Black Caesar

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A king of crime is born.
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A mob boss who started in the streets, ready to do anything for a payoff.
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No matter what it cost.
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He became an overlord of the underworld with every trick in the book.
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Fred Williamson, in the private war of an angry man,
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whose hate was spelled out in the blood of his enemy,
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his violence in the curses of his women, Black Caesar.
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Every mob organization in town is out to get him.
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We're not talking about actors. We mean a real monster.
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I brought her back. She'll live and I'll get her another body.
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I know they're gonna catch me, but don't let anyone see me like that. Please, Doctor! Help me!
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Biologically speaking, it's a primary importance that man should want to mate.
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Hey, that's right!
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You don't get all your kicks from surfing, do you?
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We want to be free to ride our machines without being hassled by the man.
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And we want to get loaded.
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You think you're gonna make a slave of the world?
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I'll see you in Hell first!
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The American International Podcast.
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Are you ready?
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Hello and welcome to the American International Podcast. I'm Cheryl Lightfoot.
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And I'm Jeff Markin.
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And this week we're breaking into organized crime at the top with Black Caesar from 1973.
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Black Caesar was written, produced and directed by Larry Cohen for Largo Productions and released by American International Pictures.
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Black Caesar stars Fred Williamson as Tommy Gibbs, Gloria Hendry as Helen, Art Lund as Captain McKinney,
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D'Urville Martin as Reverend Rufus, Julius W. Harris as Mr. Gibbs,
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Minnie Gentry as Mama Gibbs, Philip Roye as Joe Washington, William Wellman Jr. as Alfred Coleman,
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James Dixon as “Irish" Bryant, Val Avery as Cardoza.
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Also appearing our Patrick McAllister as Grossfield, Don Pedro Colly as Crawdaddy,
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Myrna Hansen as Virginia Coleman, Omer Jeffrey as Young Tommy, Michael Jeffrey as Young Joe,
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Allen W. Bailey as “Motor", Cecil Alonzo as “Sport", Francisco DeGracia as Cab Driver,
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and Larry Lurin as Carlos.
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Black Caesar opens with a date, September 5th, 1953.
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A boy shining shoes on a busy street.
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This is downtown New York City, looks like Harlem.
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A man in a suit comes by and the boy convinces the man to stand still for his shoe shine.
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He nervously looks around and so does the boy.
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This man tells the boy to hurry.
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The boy, Tommy, says that a good shine takes time.
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Another man exits a building from across the street.
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Tommy's customer sees this man and tries to leave, but Tommy grabs onto the man's leg, keeping him in place.
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The new man pulls on a gun and guns down Tommy's customer.
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Little Tommy grabs his shoe shine box and runs as James Brown sings down and out in New York City.
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After a while, Tommy and the shooter meet in one of those mythical New York City alleys.
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The shooter gives the boy some cash and the boy asks for a peek at that gun.
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The two of them go up the fire scape stairs, but the next time we see Tommy, he's on a rooftop.
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And from there he goes back down to the street.
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Tommy has an envelope in his hand.
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He runs over to a building and goes up the stairs to apartment 17 and knocks on the door
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just as James Brown's song fades out.
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The door is answered by Jeff McKinney, a racist cop on the take.
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McKinney wants to know where the regular career is because they don't allow Tommy's kind in the building.
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Tommy asks Tommy should know.
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McKinney looks in the envelope and declares it's short.
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He wants to know what Tommy did with the rest of the money.
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Tommy insists he didn't take it, but McKinney is not the type to accept insubordination, particularly from someone he sees as a lesser being.
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So McKinney throws Tommy down the stairs.
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McKinney follows Tommy down the stairs and picks him up at the bottom.
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McKinney says that he could kill Tommy with no consequences because he's a cop and Tommy's black.
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McKinney starts beating Tommy with his night stick, breaking his leg.
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Tommy tried to defend himself, but there's no way he was going to fight off this cop.
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McKinney walks away, satisfied with the job will done.
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And the next time we see Tommy, he's in the hospital.
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Is there going to cast and open a sling?
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A lot of people have signed that cast.
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But at the moment, Tommy only has one visitor.
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It's Joe Washington who appears to be a friend from the neighborhood.
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Tommy asks Joe why he's the only one who has come to visit.
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And where are the other kids?
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The other kids don't want me around, says Joe.
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But that's all right because Joe is the only one Tommy wants to see right now.
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And Tommy lays out his plan for Joe.
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Tommy says he's going away. And while he's away, he's going to learn a lot.
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And he wants Joe to learn a lot too.
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And then Tommy will see that Joe is taking care of.
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Tommy wants Joe to finish high school.
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Then to learn where to put money so that you have more money than you started.
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Which is something I would like to learn too.
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Wouldn't we all?
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Then when the time has come for Tommy to start his business, they'll be ready.
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Joe's planning to go to the community college of New York because it's free.
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So he's on board with this plan.
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Then Tommy tells Joe to fuck off before Joe starts crying.
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Joe says he's not crying, but he fucks off anyway.
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As he goes, Tommy commands Joe to get laid before they meet again.
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It is now October 23rd 1965.
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And a full grown Tommy Gibbs walks down the street in New York.
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He's wearing his uniform of a suit in Hamburg hat.
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He is fine to put it mildly.
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But we don't spend too much time gazing upon him.
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We're inside a barbershop where a white man is being shaved by a black barber.
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The white man is of course being offensive, which is not terribly smart
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when there's a man with a blade at your throat.
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This is Mr. Grossfield and as we'll find out, he really isn't terribly smart.
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He's going on about how black people love to lose money and then he should build a casino in the desert just for them.
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I would love to be on the jury for this barber if he finally snapped and slit this man's throat.
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Anyway, we see Tommy come in.
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Sam the barber says that he'll be right with Tommy.
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But Tommy tells Sam to take his time and make Mr. Grossfield look good for his family.
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Tommy takes a seat directly in front of Grossfield.
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And when Tommy insinuates that he has some business with Grossfield,
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Grossfield tries to call Tommy's bluff saying Tommy doesn't have a gun.
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Tommy reaches under his coat to prove Grossfield wrong.
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The nervous barber begins shaking and nicking Grossfield as he shaves him.
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Tommy tells Sam the barber to try to be more careful.
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Tommy had planned on giving it to him where it didn't show and Sam was marking him all up.
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Grossfield says that he doesn't know who sent Tommy.
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But as if they can work something out.
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No one sent me, he says Tommy.
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I'm just trying to break into the business at the top.
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Grossfield asks for a chance to get his gun and make it a fair fight.
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Tommy says that he's just as nervous as he is.
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Meaning either Grossfield or Sam.
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But whoever he's talking to, he's saying that this is a first for both of them.
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He's never killed anyone before.
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Grossfield tells Tommy that the organization would never allow this.
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But Tommy tells him that there's a contract on him put out by his old friend Cardoso.
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And Tommy has taken it upon himself to fulfill the contract.
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Grossfield grabs the barber's razor and jumps up, but Tommy shoots him dead.
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Grossfield falls back into the barber chair.
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Tommy quips that Sammy did a sloppy job on the shave and there's no way Tommy is going to let Sam ever shave him.
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Then he picks up the razor and slices off Grossfield's left ear.
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And now we're an Italian restaurant where Cardoza can only be him is eating spaghetti.
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And he basically has a room to himself.
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Tommy walks in holding an napkin.
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He strides over to Cardoza's table and shakes the content of the napkin onto Cardoza's plate.
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And it's a discolored right ear.
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That's either a goof or we just didn't see him take off both ears.
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I thought your sauce could use a little more meat.
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He says after Cardoza's initial shock, Jesus Christ.
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He tells Tommy that it was only open professionals.
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Don't I qualify? Yes, Tommy.
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Tommy says he spent eight years in some of their finest institutions.
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And he says this was a clean job, but Cardoza sputters clean in the middle of the afternoon with witnesses.
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But Tommy says he did it that way on purpose because everyone knows that Cardoza doesn't employ black people.
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Cardoza invites him to sit down and order.
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A waiter comes over and speaking perfect Italian restaurant menu.
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Tommy orders a rigatoni plate for himself and a replacement spaghetti for Cardoza.
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Cardoza is impressed that Tommy can speak Italian.
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And Tommy explains that one of his cellmates was Sicilian.
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Cardoza agrees to pay Tommy $200 for the job.
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Tommy asks him when did the price go down?
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Since when do black people make as much as whites?
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Counters Cardoza?
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Tommy tells Cardoza he should reconsider.
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He may want to use Tommy again.
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But Cardoza says no.
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He never uses the same guy twice in the same city.
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It's too easy for them to be identified.
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But Tommy says he's got a bill in disguise.
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No one notices anything about him other than he's black.
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They don't even notice his bad leg.
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I didn't notice it either.
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Not once in this entire movie.
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Cardoza also says the other families will never allow him to hire Tommy.
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But Tommy doesn't want a job.
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What he wants is one full block to call his own.
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127th Street in Edgecomb.
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We don't know if that's North or South, but that is Harlem.
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Cardoza doesn't understand what Tommy wants with this shitty block.
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But Tommy will make it work.
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Cardoza again warns Tommy about the precarious living situation.
