue and other exposition given to the plot you'll miss it entirely. Not that you really need to know it, because it's hardly significant in the story.

There's lots of character development, but it's all one dimensional. The haircuts and costumes are laughable, and the plot doesn't come into play until the end of the film. Much of the movie is spent exploring the petty exploits of the "players," and "players" in training, and does nothing to develop either plot or story.

Well, it's been a while since I've heard expressions like "sho 'nuff" or "turkey" or even "sucka," so from a linguistics point of view it was kind of fun seeing paleolithic jive talk in action, but beyond that there's not much to offer here.

The film itself is supposed to be some kind of comedy, but I found myself hard pressed to laugh at anything other than the dated speech, costumes, and extreme mannerisms given by the characters.

If you want to see Blaxpoitation, then rent one of the better known Pam Grier, Jim Kelley, or Shaft films. Your brain'll thank you for it.

This movie is worth renting just to see Goldie and his Goldie Mobile! Not a bad plot, and the song "Monkey Hustle' is a riot!

A new highway threatens a Chicago neighborhood, so to protest the residents throw a block party.

Roger Ebert gave the film one-and-half stars (out of four), calling it a "good-hearted muddle" but opining that "they must have left half the script back in Hollywood." Ebert did note with pleasure that the film's business justified opening the balcony at the now-demolished Roosevelt Theater, where he had not sat in four years. He is spot-on here. The film never really seems to have a direction and just sort of meanders. This can work on occasion, but does not seem to here.

In 2009, "Black Dynamite" star and co-writer Michael Jai White cited "The Monkey Hu$tle" as a major influence, telling the Los Angeles Times, "It was just brash, unlike anything I'd ever seen... I remember these bigger-than-life characters, who reminded me of my uncles, and it was the first time I saw anything familiar in my life on the big screen." This adds a little weight to the film that it does not provide itself, as "Black Dynamite" is truly impressive.

Story takes place in Chicago involving a hustler (Yaphet Kotto), who recruits four teenagers to perform rip-offs for him in exchange for pocket money. The other central point is a soul food restaurant owned and operated by Kotto's lady friend, played by Rosalind Cash, and Rudy Ray Moore as an underworld type who owes Kotto some big undisclosed favor. Good cast also includes Randy Brooks, Frank Rice, Fuddle Bagley, Donn Carl Harper, future producer/director Thomas Carter (pre-White Shadow), Kirk Calloway, Steven Williams, a small uncredited role by Robert Townsend and a young Debbi Morgan. Townsend and Williams also appeared in Cooley High.