Black Samson

If you are into unintentional comedy, classic one liners or a ridiculous plot then this movie is for you. This along with Dolomite should be in the Blackploitation hall of fame!! Rockne Tarkington's performance is electric as the staff wielding, lion owning barowner Samson. He truly is the man. Add to to this William Smith's over the top Johnny Napa, Samson's hysterical hoochie mama and one badass mortician and you have the makings of an epic battle. The stakes?? Control of the ghetto!!. The tension builds until a final conflict replete with matresses being thrown off a roof, ultimately settles the score! A true period piece if there ever was one. Thumbs up! Way up!!

Rockne Tarkington is Samson, a supercool clubowner and guardian of the ghetto. Samson runs his topless bar with his ladyfreind as his main dancer. He also keeps the streets clean and keeps the bad element out. The bad element, the Italian/American mobsters led by musclebound madman William Smith have different ideas on what to do with Samsons territory. Rockne plays Samson smart, tough and cool. He carries a giant pimpstick(and uses it occasionally to deliver a beatdown), owns a lion and pulls off some seriously funky, African attire. Nappa(William Smith) and his goons force Samson into a showdown at the end of the film. Super tough and super cool Samson is a man of integrity and will never sell out his people in the hood. He also treats his woman like a queen and unlike other blaxsploitation characters like Shaft and Superfly, don't have women on the side. Character actor William Smith is totally in his element as the villain in this piece and is completely psychotic. Black Samson is very good and recommended to anyone who enjoys blaxsploitation and action movies from the 1970's.

White Director/Stuntman Chuck Bail directed this forgotten Warner Bros. film that features Rockne Tarkington (well-known for starring on 70's kid show BANANA SPLITS:DANGER ISLAND) as Samson, a nightclub owner (who owns a lion) who doesn't want any drugs on his neighborhood. William Smith is terrific as a evil Johnny Napa, who wants to own the neighborhood and starts a war with Samson. Character actor Titos Vandis (who is Greek)is miscast as a italian mobster, but seems to chew up the part prettty good. The film does look cheap, and it's intresting Warner Bros. gave Tarkington a lead when it's reported that he turned down ENTER THE DRAGON (a part which went to Jim kelly). The ending is pretty good, so I recommened this film to any action fans looking for 70's actioner. Actor/Stuntman Tornatore later directed Rockne is ZEBRA FORCE and worked with him on TRAINED TO KILL U.S.A.

"Samson" (Rockne Tarkington) is the owner of a nightclub in a black part of Los Angeles who does his best to keep crime down and things under control. However, this doesn't please two rival criminal organizations-one white and the other black-from wanting to move in and take over. This is especially true for one particularly psychotic mobster named "Johnny Nappa" (William Smith) who refuses to heed Samson's warnings and simply won't take "no" for an answer--and things become quite tense after that. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a pretty good "blaxploitation" film in large part due to the performances of the aforementioned William Smith and Rockne Tarkington. Likewise, having a beautiful actress like Connie Strickland (as Johnny's girlfriend "Tina") certainly didn't hurt either. In any case, I thought this was a pretty good film and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

Strip club owner Samson and his pet lion try to keep the neighborhood safe. White mobster Johnny Nappa tries to move in but Samson is not giving in.

It's a second tier blaxploitation. Samson is setup like a noble tribal African king and he does a lion. It's an old lion and he doesn't do much. Nothing is really that great. It's a simple story. I don't really recognize lead actor Rockne Tarkington although I've seen a couple of his things. There are some fun stunts and some dangerous car people interactions although they need a better fight coordinator. They do get to wreck a few cars. The final battle is a little silly. It's more unrealistic than the rest of the movie. This is for blaxploitation fans.