Black Shampoo

"Mr. Jonathan" (John Daniels) is a black hairstylist who owns a salon on the Sunset Strip which is quite popular to his rich, female clientele. Not only does this salon have two dedicated hairdressers in "Artie" (Skip E. Lowe) and "Richard" (Gary Allen) but it also features the talents of the aforementioned Mr. Jonathan who the ladies simply cannot resist. Be that as it may, one day while paying a house call to one of his customers, three men enter his salon and, after physically assaulting Artie, order the newly-hired receptionist named "Brenda St. John" (Tanya Boyd) to contact a mob boss by the name of "Mr. Wilson" (Joseph Carlo)--or else. Quite distraught about being located by Mr. Wilson--and upset that Artie has been hurt--she reluctantly agrees to call him that night. However, before she does that, she feels obliged to apologize to Mr. Jonathan first. One thing eventually leads to another and the two of them become lovers. What Mr. Jonathan doesn't realize, however, is that Mr. Wilson is not a person to trifle with and he is determined to have Brenda as his mistress again. Now, rather than reveal any more I will just say that this turned out to be an entertaining movie to a certain degree in spite of the rather low-budget production values. To that effect, both the script and the acting was equally weak with Skip E. Lowe probably turning in the most uneven performance overall. The one saving grace, however, was the performance of Tanya Boyd who dominated every scene she was in. Granted, she was either partially-clad or completely nude in some of them, but even so she was quite attractive and her appearances definitely benefited the film to a large degree. That being said, while this clearly wasn't a great movie by any means, I guess it had its moments and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Well I'm not saying it's one of my favorite movies but it's entertaining in a "that could never happen" kind of way. I think really bad acting can be funny, as is the case in this movie..also bad editing and cheesy "soft core"...material is humorous to me. I got a good laugh out of it! For instance, there's a scene in the beginning where Mr. Jonathat does a 'house call' and he gets 'attacked' by two white chicks, and the camera pans to some floating object in the pool! There was no reason for it, and I can't even tell what the object is to be honest! That type of really bad film production is entertaining somehow.

I got a fair amount of entertainment out of this diverting if forgettable blaxploitation entry, but then I approached the whole thing looking at it as tongue in cheek. If one were to take it seriously, they might well find it in the "so bad it's good" category. A stiff, not too charming John Daniels is cast as Mr. Jonathan (whether that's his first or last name doesn't matter), owner / operator of a hair salon and also irresistible stud muffin to a variety of (mostly white) women. Trouble brews when Brenda (Tanya Boyd), his secretary, is threatened by her former employer, a mob boss named Mr. Wilson (Joseph Carlo). Wilson and his thugs mean business, and among their methods used are the trashing of the salon and the sodomizing of one of the employees. This dumb but fun movie comes complete with the expected funky music score with the ever present "wacka wacka" guitar, two flagrant gay stereotypes, and what will be the most appreciated by exploitation fans, an ample serving of female nudity. This certainly is a trashy outing, as the over sexed daughters of one customer unrelentingly come on to Mr. Jonathan, and it can be a very funny one as well. Just witness the awkwardly staged and ridiculous salon trashing episode. One has to see it to believe it. Hell, there's even a Western themed costume party in which one party goer is absurdly dressed in ballet gear. Things really pick up towards the end, where Mr. Jonathan is pursued by the sadistic mob flunkies armed with a miniature chainsaw. Now, we don't get to see too much detail when he carves them up, but this is an amusing bit of business nevertheless. In fact, the climax in general is pretty violent. With the level of exploitation on display, this should entertain some viewers, and it manages to generate some hearty laughs as well; the music score is at times utterly ridiculous. All in all, this probably won't become a classic or get too many retrospectives but it's a mild hoot for people with certain tastes. Seven out of 10.

Man, I haven't seen this much nudity and so many stereotypes in a long time! Black, White, Rich, Gay, Straight--It has all of them.

Man,could the Gay hairdressers be more flaming? damn. And I have known a few gay hairdressers.

This has all the 70's clichés ever invented and portrayed in this sort of film, but Shaft, Superfly, Dolemite it ain't! LOL.

OK, it is NOT a great movie, It is a low budget cheese fest, yes.

But I really love seeing women in old movies who haven't been Botoxed, Implanted or Siliconed!You know what I'm sayin'? All natural hair, and...well you know.

The clothes are so funky, and it's hard to believe people dressed like that, but styles have a way of coming back around.

I grew up in those days. I was 12 when this movie came out, so I obviously didn't see it, plus I was nerdy, white and un-hip. (Still white and nerdy) LOL! So don't be so quick to over analyze and critique this film, it is what it is, and so are the other blaxploitation films of the 70's.

I love this kind of stuff, even if it is stupid, lame and dumb.

Damn, those women are fine.

Like 6 nude scenes in 30 minutes! Yee haw! I'm a typical guy, huh? Peace!

They just don't make 'em like this no more. Grungy as only a '70s B-Movie can be, and filled with hilariously overblown 'tude. The acting is minimal, the script is charmless and vulgar, and the lousy video version I saw made it look like a cheapo porn flick.

If you want to invite your friends over for a MST3K-type party, this would be a good one to rent. The opportunities to throw wisecracks at the screen are hard to resist!