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But Tommy is unfazed.
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He's going to put in the work.
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And Cardoza toasts him.
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Salute.
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Black Caesar continues with the montage as Tommy and his men, including a now grown-up
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Joe, patrol their neighborhood while the song Boss by James Brown has played.
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They make handshake deals.
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Tommy shoots a Tommy gun in a black box.
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People are taken down and Tommy is spending time with women.
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And he looks good doing that.
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Now we're going to meet another friend of Tommy's.
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This is Reverend Rufus.
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Rufus, Tommy and Joe are meeting in the office of lawyer Alfred Coleman.
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Rufus is explaining the religious record he's running.
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He shakes people down, but all the payments go into the books as religious offerings.
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Then they get to use the tax-free profits to buy legit businesses.
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So the market's apartment houses, etc.
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Joe jumps in to say that the real goal here is to give the black man a fair shake.
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Hollins in attorney who, as Tommy understands, it has connections at City Hall, including GUSIK,
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a bag man for certain public servants.
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GUSIK had detailed ledgers of his legal activities with names of the well-connected, going back to the 50s.
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Tommy saw them once when he was a kid, and he knows that GUSIK keeps them in a safe deposit box.
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But when he gets audited, those ledgers come out.
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Tommy plans to acquire these ledgers and take over those accounts.
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And then he'd like Coleman to represent his business interests.
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Coleman expresses interest, but he needs those ledgers to fully commit to the project.
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The audit of those ledgers is being performed in the back of a bar to the strains of some James Brown funk.
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Tommy is led in through the back door by Helen.
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She is happy to see him, but this is a personal call for Tommy.
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He asked her to pick him up with a song or two, but she boxed.
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She's tired after a long day of being groped and propositioned by the pigs who come in there.
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But Tommy demands a song.
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Anything loud is okay.
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Helen sits down with the keyboard and pounds out some keys, hitting a discordant note.
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Tommy pulls a gun and she asks what he's gonna do.
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He pushes her face away from him and tells her to play and she does.
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He doesn't care what she plays just to make it loud.
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And no matter what to keep playing.
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She starts playing and singing big daddy.
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Then Tommy goes into the back room, shoots the auditor and the two other men looking over his shoulder.
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No one stops playing and Tommy takes those ledgers.
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Tommy returns to Helen and says it's time to go home now.
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No more working for tips for her.
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He has those ledgers now and that means political power and financial success.
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She's slowly, almost unwillingly follows the amount of the club.
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And now Tommy Joe and Crod Daddy, this is one of Tommy's thugs,
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are meeting with Opera Coleman in Coleman's office.
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Joe says that instead of just shaking down the white landlords,
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they're going to go into business with them and improve the tenets living situation.
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This will earn them trust within the black community.
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Tommy gives the ledgers to Coleman as they prepare to leave and Coleman requests that they use the freight elevator when they go.
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Joe and Crod Daddy stand to leave, but first it's present time.
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Tommy gives each of his men a wrap box, then throws Coleman a present,
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something from Tiffany's for his wife.
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Yes, Tommy, if you should lock the ledgers away,
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but Tommy wants them to be kept out where he can see them.
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And he is McKinney who has been invited into joining them.
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Of course, McKinney and Tommy recognize each other.
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And Coleman would like for them to forget about past differences.
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Coleman hands McKinney an investment portfolio that was prepared for him by Joe.
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It's all blue chiff stuff, whatever that means.
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I don't know much about investing, but it stocks bonds and securities.
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McKinney examines the paperwork and then sees those infamous ledgers on the desk.
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Tommy reminds McKinney of what's inside.
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And though McKinney threatens Tommy with the rest, Coleman reminds McKinney of this very above board investment in his future that he's been provided and that they'll be adding to it.
228
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And it's all for the low, low effort price of looking the other way when Tommy's organization does their business.
229
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McKinney does not say no, but he does come close enough to Tommy to make him flinch a little.
230
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Can he says that he'll be waiting for Tommy's inevitable downfall, but Tommy just politely wishes McKinney well.
231
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McKinney gives a menacing chuckle and then leaves and Coleman tells Tommy that there's no point in tagging the captain.
232
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He's going to be the police commissioner soon enough.
233
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Tommy thinks this is good.
234
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He wants McKinney to be nice and fat when he kills him.
235
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Tommy tells Coleman to go ahead and lock up the ledgers now and then says you'd like to be invited over to Coleman's place to meet the family.
236
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All right, goops Coleman.
237
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So Tommy has decided it's time to move on up to a deluxe apartment on the east side.
238
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So while paying a visit to Alfred Coleman and his wife Virginia, he informs them that he will be buying their apartment.
239
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Tommy hands Coleman a check and Coleman tells him they don't need money thanks to Tommy in their arrangement.
240
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Tommy tells him that that check is to cover everything the furniture, the clothes and the closet and the maid.
241
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Good help is hard to find these days.
242
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Virginia is good to go, but Coleman wants to know why does Tommy want all of his belongings.
243
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And Tommy explains that everything he's ever gotten had been handed down to him from Coleman.
244
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Everything that had been worn out got dirty out grew Tommy even ate his leftovers.
245
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Coleman demands to know who Tommy is, but Virginia comes back.
246
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She's ready to leave.
247
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She thinks they should go before Coleman gets hurt.
248
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Coleman on his way out the door looks back and ask if their partnership is still on.
249
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Tommy says sure if he wants it and that he trusts Coleman to represent Tommy's interest.
250
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Virginia hopes that Tommy enjoys the mattress.
251
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It's very hard.
252
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She says sort of lustfully or lustfully.
253
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I can't tell.
254
00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:24,000
Now we get a brief montage of Tommy throwing all of Virginia's fur coats out the window.
255
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I do want to mention that he's not wearing a shirt in this scene.
256
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He's probably trying on the fur coats.
257
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They're finding out they're too small and then throwing them out.
258
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The night turns today and Abby the maid arrives to wake the sleeper in the bed.
259
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She thinks it's Coleman of course and she petters on about how old Abby is going to take good care of him.
260
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She even has his tomato juice ready, but as she's bustling about,
261
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Tommy throws off the sheet and draws, "You sure treats me good? Abby is a guest."
262
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How did Tommy get in there? Tommy doesn't answer. He just starts ordering breakfast.
263
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Abby calls him an ungrateful bum and says she won't be working for him.
264
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And she quits. Tommy tells her she can't quit. She doesn't work there.
265
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He's giving all this to her. In case you haven't figured out now, Abby is Tommy's mother.
266
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Abby says she can't live there. They'll hang her from the terrace, not even Jewish folk are allowed to live there.
267
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But Tommy tells her not to worry. Nobody's going to give any trouble to Tommy Gibbs's mama.
268
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He tells her to sit down, which she does, but she looks very lost.
269
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Tommy tells her that she can sleep till noon now and press the buzzer for breakfast and bed.
270
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He'll hire a couple of white maids for her and a snooty chauffeur to take her to sex.
271
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Abby says that she wouldn't know what to say to those people.
272
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She's a maid and she's always been a maid, but Tommy could never see that.
273
00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:33,000
And she looks really sad.
274
00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:37,000
And now it's party time. People are dancing to make it good to yourself by James Brown.
275
00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:41,000
This is Tommy and a bunch of other people and they soon be having a good time,
276
00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:43,000
but it does nothing to advance the plot whatsoever.
277
00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:48,000
Also, his mom isn't there, so she may have declined that offer. In fact, I'm sure she did.
278
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She does the next time we see her, she's sobbing her eyes out with Reverend Rufus.
279
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She's weeping and keening and kneeling by him.
280
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And Rufus looks kind of embarrassed by this display.
281
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He says, "Mama, does Tommy know where you are?" She says, "Yes, but she wants Rufus to pray for Tommy.
282
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Rufus agrees, but he does it like an evangelical preacher by asking everyone else if they believe that he can heal them.
283
00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:13,000
Then we rejoin Tommy who is seated at a booth in a restaurant with an open ceiling.
284
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Kardoza comes in to join him. Tommy has Kardoza slide into the booth and then Tommy snuggles up right next to him.
285
00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:23,000
And then once again, Kardoza is taken aback by Tommy's use of the Italian language.
286
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Kardoza says that he hired those goons from Philadelphia and Detroit that Tommy recommended,
287
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and that they work so well and cheaply.
288
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They joke a little bit about Lincoln maybe not bringing the slaves.
289
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And Kardoza says Lincoln was kind of dumb for keeping his back to the door.
290
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Tommy tells Kardoza that in business, the CEOs and bosses eventually get kicked upstairs and out of the day-to-day operations.
291
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And that's what's happening here.
292
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As they continue the conversation, Tommy's men are sneaking around the rooftop and then the men drop from the ceiling, gun shooting.
293
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They take out Kardoza's bodyguard. Tommy tells Kardoza that he's taking over, but he's going to keep Kardoza around as a figurehead.
294
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That way the other gains won't bother them because as far as they're concerned, they're still a white man in charge.
295
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Tommy reaches into his jacket and Kardoza begs him not to do it.
296
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Tommy tells him to relax and he just brought Kardoza a gift. It's in grade from Tiffany's.
297
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That's his go-to gift shop. Yes, Kardoza to open the gift in Kardoza does.
