Welcome Home Brother Charles

I am an old broad who saw this originally when it was released at the drive in. When I found out what "weapon" he used to kill his victims, I laughed so hard I could barely drive home. When I tried to tell my mom and older sister what the movie was about the next day, it took damn near half an hour because I was laughing so hard! I was literally bent in half. I keep thinking about the "strange markings" on each of the victim's necks. This movie is "blaxplotation" at it's worst. But you have to see it! If you want a good laugh at a bad movie, this is it. It's one of those "guilty pleasure" movies. It is like watching a train wreck, you just cannot turn away. You must see it!

This film is a gem! Everything within Brother Charles (or Soul Vengeance as I saw it) adds to its effect-- jittery camerawork, sound so murky that most dialogue can't be understood, some really out there dancing and of course, weird action. And boy do I mean weird. Fanakaa obviously was trying for some kind of visual metaphor in this film, but its comic effect overshadows any pretense of seriousness the film may or may not contain. Fans of the genre MUST NOT miss out on this one.

Locate this film. Purchase it if you have to. Fast forward about an hour or so into it then play it. Soon you will see a scene like no other. Thousands of movies may be better but none are more memorable than this student film made by Fanakaa while at UCLA. I will not spoil the scene for you but let's just say the main character uses something very interesting to strangle a man. Its a body part but I will not tell which one.

Marlo Monte portrays Charles Murray, an amiable dope pusher who is arrested by white detectives. Unfortunately for Charles, one of these white detectives is Harry Freeman (Ben Bigelow), a raging racist unable to satisfy his wife. What Harry does is that he attempts to castrate Charles, getting back at both the wife and blacks in general. Charles spends three years in the pen, renounces crime, and tries to go straight, although finding honest work is difficult. He shacks up with Carmen (Reatha Grey), a former hooker, and ultimately decides to get revenge on all the honkies who did him wrong: Freeman, Freeman's partner (Stan Kamber), the judge (Ed Sander), and the prosecutor (Stephen Schenck). This he does in an extremely memorable, "Holy *beep*, I can't believe I'm seeing this" manner.

The big money shot occurs around the 88 minute mark, and while it may not catch you off guard if you know the big twist going in, it's STILL a priceless sight to behold. It's guaranteed to send viewers into gales of laughter.

And yet, at the same time, this viewer doesn't know that this aspect of the story is meant to be taken all that literally. Our protagonist may well have become unhinged by his experiences. In effect, the debut feature for writer / producer / director / editor Jamaa Fanaka, who hit it big four years later with the first "Penitentiary" picture, is largely a traditional story of vengeance. But Fanaka makes it fresh by infusing it with subtext (namely, black male virility), and a portrait of black American life in Compton and Watts of the mid-70s.

The filmmaking may not be terribly slick, and some of the performances may be amateurish, but the participants do get an A for effort. Monte and Grey have engaging personalities, Bigelow is an appropriately despicable p.o.s. antagonist, Jackie Ziegler is all kinds of sexy as Charles' ex-girlfriend Twyla (she performs a strip number), and Tiffany Peters is good as Freemans' defiant wife.

Enhanced by some gloriously funky tunes, and William Andersons' sometimes seriously weird soundtrack, this is one blaxploitation oddity that definitely merits at least one viewing.

Eight out of 10.

Welcome Home Brother Charles (1975)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Small time pusher Charles Murray (Marlo Monte) gets arrested, beaten and thrown into prison by a group of racist cops and judges but when he's released he's a changed man to say the least. Soon he decides to take revenge on those who cheated him and he's weapon just happens to be his penis, which has grown to such a length it can strangle a person to death. OK, that there is what this film is known for today but even though the entire sequence is jaw-dropping, there's still no question that the rest of the film is rather slow, confusing and boring. WELCOME HOME BROTHER CHARLES is always going to be known for that infamous death sequence and I guess you have to recommend this movie to fans of bad or weird cinema because this one scene is just so silly that you can't help but wonder what they were trying to say with it. I mean, seriously, this is such a bizarre scene that I'm sure many will be hitting the rewind button to watch it again because they won't believe their eyes. However, it's too bad the rest of the film doesn't have quite as much, ahem, imagination. For the most part the story really doesn't make too much sense but I guess everyone was just following the Blaxploitation 101 handbook. The blacks are all just trying to make a living while every white person is either evil, racist or a combination. The one difference here is that Charles also has the ability to have white women become his sex slave but how these scenes are presented today you can't help but think of rape. The performances aren't what you'd call "good" but I did enjoy Monte in his role as he at least kept you slightly into the film. The soundtrack, cinematography and the overall look of the picture is quite weak and there's no question that a stronger story was needed.