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Coffy/Foxy Brown/Friday Foster

Coffy and Foxy Brown written and directed by Jack Hill

Friday Foster written by Orville H. Hampton, directed by Arthur Marks

USA, 1973/1974/1975

Olive Films recently released several Blaxploitation titles on Blu-ray for the first time, all on the same day. This included the Fred Williamson-starring Hammer, from 1972, as well as three Pam Grier films: Coffy (1973), Foxy Brown (1974), and Friday Foster (1975). Hammer isn’t a particular favorite, but these latter three were most welcome, especially Coffy, which is quite possibly the greatest of all Blaxploitation features, even better than the more popular Shaft (1971) and Super Fly (1972). As much as anything, these three releases are notable for showcasing Grier at her finest during a period of immensely enjoyable work and exceptional productivity—15 films from her minor debut in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) to Friday Foster. Around these films, she also starred in several other...

Urban action and fatal attraction give rise to a groove from beyond the grave in this funkadelic, fangadelic blaxploitation double-bill from Eureka Entertainment, which sees the eternally cool William Marshall put a fresh spin on the age-old legend of the vampire, condemned to wander the earth with an insatiable lust for blood as Blacula.

Produced at the height of the blaxploitation era, the Blacula movies are the perfect blend of genre and social film making, the types of which hadn’t been seen before… or since!

Blacula (1972)

Stars: William Marshall, Vonetta McGee, Denise Nicholas, Thalmus Rasulala, Gordon Pinsent, Charles Macaulay, Emily Yancy, Ted Harris, Rick Metzler | Written by Joan Torres, Raymond Koenig | Directed by William Crain

In 1780, African Prince Mamuwalde (Marshall) pays a visit to Count Dracula in Transylvania, seeking his support in ending the slave trade. Instead, the evil count curses his noble guest and transforms him into a vampire!

A week before he died in 2006, author Mickey Spillane turned to his wife and said, “When I’m gone, there’s going to be a treasure hunt around here. Take everything you find and give it to Max – he’ll know what to do.”

“Max” is Max Allan Collins. He was, for a number of reasons, an ideal choice to be the keeper of the Spillane flame.

A fan of Spillane’s since he’d been a kid, Collins had met the mystery writer at a convention in the early 1980s. The connection developed into both friendship and regular collaboration. But Collins was no junior partner in the duo.

Born in Muscatine, Iowa in 1948, he’s been writing mysteries since he was a kid, eventually studying in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, one of the most renowned writing programs in the country.

By the late 1970s,...

I’m just gonna say it… We Like To Party, but even we can’t party as hard as the Wolfpack! Alan, Stu and Phil are bringing the party back to theaters this Thursday with The Hangover Part II, so we thought, what better way to ring in the party than to count down our favorite party animals!

These are the cool kids that bring the party! They rage, they get down… heck, they might even get “jiggy wit it”! Sure, they might not be from the fluorescent box of crayons, but these folks can MacGyver a good time out of a paper clip, a broomstick and a Nelson cassette. (Yep, I said it!)

So, without further adeu…

Top Ten Party Animals Honorable Mention: Trent (Vince Vaughn) Swingers (1996)

Trent (Vince Vaughn) is an aspiring actor. He’s loud, flirtatious, and he’s living the swinging lifestyle. Vegas is this kings castle,...

Michael Pataki was a leading character actor from the 1960s, who was best known for his roles in cult horror films. Pataki starred as Caleb Croft, a vicious vampire rapist whose offspring (William Smith) seeks his destruction in 1974’s Grave of the Vampire, and was Count Dracula and his modern-day descendant Michael Drake in Albert Band’s cult classic Dracula’s Dog (aka Zoltan, Hound of Dracula).

Pataki was born in Youngstown, Ohio, on January 16, 1938. He studied drama and political science at the University of Southern California. He made his film debut in the late 1950s, and appeared frequently on television, often in villainous roles. He was featured in episodes of The Twilight Zone, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, My Favorite Martian, Batman as bat-villain King Tut’s henchman Amenophis Tewfik, Mission: Impossible, and Mr. Terrific. He starred as Korax, the Klingon, in the classic Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles,...