298
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:17,000
He starts crying as he looks at a picture frame. Kardoza says, "You can do this to me."
299
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Tommy says that Kardoza is still going to get his weekly cut, but it's going to be less because he's not black.
300
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Kardoza explodes. Just wait till his brothers on the west coast hear about this.
301
00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:31,000
Tommy's a dead man. Tommy muses the loud that California is really nice this time of year, isn't it?
302
00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:35,000
He and his men laugh and then we dissolve to Larry Cohen's house.
303
00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:39,000
A nice dinner party in session in the backyard of a west coast mob boss.
304
00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:44,000
Several Tommy's men sneak over fences and gun down everyone in attendance as well as the turkey.
305
00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:46,000
They detonate the turkey.
306
00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:50,000
Then they ruin the pool's pH by filling it full of dead Mafiosa.
307
00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:01,000
Now we're back in New York and McKinney's and still fully decorated from a recent Christmas party.
308
00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:07,000
Tommy, who had just been picked up at JFK from Mexico City where he was in jail on a traffic violation, is escorted into see him.
309
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McKinney tells Tommy that was a botched job he pulled in California.
310
00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:13,000
All three of the Kardoza brothers were killed.
311
00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:18,000
When Tommy says he's now running Kardoza's territory and as a bonus the South Bronx, McKinney tells him he's dreaming.
312
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The city kid would never let him in.
313
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Tommy cooly says everyone is a liberal these days, but McKinney says Tommy will be dead by the end of the week.
314
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Tommy picks up a noise baker left over from the party and blows it in McKinney's face.
315
00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:31,000
Then Alfred Coleman and a few others joined them.
316
00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:35,000
Tommy convinces them that he's the one best position to control Harlem.
317
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They aren't happy to hear this, but Tommy promises not to disturb their turf.
318
00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:45,000
The unions, the docs, narcotics, and now in a scene I wish I didn't have to tell you about Tommy's back home.
319
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He's in bed with Helen.
320
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He wants some.
321
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:53,000
She's got a lot on her mind though, and a lot of it's about Tommy and his state of mind and his apparent dependency on substances.
322
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He tells her she doesn't have to be afraid of him.
323
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Everyone else does, but she doesn't.
324
00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:01,000
She tells him please she just needs more time, but Tommy isn't going to give her time.
325
00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:03,000
Now he's going to give her something to be afraid about.
326
00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:09,000
Then he rapes her and this sucks because it's very graphic and we have to watch pretty much all of it.
327
00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:14,000
It seems like he treats McKinney better than he treats his own girlfriend, wife, not sure.
328
00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:17,000
We're back with Brepper and Rufus. He's on the street preaching again.
329
00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:22,000
When a man comes to him asking to see Tommy, this man is named Gibbs too and he's Tommy's father.
330
00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:23,000
Rufus digest this.
331
00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:25,000
Then we cut to all three men in the car.
332
00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:27,000
Tommy, Rufus and Mr. Gibbs.
333
00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:30,000
Tommy's dad sits next to him in the middle seat of the limo.
334
00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:35,000
Mr. Gibbs says that he was nearby on business, so he thought it would be stupid not to take advantage of the situation.
335
00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:37,000
Tommy asks if he'd like to go up and see mom.
336
00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:41,000
Mr. Gibbs says nah, he and his mother never really got along.
337
00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:43,000
Then Tommy decides to show his father his fan base.
338
00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:50,000
So we steps out of the car where an assembler crown is chanting we won Tommy, and they don't stop even when he's standing right in front of them.
339
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Still in the car, Rufus tells Mr. Gibbs he should go back wherever he came from.
340
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Gibbs says maybe he'd expect to hear that from Tommy, but what's Rufus' beef with him?
341
00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:01,000
Rufus just tells him to listen.
342
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:05,000
Tommy gets back in the car and the next thing we see is the limo, driving out to some deserted area.
343
00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:08,000
They park at a condemned building and walk up to it.
344
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This is where Tommy grew up.
345
00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:12,000
Poor because his father never sent his mother any money.
346
00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:17,000
Tommy asks his father if it ever occurred to him that he's been waiting 25 years for the opportunity to kill him.
347
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He tries to explain. He was the depression. He was only 20.
348
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But Tommy isn't moved. He pulls on his gun and points it at his father and threatens to kill him.
349
00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:28,000
Mr. Gibbs tries to explain. He and Tommy's mother were never legally wet.
350
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He couldn't send money. Doesn't really make sense to me. But Tommy relents and lets him go without murdering him.
351
00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:37,000
As Gibbs leaves, Rufus asks Tommy, what is he going to do now? Kill his mama?
352
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:41,000
Now we're back at Tommy's place and Helen walks into Tommy's office.
353
00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:43,000
Tommy's on the phone threatening some of his people.
354
00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:48,000
He doesn't want any pale faces in his territory. Helen's not impressed by the show of bureaucratic force.
355
00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:51,000
She turns to go but Tommy stops her. He's got a present for her now.
356
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It's in a box from Bergdorf Goodman and it's something for her trip to California.
357
00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:58,000
He answers the box and she throws it on the floor and leaves.
358
00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:00,000
Tommy feels really unappreciated.
359
00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:05,000
Now we're at a nightclub called the Latin Quarter where Tommy and Joe are watching Helen perform.
360
00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:10,000
Joe suggests they could take some of the money and set up youth centers to give back to the community.
361
00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:17,000
And Tommy just gives Joe a pitiful look. Instead, Tommy plans to bring in some muscle from Detroit and Philly to strengthen his army.
362
00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:21,000
And he wants Joe to take Helen to California because things are going to get messy around here.
363
00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:24,000
He wants Joe to set her up at the house in Beverly Hills and recording business.
364
00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:27,000
If her record's still in self, he wants Joe to buy them himself.
365
00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:30,000
And Tommy will be out to see them when he can.
366
00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:32,000
But first we have to go to a funeral.
367
00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:36,000
Mama's dead says the song in the background and in this case it's very apropos.
368
00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:41,000
Tommy and Rufus are burying Tommy's mom. Tommy says that he never once made his mother happy.
369
00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:46,000
Rufus is inspired to pray sincerely for once and kneels down by the graveside.
370
00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:49,000
This prayer is not for an audience, it's just for him.
371
00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:52,000
Tommy walks away outside the cemetery where he bumps into his father.
372
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:54,000
Who's also there to pay his respects.
373
00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:57,000
They had a surprise that there's no one else there but Tommy and Rufus.
374
00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:00,000
Not even Tommy's woman. They weren't invited, snaps Tommy.
375
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:02,000
This father refuses to take the hint.
376
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:05,000
He's paying his respects with her without his son, say so.
377
00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:08,000
He was his wife after all, although in the last scene said that she wasn't.
378
00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:12,000
Tommy softens and asks his dad if he needs anything like a place to stay.
379
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:14,000
But Mr. Gibbs doesn't want to stay with his son.
380
00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:17,000
He travels a lot. Tommy nods and walks off.
381
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:20,000
Tommy returns home to find Virginia Coleman waiting for him.
382
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:22,000
She's just lounging around on his sofa.
383
00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:25,000
He asks what she's doing there and she says she missed her old bed.
384
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:27,000
And she thought he might like having her there.
385
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:29,000
But Tommy does not like this at all.
386
00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:34,000
As she's being thrown out, Virginia asks him if he's thought about what Helen is doing out in California with his friend.
387
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:35,000
And she wants her clothes back.
388
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:36,000
Well, she doesn't get him.
389
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:39,000
Tommy arrives at Helen's California pad.
390
00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:43,000
Or, imagine, Joe and Helen walk out from their bedroom wearing night clothes.
391
00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:46,000
Well, Helen's in a nightcone and Joe's in a very short road.
392
00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:50,000
Tommy quietly demands to know how long that they've been betraying him.
393
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:52,000
Helen starts to say that it's not like that.
394
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:56,000
But by this point, Tommy has already run up the stairs and thrown Joe down, said stairs.
395
00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:58,000
Then he confronts Helen.
396
00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:01,000
Tommy grouses that Helen betrayed him with the one person he wouldn't kill.
397
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:03,000
But then threatens to kill him anyway.
398
00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:06,000
Joe gets roughed off a bit and Helen gets beat up herself.
399
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:07,000
A week has lost.
400
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:10,000
Helen wails and Joe lashes out verbally at Tommy.
401
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:12,000
Tommy is angry for losing face.
402
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:16,000
But after a little more violence departs, leaving Joe and Helen to comfort each other.
403
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:19,000
She says she hates him now, even more than before.
404
00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:23,000
And now, or at some point in the near future, there is a time jump.
405
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:25,000
I'm not sure exactly when this occurs.
406
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:27,000
The timeline in this movie is impossible to follow.
407
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:29,000
It just don't give us any cues.
408
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:36,000
We are with Coleman and McKinney and Irish Bryant, who is another dirty cop, and they're playing billiards in a black box.
409
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:39,000
They're discussing how Tommy has been losing his charm.
410
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:42,000
They can't touch him as long as he has possession of those ledgers.
411
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:45,000
And they know that the safe deposit key is with Tommy at all times.
