Solomon King

Sal Watts is a CIA-trained detective-killer. When agents of rebel Richard Scarso kill Princess Claudia Russo, who is Watts' live-in girlfriend, he shoots a bunch of random people who try to kill him.

This vanity project by writer-director-star Watts seems to concentrate on the luxurious lifestyle of the owner of Mr. Sal's Fashion store, with shots of Lincoln broughams and of Maseratis with their trident marque clearly centered. Watts can't manage a decent line reading at the start, and most of the cast is similarly obscure. The technical credits -- editing, cameramen, and such -- are professionally managed, although often without much panache; this was often their first credits. In an industry where you can't get a job without credentials, and can't get credentials without a job, even a stinker like this is something for your resume.

After a violent coup attempt forces the ruler of a country in the Middle East to flee, a former CIA agent named "Solomon King" (Sal Watts) agrees to protect his daughter, "Princess Oneeba" (Shelly Babcock), from future assassination attempts. Also assisting him is his brother, "Manny King" (James Watts), who understands the situation quite well. The problem, however, is that there is a mole within the CIA who is cooperating with the assassins and is committed to ensuring that she is killed at all costs. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this movie was made during a time when blaxploitation films were quite popular. Unfortunately, while the overall plot seemed quite promising at first, I must say that this was not one of the better films of this type. The script was weak, the acting was poor, and the action scenes also required significant improvement. That said, I cannot recommend this movie to anyone unless the viewer is a die-hard fan of blaxploitation films, and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

I recently watched Solomon King (1974) on Tubi. The storyline follows a former Green Beret whose girlfriend is killed by a gang. As he digs into the details, he uncovers that a Middle Eastern gang was behind the murder, prompting him to devise a plan for revenge-an eye for an eye.

This film is co-directed by Jack Bomay and Sal Watts, both in their lone directorial projects, with Watts also starring in the title role. The film also features James Watts (Beware My Brethren), Felice Kinchelow (Truck Turner), Samaki Bennett, and Louis Zito (Savage Streets).

Solomon King is a blaxploitation film that boasts a great soundtrack, fun backdrops, and period-specific attire, hairstyles, and dialogue. However, the acting is mediocre, and the plot lacks substance. The repeated scenes of women throwing themselves at the main character quickly become tiresome. There's too much talking and not enough action. The opening scenes before the initial credits are the highlight of the movie, while the final shootout and showdown, though decent, could have been better executed.

In conclusion, Solomon King is primarily worth watching for diehard blaxploitation fans, but it doesn't add much to the genre. I'd score it a 3.5-4/10 and recommend skipping it.

A villainous Middle-eastern Prince, who plans on killing the rightful King and the beautiful Princess, taking over the country, and denying America much-needed oil finds himself opposed by ex-Green Beret, ex-CIA, über-efficient and sartorially-splendid brother Solomon King (Sal Watts). The long thought lost Black action-pic has an interesting history, primarily being the love-child of star and west-coast fashion maven Watts but unfortunately neither he nor his co-starring brother ("Little Jamie" Watts) have the screen presence to carry a feature-length film. In addition to some amateurish acting (I thought at first that the opening scene was going to be a 'film-within-a-film' joke), the production features a stale and predictable storyline, some terribly choreographed fight scenes, the occasional unconvincing 'special effect', and an abundance of tame but clumsy love-scenes. On the plus side, there are some nice cars (notably King's Maserati Ghibli), a funky soundtrack, lots of too-ugly-to-be-believed '70's outfits, and a genial Blaxploitation-light vibe. The extant version (recently show-cased on TCM) is a restoration from damaged originals and some of the scenes suffer from blurry shots, poorly synched sound, or choppy cuts, but otherwise is reasonably watchable for fans of the genre despite lacking the spirit and groove of classic Blaxploitation (such as 1973's 'Superfly').

This movie was made during the "Shaft" and "Superfly" era. This was the flip side to the now infamous movie, "The Mack" Both were filmed in Oakland, California. "Solomon King" premiered to a sold out black-tie only crowd at the beautiful and famous "Paramount Theater" located in Downtown Oakland. With all the recent releases of the movies from "70's, this movie should get a "Second Coming" like all others. I made a cameo appearance in this film almost 30 years ago. I was only 9.