SUPERFLY 1972 - Wanted to get in a viewing of at least one other blaxploitation film before I got to the main event. This was was perhaps the third most famous after Shaft, although due to the subject matter (following a cocaine dealer's efforts to get out of the business) it has one of the more notorious reputations. It's well made, you can't fault it for execution (and it sure makes much of New York look really depressing and run down), just the questionable content in focus since there were so few movies made by or for black audiences. It's glamorous, it's exciting, but there's a valid point to the concentration on criminality that you do find in many of these films of the time.
BLACULA 1972 -- Released 50 years ago today. This is the quintessential blaxploitation film. It literally by its title is demonstrating the sensational advertising approach, selling the "black angle" to the story. But it would really be doing it an injustice to dismiss it as merely a quick and cheap diversified version of Dracula because it has many innovations for a vampire horror film that would influence others. It has a 5.7 rating on IMDB which I think is too low. Other blaxploitation films didn't really do anything new when it came to gun fights or action scenes. But this does strike new ground with vampire concepts.
For one thing, it does generate serious creepy moments, and for a tired genre like vampires, and it was getting tired by 1972 which was a big year for bloodsuckers (the Night Stalker, Vampire Circus, Dracula AD 1972) that's a major achievement in itself. The title sequence is artistic--with the blood drop and the vampire bat running through a psychedelic maze. The sequence with Dracula (Charles Macaulay) is a little rough around the edges but they needed a way to explain how an African prince would become a vampire. This creates the most awkward dramatic scene where Mamuwalde (William Marshall) tells Tina, the reincarnation of his wife, that he was from Africa, and he went to Europe to fight the slave trade and his host was Dracula. Poor Vonette McKee has an even worse task than Marshall because she has to react to all this information overload. It's fantastical and yet, what can she do but just stare in a trance almost and make a weak display of disbelief.
Usually Marshall gets all the praise, and the film would probably have sunk without him, but the other major character is the Van Helsing part--Dr. Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala) who is very unusual for a vampire film of the time. He gets to attack a vampire or two with a stake and physical combat. There are not that many vampire films I can think of where that happens. Peter Cushing does it once or twice, and David Warbeck hurdles a spear at a vampire in one movie, but usually they just bring out the cross and the sun. And his reaction to Mamuwalde is one of distrust and hostility--and the banter between them about vampires is a great section because it shows that they each are passionately locked into their views. Other vampire movies with similar scenes--with Dracula talking to Van Helsing--usually VH is a much older or weaker man. Not physically matched like it is here.
The thing that really stands out in this film is the, no pun intended, the high stakes of it. Mamuwalde has a good reason to be seeking Tina (contrived as it is, I think it works much better than in Mummy films or other vampires films that use this trope), and Dr. Thomas and friends have good reasons to be concerned about it. The staking scene at the end is one of the most horrifying that I can think of. It's horrific due to the emotional reaction of characters to their surprise at who is in the coffin.
Maybe it generates some laughs because of the makeup (though the vampire look in this is unique creepy) but that's another thing which is very skillfully handled in the film--humor. And I don't mean the overt references to sexual orientation--but little jokes that they bring into it which I think works to prevent the audience from laughing when they aren't suppose to. And this story could easily have fallen into joke status.
The scene in the morgue is a very effective vampire attack. I think Salem's Lot was influenced by it. The attack on the photographer and the arrival of Barnes the cop. Those are very creepy moments.
This is also I think, the best of the AIP vampire movies of the 70s--including the Yorga films. They aren't bad but they feel a little cheaper and less dramatically intense compared to this.
BLACULA 1972 -- Released 50 years ago today. This is the quintessential blaxploitation film. It literally by its title is demonstrating the sensational advertising approach, selling the "black angle" to the story. But it would really be doing it an injustice to dismiss it as merely a quick and cheap diversified version of Dracula because it has many innovations for a vampire horror film that would influence others. It has a 5.7 rating on IMDB which I think is too low. Other blaxploitation films didn't really do anything new when it came to gun fights or action scenes. But this does strike new ground with vampire concepts.
For one thing, it does generate serious creepy moments, and for a tired genre like vampires, and it was getting tired by 1972 which was a big year for bloodsuckers (the Night Stalker, Vampire Circus, Dracula AD 1972) that's a major achievement in itself. The title sequence is artistic--with the blood drop and the vampire bat running through a psychedelic maze. The sequence with Dracula (Charles Macaulay) is a little rough around the edges but they needed a way to explain how an African prince would become a vampire. This creates the most awkward dramatic scene where Mamuwalde (William Marshall) tells Tina, the reincarnation of his wife, that he was from Africa, and he went to Europe to fight the slave trade and his host was Dracula. Poor Vonette McKee has an even worse task than Marshall because she has to react to all this information overload. It's fantastical and yet, what can she do but just stare in a trance almost and make a weak display of disbelief.
Usually Marshall gets all the praise, and the film would probably have sunk without him, but the other major character is the Van Helsing part--Dr. Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala) who is very unusual for a vampire film of the time. He gets to attack a vampire or two with a stake and physical combat. There are not that many vampire films I can think of where that happens. Peter Cushing does it once or twice, and David Warbeck hurdles a spear at a vampire in one movie, but usually they just bring out the cross and the sun. And his reaction to Mamuwalde is one of distrust and hostility--and the banter between them about vampires is a great section because it shows that they each are passionately locked into their views. Other vampire movies with similar scenes--with Dracula talking to Van Helsing--usually VH is a much older or weaker man. Not physically matched like it is here.
The thing that really stands out in this film is the, no pun intended, the high stakes of it. Mamuwalde has a good reason to be seeking Tina (contrived as it is, I think it works much better than in Mummy films or other vampires films that use this trope), and Dr. Thomas and friends have good reasons to be concerned about it. The staking scene at the end is one of the most horrifying that I can think of. It's horrific due to the emotional reaction of characters to their surprise at who is in the coffin.
Maybe it generates some laughs because of the makeup (though the vampire look in this is unique creepy) but that's another thing which is very skillfully handled in the film--humor. And I don't mean the overt references to sexual orientation--but little jokes that they bring into it which I think works to prevent the audience from laughing when they aren't suppose to. And this story could easily have fallen into joke status.
The scene in the morgue is a very effective vampire attack. I think Salem's Lot was influenced by it. The attack on the photographer and the arrival of Barnes the cop. Those are very creepy moments.
This is also I think, the best of the AIP vampire movies of the 70s--including the Yorga films. They aren't bad but they feel a little cheaper and less dramatically intense compared to this.
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