412
00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:48,000
But they can take out Tommy's men as long as Tommy doesn't know who's behind it.
413
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:50,000
And that's where Irish Bryant comes in.
414
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:52,000
And now we get a body yard murder montage.
415
00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:56,000
One by one, at least three of Tommy's goons are dispatched.
416
00:22:56,000 --> 00:23:01,000
On the street, in a restaurant, and on the stoop of a building is Tommy stands next to the guy.
417
00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:07,000
The last one occurs from a passing by handsome cab that's just going too fast for a pursuit.
418
00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:09,000
I don't think so. I think even I could have caught it.
419
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:12,000
Next we see McKinney and Coleman are paying a visit to Helen.
420
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:17,000
She and Joe have had returned to New York without Tommy's financial assistance.
421
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:21,000
And they're now living in a small apartment with two children, a toddler and a newborn.
422
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:25,000
This is our only cue that some amount of time has passed and we can roughly judge it to be two.
423
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:29,000
And I have years McKinney asks about their association with Tommy.
424
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:32,000
Helen tells them Joe doesn't work for Tommy anymore.
425
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:36,000
McKinney tells her they have enough on Joe to put him behind bars for a long time.
426
00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:38,000
Only it's Tommy that they want and she can help.
427
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:42,000
He tells Helen that Tommy hasn't taken up with a woman since he left her in Joe that night.
428
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:44,000
And so he'd be very happy to see her.
429
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:48,000
Although while he's telling her this, he's holding her toddler in a very threatening manner.
430
00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:49,000
Helen doesn't want to hurt him.
431
00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:52,000
And I think she's talking about Tommy and not Joe and refuses.
432
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:56,000
But McKinney questions her loyalty to the jerk who left them jobless.
433
00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:59,000
Helen can't work as a senior and Joe can't get work either.
434
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:01,000
And didn't she just have another baby?
435
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:04,000
Helen manages to retrieve her little boy and ask the ledger again, huh?
436
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:05,000
That's how we met.
437
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:07,000
I thought they knew each other.
438
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:13,000
She says that he used her to get the ledgers and Helen says that this time she's going to be the one doing the using.
439
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,000
McKinney goes into the baby's room.
440
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:18,000
When Helen tries to follow, Coleman stops her.
441
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:22,000
McKinney says that he just wants to remind Helen to not make any mistakes.
442
00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:25,000
Tommy is sitting alone in his apartment when he hears someone enter.
443
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:26,000
He picks up his gun.
444
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:28,000
Who's there? He calls out.
445
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:29,000
It's Helen.
446
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:31,000
She says nothing and he says, hello, Helen.
447
00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:36,000
And then the sex has had this time without force, but probably still as unappreciated by Helen.
448
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:38,000
But at least this time she's the instigator.
449
00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:40,000
Yeah, it's not exactly consensual.
450
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:46,000
So about 45 seconds later, Tommy is asleep and Helen slides his keys across the table and palms them.
451
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:48,000
Tommy wakes up and asks what she's doing.
452
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:51,000
She wishes for her watch and replaces the key ring.
453
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:55,000
As she dresses, she explains that Joe is going to miss her and she'll see Tommy on Monday.
454
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:58,000
Now we're at Coleman's office and he calls Commissioner McKinney.
455
00:24:58,000 --> 00:24:59,000
I guess he got that promotion.
456
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:06,000
He reports that he has the ledgers that key plus $5,000 bribe to the intent was all it took to get in the box,
457
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:09,000
which as a bonus had $50,000 cash in there.
458
00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:15,000
And somehow he knows that Tommy is going to pick up a gift for Helen at where else Tiffany's at 1 p.m. tomorrow.
459
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:18,000
So the next day Tommy exits Tiffany with said gift in his hand.
460
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:20,000
His car is there waiting for him though.
461
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:24,000
One of Tommy's men tells him that he must have gone off looking for a place to park.
462
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:26,000
But Tommy can't stand around waiting.
463
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:29,000
It's dangerous to stand around in these New York streets when you're a man in his position.
464
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:31,000
So he starts off.
465
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:33,000
He drops the gift and bends down to retrieve it.
466
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:36,000
And then Tommy passes by Irish Bryant in his police uniform.
467
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:40,000
As Tommy crosses the street, a man grabs him and Bryant shoots Tommy.
468
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:43,000
Tommy stumbles around and New Yorkers stare with concern.
469
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:45,000
Now we're with McKinney who gets the call.
470
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,000
Tommy was not fatally shot.
471
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:49,000
McKinney says don't worry if that police ambulance picks him up.
472
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:51,000
They'll finish him off there.
473
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:55,000
And we see the ambulance arriving, but Tommy is rallied in his honest feet looking for a cab.
474
00:25:55,000 --> 00:26:00,000
He gets in a cab as Irish and the other guy who helped corral Tommy watch.
475
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:02,000
Then they jump in their car to pursue the cab.
476
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:06,000
The cabbie pulls out but he can't go too far because a garbage truck is in the way.
477
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:11,000
Tommy pulls on a $500 bill and hands it to the cabbie, telling him to drive up on the sidewalk.
478
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:14,000
The cabbie obliges, honking his horn to warn the pedestrians.
479
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:16,000
When they get back onto the street, they're stuck at a red light.
480
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:19,000
The car containing Bryant and the other man pulls up behind the cab.
481
00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:25,000
Tommy lays down in the seat and tells the cabbie to run the light as the two men jump from the car and run toward the cab.
482
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:28,000
Bryant jumps on to the back of the cab and shoots inside.
483
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:31,000
Tommy tucks and rolls out of the cab and once again is on the street.
484
00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:33,000
And so is Irish looking for him.
485
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:36,000
But Tommy finds him first and tries to get him with his necktie.
486
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:41,000
Actually, he just strangles him, leaving his body on a sidewalk bench and putting a newspaper over his face.
487
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,000
Then Tommy goes to see Rufus.
488
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:46,000
Rufus is in the process of saving a young female sinner.
489
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:48,000
But he has to excuse her to take care of Tommy.
490
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:51,000
Tommy wants to get the slug on of his chest but all Rufus can offer his prayer.
491
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:53,000
Tommy just looks at him with disbelief.
492
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:58,000
He tells Rufus they has $50,000 cash in the vault and Rufus tells him that it's Jesus' money now.
493
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:00,000
So Tommy slugs Rufus and leaves.
494
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,000
Rufus continues to pray.
495
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:06,000
I think the prayer was designed to drive Tommy away because he didn't want to help.
496
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:09,000
In Helen and Joe's apartment, he takes a call from Tommy.
497
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:11,000
Tommy needs to talk to Joe.
498
00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:14,000
McKinney is making his move and he needs Joe and those books.
499
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:17,000
Cole man is sitting out his desk with a bullet in his head.
500
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:19,000
McKinney is there and he pours himself a drink.
501
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:22,000
Joe dresses to go out telling Helen that he has to save Tommy.
502
00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:26,000
Helen tells him that no one can save Tommy but refuses to elaborate.
503
00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:28,000
And Joe asks what's that supposed to mean.
504
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:30,000
Joe says he's got to go and leaves.
505
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:35,000
And Helen wails she knows that this is going to be bad but she didn't have to stop it.
506
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:37,000
So Joe goes to Coleman's office building.
507
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:41,000
He pushes the button to the elevator only to be met with McKinney and his gun.
508
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:43,000
McKinney tells Joe to push the 20th floor.
509
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:46,000
McKinney snarks that the great brain showed up after all.
510
00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:48,000
Joe says he's only come to talk business.
511
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:51,000
If McKinney isn't happy with his cut they can read negotiate.
512
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:53,000
But McKinney doesn't want to negotiate.
513
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:57,000
He's going after the whole pie and he tells Joe Helen help set Tommy up and she didn't mind doing it.
514
00:27:57,000 --> 00:27:59,000
I think he lets him know that Helen was unfaithful.
515
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:03,000
Joe throws up his hand to strike at McKinney and McKinney shoots Joe in the head.
516
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:06,000
Tommy's still bleeding stumbles into the building.
517
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:09,000
He pushes the elevator button and gets off on the 20th floor.
518
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:13,000
He steps into a library where he has a gun stashed behind some books.
519
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:15,000
Tommy sees that Coleman is sitting dead at his desk.
520
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:16,000
McKinney's there.
521
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:20,000
He's planning to frame Tommy for the side guest but first he brought him a treat.
522
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:24,000
McKinney wonders how many people listed in this ledger were paid off by Tommy.
523
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:26,000
Tommy tells him to shut up and McKinney hits him in his wound.
524
00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:27,000
Tommy goes down.
525
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:32,000
Then McKinney shows off his present a shoe shine box meant to humiliate him.
526
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:34,000
But he also wants a mirror finish on his shoes.
527
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:38,000
Tommy begrudgingly complies because McKinney's gun is pressed against his temple.
528
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:40,000
Shines his shoes for as long as he can.
529
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:42,000
You missed your calling you know that says McKinney.
530
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:46,000
And Tommy slaps the gun out of McKinney's hand and punches him in the groin.
531
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:49,000
Then he picks up the shoe shine box and beats McKinney over the head with it.
532
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:52,000
Tommy picks up the gun and points it at McKinney.
