Black Eye

BLACK EYE (2 outta 5 stars) Unimaginatively-filmed '70s action movie looks like it was made for TV... only the occasional cuss word and a subplot about lesbianism tip you off that the movie was actually made to be shown in theatres. Fred Williamson plays a tough guy ex-cop who becomes a tough guy private eye. He stumbles upon a couple of murders and attempted murders linked to a mysterious cane. There are some fistfights, a Bullit-inspired car chase, a fairly original elevator scene and even time for Williamson to confront the rich, lesbian lover of his girlfriend (Teresa Graves). There is also a scene with Williamson bullying a poor old man by tearing up some priceless old autographed photos in his memorabilia shop. Yeah, way to go, tough guy... maybe you can find a cripple to beat up later? Obviously meant to cash in on the success of "Shaft" (this and about six thousand other movies), this movie doesn't have enough edge or enough originality to make much of an impression.

A woman steals the walking cane of a Hollywood olden days star during his funeral. LA private eye Shep Stone (Fred Williamson) is soon entangled in the case leading to murders, a religious cult, and a drug ring.

This is in the hard-boiled private eye genre and a blaxploitation film. It's blaxploitation due to the times and its targeting of the black audience. In the modern sense, this would just be another movie with above average black content. The story meanders around with some violence and limited action. It is more a sense of its times that is fascinating. For a side note, I kept waiting for someone to get a black eye when I realized that he's black and he's a private eye. The title should probably be Big Black Private D. This movie is generally fine. It has nothing exceptional and nothing terribly wrong. It's fine.

His significant charisma and commanding presence are about all that keep this afloat, but Fred Williamson has done far better urban action films including many of his later, vid-released fare. The big studios' Williamson films of the early-to-mid 70's rarely had the punch of their mid-level counterparts, and this is a prime example. Clumsy action, little violence, and the PG rating is nowhere near questionable. Worth a look for Hammer completists in any case.

So it's now years after previously watching the other movie director Jack Arnold and star Fred Williamson did together which was Boss N!gger which they actually made after this one. That one I found a lot of fun. This one is also pretty exciting but it may disappoint anyone who expect some nudity or really intense action for a '70s Blaxploitation picture. Fred is a private detective who gets mixed up in a porno ring and religious cult because of some cane from a late movie star. All I'll mention now is that I mostly enjoyed this one especially when Williamson encounters such familiar faces like Richard "Oscar Goldman" Anderson, Teresa "Laugh-In" Graves before then starring in "Get Christie Love", and Teddy "Sweet Daddy" Wilson which he would play on "Good Times" a little later in the decade. So that's a recommendation for Black Eye.

Jack Arnold is principally remembered for directing THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN in 1957, a science fiction movie done with imagination, well pulled off special effects, a gripping script and Grant Williams in the best form of his career.

From Williams to Fred Williamson in 1974, and BLACK EYE. Willimson does perform creditably, but then that cannot have been that difficult, seeing that he is surrounded by by uniformly dumb members of the white community, beginning with a prostitute who steals a cane with a metallic wolf's head from the top of a coffin, a crazed criminal who atatcks her with a knife and makes off with the cane, but not before beating up and insulting Williamson with the worst adjectives for a black person, followed by a string of third and fourth rate white actors who must have been badly overdrawn or downright bankrupt to have agreed to play such dumbsters, junkies, sinful preachers and diabolical felons.

BLACK EYE is worth watching because of Williamson (especially while destroying valuables belonging to an antique collector enjoying "good vibes from the dead"), his Ford Mustang, his gorgeous Whitney Houston lookalike girlfriend, and the inevitably gay white guys and bombastically beautiful white birds who keep throwing themselves at him. The action ain't bad, either. 6/10.