533
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:53,000
Do it, Shouts McKinney.
534
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:55,000
Tommy smashes the gun into McKinney's skull.
535
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:58,000
Then he gets the shoe polish and rubs it all over McKinney's face,
536
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:02,000
ordering him to sing nanny as Tommy beats him in the chest with the pistol.
537
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:06,000
Much like Tommy was beaten by McKinney back in 53 and were shown clips of that
538
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:07,000
so that we make the parallel.
539
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:11,000
When McKinney is finally silent, Tommy stumbles to the desk and grabs the ledgers.
540
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:15,000
And then he stings his stumbling out to the elevator where Joe's body is still laying.
541
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:19,000
Tommy says that he should have taken better care of Joe and then goes outside
542
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:22,000
and you see him days of Lee walking around the promenade.
543
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:24,000
James Brown sings into sunrise.
544
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:26,000
Tommy walks all night.
545
00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:29,000
We see the sunrise and then we see Tommy at his old building.
546
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:31,000
Tommy is barely able to stand.
547
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,000
And James Brown is singing "Home."
548
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:38,000
Then we cut to a shot of the New York City skyline where the date August 20th, 1972 comes up.
549
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:41,000
And then the credits roll and that's the end.
550
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:52,000
Welcome back to the American International Podcast where we're talking about Black Caesar from 1973.
551
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:57,000
The script for Black Caesar was originally commissioned by Sammy Davis Jr.
552
00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:01,000
According to Larry Cohen, in an interview published on camera in the Sun.com,
553
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:06,000
Davis wanted to do a picture in which he was the star instead of being a flunky to Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.
554
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:09,000
So I suggested they do a gangster movie like Little Caesar.
555
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:14,000
The scene was a little guy and so was Jimmy Cagney and so was Ed W. G. Robinson.
556
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:18,000
And I thought he could play a little hoodlum working his way up in the Harlem underworld.
557
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:23,000
Cohen said that Sammy Davis Jr.'s people liked the idea and commissioned Cohen to write the treatment for $10,000.
558
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:26,000
But when Cohen went to deliver the treatment, there was no money.
559
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:29,000
Davis had been in trouble with the IRS and he had nothing to give.
560
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:35,000
Cohen then ran into Sam Arkov of AIP who was at the time looking for an action movie with a black star.
561
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:38,000
Cohen ran to his car, grabbed the treatment and showed it to Arkov.
562
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:40,000
And according to Cohen, they had to deal that afternoon.
563
00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:44,000
Black Caesar's budget was around $300,000.
564
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:50,000
Most of the movie was shot in New York City with some interior shot in Los Angeles, including scenes at Cohen's home.
565
00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:56,000
And some New York interiors at his mother's apartment using his mother's own first in the scene where Tommy tosses them over the balcony.
566
00:30:56,000 --> 00:31:00,000
Fred Williamson, who had a nodding acquaintance with Larry Cohen, said of him that,
567
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:04,000
quote, "having met him socially," he said of me, "Wow, this is the guy."
568
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:12,000
But then he had to convince me to do it because I wasn't sure I wanted to be in this kind of movie until I came up with my idea of Caesar from Ed W. G. Robinson.
569
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:14,000
And knew how I was going to play the role.
570
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:20,000
I wasn't depending on Larry Cohen's script to carry me through because I knew he didn't understand black motivation.
571
00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:24,000
We had this discussion saying, "I'll do what I feel is right and I will discuss it with you.
572
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:29,000
And if I don't think something is right, I'll discuss it with you and I won't do it. It's that simple."
573
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:36,000
Williamson said in an interview after the film's release that he did very well in the scene where he spoke Italian.
574
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:39,000
They didn't know I was going to do it and I really freaked him out.
575
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:44,000
I said, "I got a burlitz tape and when they said, 'Roll it, I freaked him out. I freaked me out, too.'"
576
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:49,000
Gloria Hendrie said in an interview that she was cast because she was willing to do the nudity they were all required.
577
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:54,000
nudity was no problem for her because she had posed for playboy when she was a model before becoming an actress.
578
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,000
Cohen did some creative casting while shooting in New York.
579
00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:04,000
Cohen said in that same interview that when he filmed in Harlem, the local gangsters threatened to disrupt the shoot unless they were paid off.
580
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:06,000
He offered them small roles in the film instead.
581
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:11,000
"These guys were great," he said. "Anything we wanted, anything we needed to get, they got for me."
582
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:13,000
"We kind of owned Harlem after that."
583
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:19,000
And then when the picture finally opened, I put them in the poster, too, so that the advertisements in the paper had these guys in it.
584
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:25,000
And opening day at the Sinorama Theatre on Broadway, these gangsters were down there in front of the theatre, signing autographs.
585
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:32,000
Cohen said in the audio commentary he recorded for the "Blue A" release of Black Caesar, that James Brown, who wrote several songs for the soundtrack,
586
00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:37,000
delivered tracks that were much longer than what Cohen had requested, forcing him to edit them to fit the scenes they were written for.
587
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:42,000
When Brown did the same thing for Black Caesar's sequel, A.I.P refused to use the music.
588
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:49,000
The ending sequences, during which the wooded Tommy runs from the Tiffany's store in Manhattan through the city and back to the Harlem Tenement where he grew up,
589
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:55,000
were photographed by James Singerelley, while Fenton Hamilton was the director of photography for the rest of the picture.
590
00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:58,000
Singerelley later went on to produce Saturday Night Fever.
591
00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:03,000
The original cut of the film ended with Tommy Gibbs being beaten, robbed, and killed by a Black street gang.
592
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:06,000
And that was only seen at a test screening in Los Angeles.
593
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:14,000
The audience was unhappy with the main character dying at the end, something that A.I.P had warned Cohen not to do, so this scene was removed for general release.
594
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:19,000
For the New York premiere, Cohen said that he went to the New York theatres to cut the scene from the film on the day it opened to the public,
595
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:26,000
and then he sent that cut film to Los Angeles, so their prints conformed with the New York version, and all prints after that as well.
596
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:35,000
The death scene appeared only in European releases of the film until it was restored for home video release, and is not generally accepted as the official ending of the film.
597
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:46,000
Black Caesar was released on February 7, 1973, but in December of 1972, A.I.P. was apparently subject to a protest against Black's quotation films, allegedly carried out by Black militants.
598
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:54,000
Prior to this incident, Arcov had met with leaders of some Black organizations, some of whom went and script approval for upcoming A.I.P. films with Black casts,
599
00:33:54,000 --> 00:34:04,000
a suggestion Arcov's shot down immediately. After that meeting, someone fire bombed a car in the parking lot outside their Los Angeles offices, but this did not stop the film from being released on schedule.
600
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:11,000
Arcov said in an interview in Jack Zinks, indicated column in December of 1972, but Blacks want to be censored as well as filmmakers.
601
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:18,000
They're upset the current crop of films isn't projecting the proper image, but that's what's selling now, and films are made to be sold.
602
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:21,000
We can't force a style or custom on an audience that isn't receptive.
603
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:33,000
In an interview with Francis Taylor, published two days later, Arcov said, with the recent boom in Black films we are seeing a renewed interest in audience pleasing genres as the private I.M.E. drama, the Western and the horror film.
604
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:38,000
I'm happy they are opening up the film industry for talented Black artists and craftsmen.
605
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:50,000
Fred Williamson said in an interview with Perry Stewart in a syndicated column that criticism of these films came from the Black bourgeois, and that quote, "If they don't like certain movies, they should turn loose some of the bread they've gotten produced their own."
606
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:54,000
Williamson was at that time in New York to promote Black Seasers premiere.
607
00:34:54,000 --> 00:35:07,000
Williamson, who had a rough childhood growing up on Chicago Southside, also said in an interview with columnist Dan Lewis, published February 25th 1973, that "everything is exploitation. What difference does color make?
608
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:14,000
Every time I make a movie, I'm being an actor, not black or white, and I don't understand all those complaints about the Black Superman stuff either.
609
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:20,000
How come there's not so much talk about Lancaster or Crick Delas or guys like that? They dodged so many bullets."
610
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:30,000
OX Office Magazine advised theater owners to play up the James Brown score, and available on Polly Dore Records, and to use stills from Little Seasers to promote the new film with a reminder that it was not a remake.
611
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:38,000
The A.I.P.'s press books suggested having local police come show off the various firearms used in the movie, are also pointing out the dangers they posed.
612
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:45,000
They also recommended a cross-promotion with a local hammer-dasher holding a contest allowing someone to win a Tommy Gibbs-style wardrobe.
613
00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:48,000
A Fred Williamson look-alike contest was another idea they promoted.
614
00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:59,000
In November of 1974 and May of 1975, box office reported that Cohen was packaging Black Seasers and its sequel, Hell Up in Harlem, as a continuous three-hour film entitled "Godfather of Harlem."
615
00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:09,000
With Cohen staking some of his own money to provide new posters and a new campaign, the first engagements were due to begin in Chicago in May 1975 with a massive nationwide saturation booking to follow.
616
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:13,000
Taglans for Black Seasers include, Hail Seaser, Godfather of Harlem.
617
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:17,000
He bought them, he used them, to beat the man and his own dirty game.
618
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:25,000
The story of a cat with a 45 caliber claws, the chicks he loved, the Hoodlam Army he led, and the Racket Empire he ruled from Harlem to Watts.
619
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:36,000
Cohen says that after the film's release and initial success, AIP called me immediately and said, "You'd better get a sequel going before these actors decide they want an enormous amount of money to reappear."
620
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:45,000
Ali started syndicated, Colin published in late February 1973, said, "Black Seaser has just opened nationally and looks like AIP's biggest hits in slaughter and Blackula."
621
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:53,000
In Sam Arkov's autobiography, he said Black Seaser earned $2 million in domestic rentals and called it a hit that needed a sequel.
622
00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:59,000
How will Reigns in the Atlantic Constitution wrote in his review that quote, "This is not a movie with goes in for a lot of your subtle touches.
623
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:03,000
There are however about four minutes of good filmmaking in the film's 92 minute running time.
624
00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:10,000
Black Seaser opens with a nicely done vignette of the young Gibbs, laid by Omar Jeffery, getting his start in crime as a Harlem shooshine boy.
625
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:14,000
The rest of the movie is a celebration of the most virulent racial stereotypes.
626
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:21,000
That fact does not seem to bother American International, the white-owned company that has been making a mint on the new movie racism.
627
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:27,000
Ron Tyson in the New York Daily World began his review saying, "To get right to the point, this movie is trash.
628
00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:34,000
Personally, I have found most of the products of the new wave of Black films to be quite offensive, but this is most definitely the worst of the lot."
629
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:41,000
He later called it one of the most sadistic pieces of celluloid he had ever seen and said AIP's purpose seems to be clear.
630
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:49,000
Spend the least amount of money and insult the Black community, to grade the Black women, reinforce racism wherever possible, and rake in all the long green.
631
00:37:49,000 --> 00:38:00,000
Sit Cassese in the Richmond Times, dispatched praise Gloria Henry's acting, calling her consistently professional throughout, but did not care for the mediocre plot with the bloody killings that soon become superfluous.
632
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:08,000
He also dinged Black Seaser for his ending, calling it not particularly good and noting that it "deviates from the American International Release Synopsis."
633
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:14,000
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Rove Dew Headline, said the film was "a Caesar to Barry, not one to praise."
634
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:23,000
And the first paragraph said Black Caesar is another one of those gourd drench fantasies, which Black audiences are being confronted with on a regular basis these days.
635
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:30,000
The reviewer said Williamson was kind of a Black Charles Bronson, except Hansimer, but said he had a rudimentary, muscle-bound acting technique.
636
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:40,000
But Jean Dietrich in the Louisville Courier Journal praised Black Caesar for being, quote, "well done in action packed, several cuts among many in today's Blackskit Whitey genre.
637
00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:47,000
And for all its amyerality, it's a morality tale in the same sense that gangster films of the 30s did not allow the mob leaders to get off scot-free."
638
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:51,000
Dietrich said, though, that Cohen had bitten off more than he can cope with.
639
00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:54,000
He's tried to tackle so much that some of his efforts fail.
640
00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:59,000
His films would be improved if he'd, quote, "include out some of its extraneous material."
641
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:08,000
Some prominent rappers have sampled James Brown's Black Caesar score, including iced tea, who uses samples from the boss on his track You Played Yourself.
642
00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:12,000
Trick Danny, Proudigee, and Nas have also used beats from the boss for their songs.
643
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:16,000
And Black Caesar's name-checked in public enemy's song, Burn Hollywood Burn.
644
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:23,000
In it, guest rapper Big Daddy Canes and just leaving a showing of driving Miss Daisy saying, "I got Black Caesar back at the crib.
645
00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:27,000
Canes makes another reference to the movie in his song, How You Get A Record Deal.
646
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:34,000
And, cool, Keith references the main character in the song, Keith Turbo from his album Black All This Lost in Space.
647
00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:38,000
Take off your shirt, I can see your ribs, faking like Tommy Gibbs."
648
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:45,000
In 2009, Empire named Black Caesar 18th in a poll of the 20-wayest gangster movies you've never seen, probably.
649
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:52,000
[Music]
650
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:55,000
You know, my thoughts on Black Caesar kind of complicated.
651
00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:58,000
I'm interested in hearing yours, though. What did you think of the movie?
652
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:04,000
Well, I'll tell you my favorite part of this whole film was seeing the old New York and the people therein.
653
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:08,000
These aren't extras, these are just people who have to be walking the streets.
654
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:12,000
And most of them are looking directly into the camera, what's going on?
655
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:16,000
You're talking about the part where Tommy has been shot and he's staggering around the street.
656
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:18,000
I'm talking about any time he's walking down the street.
657
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:23,000
Everybody with a buddy in the background is, unless they have a line, they're just there on the street at the time,
658
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:25,000
and most of them are staring directly into the camera.
659
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:28,000
I've never watched a movie where I felt so seen.
660
00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:29,000
[Laughter]
661
00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:30,000
Yeah, they are all looking at us.
662
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:34,000
That didn't bother me so much. I kind of figured this is a little bit of gorilla filmmaking on Cohen's part.
663
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:37,000
It didn't bother me at all. I love that about this film.
664
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:39,000
I don't mean bother in the sense of, "I hated it."
665
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:44,000
I just meant the fact that I didn't even really register it, because we're looking at Tommy.
666
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:48,000
They're looking at Tommy, and of course, we're all looking in the same line of sight.
667
00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:51,000
They're just looking our direction while we look their direction.
668
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:55,000
I didn't really register that as being a huge thing.
669
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:59,000
I do think that the scenes of him walking down the street, not the injured part,
670
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:02,000
but the initial, when we first meet Tommy, and he's walking down the street,
671
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:07,000
that was a really exciting start to the movie, or at least the adult Tommy part of the movie,
672
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:09,000
because he just looks fantastic.
673
00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:15,000
I don't know that anyone's costumes really comport with the time periods that they're in until we get to 1972,
674
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:18,000
but damn, Fred really makes a good gangster.
675
00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:20,000
His outfits are on point.
676
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:24,000
He does. He dresses like an old-time gangster. You see from those movies from the '30s and '40s.
677
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:26,000
Yeah, you're a little Caesar, I guess.
678
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:28,000
So he's playing the part, and he's playing it well.
679
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:32,000
I mean, Tommy Gibbs is playing the part of the gangster. I don't mean Fred Williamson, who's...
680
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:34,000
Playing Tommy Gibbs?
681
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:37,000
Who's playing Tommy Gibbs? Yeah, this is Tommy Gibbs playing up the gangster.
682
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:41,000
Because none of the other gangsters we see, the other Mafiosus dresses anything like that.
683
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:45,000
No, but as they say, dressed for the job he wants, and that's the job he wants.
684
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:52,000
He wants to be a '30s-style gangland boss. And he does become one.
685
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:57,000
And he does very rapidly, or else time is passing without us knowing time is passing.
686
00:41:57,000 --> 00:41:59,000
Because there really aren't any cues.
687
00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:03,000
What we see in terms of what New York City looks like and what people are wearing,
688
00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:07,000
they don't really fit with the time period we're supposedly in.
689
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:14,000
In the 1950s, young Tommy dresses like kids all the time dressed in a t-shirt and ripped jeans.
690
00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:17,000
So there's really no telling from what he's wearing.
691
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:24,000
And then New York City doesn't look any worse for wear from 1953 to 1965 to 1972.
692
00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:26,000
It all looks terrible.
693
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:32,000
I didn't notice any examples, but I did read that there were several out-of-time cars visible in this film.
694
00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:34,000
And it's probably during the car chase, but you're watching the car chase.
695
00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:36,000
You're not paying attention to the other cars.
696
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:40,000
Right. And that would be really hard to control if they don't actually shut down the entire city blocks.
697
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:42,000
It's obvious they didn't.
698
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:45,000
According to Larry Cohen's commentary track on the Blu-ray we watched,
699
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:50,000
all they did was rope shut all the buildings so people wouldn't step out into the oncoming traffic
700
00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:52,000
that's not usually on the sidewalk.
701
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:57,000
They taped down the cabs horn so that it was constantly blaring and they just let them go off.
702
00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:02,000
So yeah, Gorilla filmmaking and a Spina Senglad that nobody got mowed down for that scene.
703
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:04,000
Is it really could have gone badly?
704
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:09,000
My complicated feelings about this movie are what I think of Tommy Gibbs, the character, though.
705
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:16,000
He's part of me wants to love a Fred Williamson character, but part of me, most of me really hates Tommy Gibbs.
706
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:21,000
Well, we watched Bucktown maybe a month ago, a month and a half, and Fred Williamson is the star in that.
707
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:23,000
And in that movie he's the good guy.
708
00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:28,000
And Thalmas Rasula plays the guy who he's bad and then he gets worse.
709
00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:30,000
And in this movie that's Tommy Gibbs.
710
00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:32,000
He's bad and then he gets worse.
711
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:35,000
Right. Tommy is not a fun character to watch.
712
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:40,000
And I think even an old gangster movie, it's the anti hero and you get behind him.
713
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:43,000
But Tommy doesn't really do anything you can get behind.
714
00:43:43,000 --> 00:43:50,000
He's obviously taking out rival gangsters, but he's also being just as disrespectful and horrible to the people he supposedly cares about.
715
00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:51,000
Especially Helen.
716
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:54,000
She takes the brunt of it and I feel so bad for her.
717
00:43:54,000 --> 00:44:01,000
The only satisfaction you get in this story I think is probably when McKinney gets his at the end because you hate him a little bit more.
718
00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:07,000
And by speaking of Bucktown, Art Lund was basically the same character only a lot more rural than he is here.
719
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:09,000
He's corrupt. He's racist.
720
00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:11,000
He's just a terrible guy.
721
00:44:11,000 --> 00:44:13,000
I'm sure he's a lovely person in real life.
722
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:17,000
He's very talented, but Jesus, I hate him so much on screen.
723
00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:19,000
And I never mind seeing him get killed.
724
00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:22,000
I do think he plays the part of a racist well though.
725
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:24,000
At least got the link go down.
726
00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:25,000
That's for sure.
727
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:27,000
He's very believable in the part.
728
00:44:27,000 --> 00:44:31,000
I mentioned a couple of instances where they were performing in a black box.
729
00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:31,000
Yeah.
730
00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:34,000
Just out of Tommy with his gun and then they're playing pool.
731
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:36,000
And that's a budgetary thing.
732
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:37,000
You don't have a set to use.
733
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:39,000
You just throw in a black background.
734
00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:41,000
It's kind of artsy, but it's really a budgetary thing.
735
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:43,000
I thought it worked really well.
736
00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:44,000
Yeah.
737
00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:48,000
But we just mentioned it to be obnoxious, but I'm sure anyone watching the film didn't even notice.
738
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:51,000
I think that's a cool way to deal with your budget restrictions.
739
00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:53,000
It's just like community theater.
740
00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:55,000
Turn down the lights.
741
00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:57,000
One spot.
742
00:44:57,000 --> 00:45:02,000
So we were able to see the full ending, not the cutoff part.
743
00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:05,000
A lot of the critics in the reviews that I read saw it too.
744
00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:09,000
In fact, one even mentioned that a day after I wrote this, A.I.P. changed the ending.
745
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:13,000
So it was well known that this was happening, at least for critics.
746
00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:17,000
But for the audience, they may not have realized that there was another version of this movie
747
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:19,000
where Tommy dies at the end.
748
00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:22,000
And they're probably lucky because that is a really weird scene.
749
00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:28,000
It's weird because the music plays and you see Tommy talking to these kids as they're approaching him.
750
00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:32,000
But we can't hear what he's saying because it's all blown out by the music.
751
00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:36,000
And I wonder, is there any cut where we can hear what he's saying?
752
00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:39,000
Because it's just kind of maddening to see him talking to them.
753
00:45:39,000 --> 00:45:41,000
They're just sitting there on a stoop.
754
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:42,000
They're not a street gang.
755
00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:44,000
This is just a bunch of teenagers sitting around.
756
00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:46,000
No, they're probably a gang, but they're just saying it out.
757
00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:49,000
Maybe, but they're not menacing until he starts talking to them.
758
00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:52,000
And then they're sitting there like, you know what?
759
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:53,000
Let's get this guy.
760
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:54,000
And so they do.
761
00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:55,000
And I don't know.
762
00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:58,000
Did Tommy say something to kind of spur that?
763
00:45:58,000 --> 00:45:59,000
We'll never know.
764
00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:01,000
Well, again, Larry Cohen's commentary.
765
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:06,000
He says that these kids just thought he was a drunk or a drugie or something inside of the beat him up.
766
00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:09,000
We do see them steal his watch after they beat him up.
767
00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:16,000
But I would think that if he was talking with any sort of particular that he might be able to convey that maybe he's not drunk.
768
00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:17,000
Maybe.
769
00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:18,000
It's what he was saying.
770
00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:19,000
We don't know what he was saying.
771
00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:22,000
He could have been saying, hey, wow, I used to live here.
772
00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:23,000
Do you guys live around here?
773
00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:24,000
Who knows?
774
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:27,000
And they probably just thought because of the way he's dressed that maybe he had money.
775
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:29,000
And obviously he's wounded.
776
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:30,000
So he's easy prey.
777
00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:31,000
There you go.
778
00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:34,000
He wasn't still carrying that box from Tiffany, though.
779
00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:36,000
He was carrying his ledgers.
780
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:37,000
Right.
781
00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:41,000
Carrying ledgers, which they didn't care about when we see them kind of flapping in the breeze later on where he's dropped them.
782
00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:44,000
Well, he was using them to defend himself against them too.
783
00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:50,000
So that was kind of interesting because that was his defense during the whole film was the only thing he had going for him was those ledgers.
784
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:56,000
And he's holding those up to defend himself, but it doesn't work anymore because they work his fists.
785
00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:57,000
Yeah.
786
00:46:57,000 --> 00:46:59,000
Yeah, that was just a really odd scene.
787
00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:05,000
I can see my audience was having sat through all that would look at that and be like, wow, what a waste of my money.
788
00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:06,000
I don't know.
789
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:12,000
I think that the abrupt cut when he's just walks into the slum and then it fades to the date and then fades out.
790
00:47:12,000 --> 00:47:14,000
That leaves me wanting something.
791
00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:16,000
I like the longer version when he dies at the end.
792
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:17,000
It's very 70s.
793
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:24,000
Well, I like the sort of artistic nature of him just walking to his own childhood, basically reliving that.
794
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:30,000
Maybe he's like stared at the camera sort of 400 blows style and we had pop up at the end.
795
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:31,000
That would have been kind of already.
796
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:41,000
Instead, we get a date and now we finally know what year it is when we hadn't been a prize of that from anytime since 1965 dawned on the movie.
797
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:43,000
So that I thought was a very strange choice.
798
00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:49,000
Just having him stand there, well, it was a choice born out of necessity because they had to cut that scene.
799
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:51,000
They were making a sequel that couldn't have him die.
800
00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:52,000
Right.
801
00:47:52,000 --> 00:47:56,000
And the only purpose of having that date at the end is so that you have a date of death for Tommy gives.
802
00:47:56,000 --> 00:47:57,000
Oh, yeah.
803
00:47:57,000 --> 00:47:59,000
And so when he doesn't die, it's not necessary.
804
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:04,000
This is the day he returned to his childhood home and we don't know what happened after that until we see L.A.P. and Arlem,
805
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:05,000
which we haven't seen yet.
806
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:06,000
Nope.
807
00:48:06,000 --> 00:48:09,000
And apparently it's not as good, but they demanded a sequel.
808
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:11,000
So it's not hard to find that ending.
809
00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:14,000
We have even several different versions of that ending.
810
00:48:14,000 --> 00:48:15,000
It's out there.
811
00:48:15,000 --> 00:48:18,000
I think that they could have had him beat up by those kids and not die.
812
00:48:18,000 --> 00:48:19,000
That could have worked.
813
00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:23,000
I mean, does it definitively show him dead at the end?
814
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:24,000
They don't stab him.
815
00:48:24,000 --> 00:48:26,000
They just hit him with a metal airplane toy.
816
00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:27,000
They leave him for dead.
817
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:30,000
They leave him for dead, but he may not be dead.
818
00:48:30,000 --> 00:48:37,000
He certainly was resilient enough to get shot in downtown Manhattan and then wander out to whatever project he grew up in.
819
00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:39,000
A day and a half later or something.
820
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:40,000
Yeah.
821
00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:41,000
Well, not a full day and a half.
822
00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:44,000
After being further injured by McKinney in his office.
823
00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:46,000
It's probably like maybe 8 a.m.
824
00:48:46,000 --> 00:48:47,000
I'm guessing.
825
00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:50,000
So we're talking about 19 hours from the time you got shot.
826
00:48:50,000 --> 00:48:52,000
The town you get speed up by these kids.
827
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:55,000
Man, if I walk for an hour, I need to lay down for a day.
828
00:48:55,000 --> 00:48:56,000
So good for Tommy.
829
00:48:56,000 --> 00:48:57,000
He's really fit.
830
00:48:57,000 --> 00:48:59,000
But I can see why they cut that.
831
00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:01,000
I can see why the audience has hated it.
832
00:49:01,000 --> 00:49:03,000
It's just so oddly done.
833
00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:05,000
I don't think it was cut because anybody hated it.
834
00:49:05,000 --> 00:49:08,000
I think it was cut because Arkoff wanted a sequel.
835
00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:11,000
Well, Cohen said that the test audience has hated it.
836
00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:14,000
And that's why they decided to cut it.
837
00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:17,000
So that's the story that Larry Cohen gives on that commentary.
838
00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:19,000
Arkoff had already told him, don't kill off your hero.
839
00:49:19,000 --> 00:49:22,000
And then the success of the movie prompted the sequel.
840
00:49:22,000 --> 00:49:26,000
If it had flopped, I'm sure Arkoff wouldn't be like, oh, we got to have a sequel.
841
00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:30,000
And I'm sure he was waiting to see what happened before he would greenlight that.
842
00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:32,000
Yeah, your timeline dies better.
843
00:49:32,000 --> 00:49:37,000
But it the way that it's explained to us and all the things I read, it's all jumbled together.
844
00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:40,000
And the sequel happened really rapidly after the original.
845
00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:41,000
It did.
846
00:49:41,000 --> 00:49:43,000
They both came out in the same year in 1973.
847
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:46,000
So there wasn't a lot of time spent dithering about it.
848
00:49:46,000 --> 00:49:47,000
It just happened.
849
00:49:47,000 --> 00:49:48,000
Well, I think I read it.
850
00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:50,000
I only spent out two and a half weeks making this film in production.
851
00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:51,000
True.
852
00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:54,000
So probably very little post-production.
853
00:49:54,000 --> 00:49:56,000
Can you picture Sammy Davis Jr. in this role?
854
00:49:56,000 --> 00:49:58,000
Absolutely not.
855
00:49:58,000 --> 00:50:00,000
I think it would be a comedy.
856
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:03,000
It would be so funny to see him.
857
00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:08,000
Well, I don't even know him by his stick basically, but to see him try to pull off this role.
858
00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:11,000
Hit a black Caesar be called the candy man.
859
00:50:11,000 --> 00:50:13,000
Well, the candy man can.
860
00:50:13,000 --> 00:50:16,000
Fred Williamson is so physically imposing.
861
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:18,000
He's an ex-football player.
862
00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:21,000
He's what six five six four, I read different things.
863
00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:23,000
And he's just so built up.
864
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:27,000
That's why he can walk up to these gangsters and just sort of loom over them.
865
00:50:27,000 --> 00:50:30,000
And they cave pretty fast.
866
00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:33,000
The fact that he's so what's the word formidable?
867
00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:38,000
Yes, he's just all around formidable and everybody gets that by looking at him.
868
00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:40,000
And that's why nobody says no to him.
869
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:43,000
And Sammy Davis Jr. I mean, I could take that guy.
870
00:50:43,000 --> 00:50:45,000
I'm sure, especially now.
871
00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:48,000
Maybe it's been Sammy would have gotten in the eye instead of the leg.
872
00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:51,000
That's so wrong.
873
00:50:51,000 --> 00:50:52,000
How dare you?
874
00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:56,000
Yeah, I can't believe that this notion was even entertained for a minute.
875
00:50:56,000 --> 00:50:58,000
It would have had to have been a comedy.
876
00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:00,000
It couldn't have been anything.
877
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:04,000
But from when I read it, it sounded like he wanted to do something dark.
878
00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:07,000
But I think there probably would have been some script changes.
879
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:12,000
There might have been a request everyone else to be at the same stature as Sammy Davis Jr.
880
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:14,000
I just can't picture it at all.
881
00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:17,000
Well, the whole idea of it being Caesar's Cassisar was short.
882
00:51:17,000 --> 00:51:18,000
So.
883
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:19,000
Yes, I know.
884
00:51:19,000 --> 00:51:22,000
In watching this movie, seeing, you know, it's not a little guy.
885
00:51:22,000 --> 00:51:24,000
It's not the pizza pizza guy.
886
00:51:24,000 --> 00:51:29,000
And so I just think of Caesar being commander of an empire.
887
00:51:29,000 --> 00:51:31,000
And that's what Tommy became.
888
00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:34,000
So I don't take it literally as guy in Toga.
889
00:51:34,000 --> 00:51:37,000
I take it more figuratively as commander of a vast empire.
890
00:51:37,000 --> 00:51:38,000
Right.
891
00:51:38,000 --> 00:51:39,000
That's how I played out.
892
00:51:39,000 --> 00:51:44,000
But originally it was intended for Sammy Davis Jr. based on his size.
893
00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:47,000
That's why this script was commissioned in the first place.
894
00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:50,000
I think Gloria Henry did a fantastic job in this movie.
895
00:51:50,000 --> 00:51:53,000
But having seen her in Savage Sisters, I really expected her to.
896
00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:56,000
Beat the crap out of Tommy at some point.
897
00:51:56,000 --> 00:51:57,000
He deserved it.
898
00:51:57,000 --> 00:52:00,000
I didn't think she really stood out in this film.
899
00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:03,000
I think there were scenes where she stood out as well.
900
00:52:03,000 --> 00:52:05,000
She was only a woman for most of it.
901
00:52:05,000 --> 00:52:09,000
Like the scene in the office where he tries to buy her a gift and she just throws it on the floor.
902
00:52:09,000 --> 00:52:14,000
I thought that was well done because you could just tell by the look on her face that she has had it with them.
903
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:16,000
She's probably already taken up with Joe at that point.
904
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:19,000
And the fact that he rapes her, she should have killed him then.
905
00:52:19,000 --> 00:52:23,000
But she obviously had reached her limit long before that.
906
00:52:23,000 --> 00:52:29,000
However, in the scene where Tommy beats up Joe at their Beverly Hills house, she's just yelling.
907
00:52:29,000 --> 00:52:33,000
And she doesn't really do a whole lot that maybe think that she could do a lot better as an actress.
908
00:52:33,000 --> 00:52:35,000
They could have given her a lot more to do in the scene.
909
00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:37,000
That was a missed opportunity.
910
00:52:37,000 --> 00:52:42,000
Well, let's bestow a grade on Black Caesar as we always do using our AIP scale or AS Awesome.
911
00:52:42,000 --> 00:52:45,000
I is intermediate and he is pathetic.
912
00:52:45,000 --> 00:52:46,000
You go first, Jeff.
913
00:52:46,000 --> 00:52:50,000
But looking at this film and the time it came out, it's not long after the Godfather.
914
00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:54,000
And I think there is definitely an influence of that film here.
915
00:52:54,000 --> 00:52:56,000
Especially during the California scene.
916
00:52:56,000 --> 00:53:00,000
Yeah, well the music's playing as kind of Godfather Esk as well during that scene.
917
00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:05,000
But just the idea of a crime lord rising up and taking over the whole area.
918
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:11,000
But in this instance, the guy rises up takes over an area that nobody really wants anyway.
919
00:53:11,000 --> 00:53:16,000
And I love seeing Old New York, Old Dirty New York, Old Gritty New York.
920
00:53:16,000 --> 00:53:20,000
And as I mentioned, the people in the background are real New Yorkers.
921
00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:23,000
And it's fun to see them in their element.
922
00:53:23,000 --> 00:53:27,000
I found myself watching the background players every time there was a scene in the street more than the action.
923
00:53:27,000 --> 00:53:29,000
That was supposed to be paying attention to.
924
00:53:29,000 --> 00:53:35,000
And I also said that I liked the art seeness of using the black box when the budget didn't call for anything more.
925
00:53:35,000 --> 00:53:42,000
And in retrospect, knowing that a lot of this was shot at Larry Cohen's house and backyard was kind of cool.
926
00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:45,000
And this does feel a lot like gorilla filmmaking.
927
00:53:45,000 --> 00:53:47,000
All the stuff on the street is shot in that fashion.
928
00:53:47,000 --> 00:53:50,000
A lot of it's handheld, if not all of it.
929
00:53:50,000 --> 00:53:54,000
And when Tommy is shot, we see this shot from a building is up her window.
930
00:53:54,000 --> 00:53:58,000
And he's just rolling around on the street and people are staring at him trying to help him.
931
00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:01,000
Very concerned because there's not a camera on the ground during that time.
932
00:54:01,000 --> 00:54:02,000
So they don't know what's going on.
933
00:54:02,000 --> 00:54:05,000
They just see this guy who's obviously hurt.
934
00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:10,000
And then the camera goes down to the ground and people are still staring at the camera and still going what's going on.
935
00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:11,000
And I love all that.
936
00:54:11,000 --> 00:54:12,000
It's so real.
937
00:54:12,000 --> 00:54:17,000
Even though the story itself is kind of ridiculous, the character is not one that I could relate to.
938
00:54:17,000 --> 00:54:23,000
The only thing that was satisfactory was McKinney dying a humiliating death.
939
00:54:23,000 --> 00:54:29,000
And I prefer the original non theatrical ending though I like where Tommy dies.
940
00:54:29,000 --> 00:54:32,000
I think he needs to have his come up in because he's not a great guy.
941
00:54:32,000 --> 00:54:35,000
But despite all that, I think this is a really good movie and I think give it an A.
942
00:54:35,000 --> 00:54:36,000
What are your thoughts?
943
00:54:36,000 --> 00:54:45,000
Well, reading the reviews from the time, it seemed like a lot of people were really against the movie for being violent and for degrading black people.
944
00:54:45,000 --> 00:54:49,000
And I don't know that I have the best basis on which to form an opinion on that.
945
00:54:49,000 --> 00:54:52,000
Those critics were probably for the most part white themselves.
946
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:54,000
I can't say for sure.
947
00:54:54,000 --> 00:55:01,000
And I do know that a lot of black people at the time were against this as a cultural phenomenon of the black exploitation movies.
948
00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:04,000
And a lot of that focused on this movie in particular.
949
00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:07,000
But also this was a huge hit for A.I.P.
950
00:55:07,000 --> 00:55:13,000
So it seems like mainstream black culture accepted the movie and there were a few outliers that didn't.
951
00:55:13,000 --> 00:55:23,000
And now I'm in 2025 looking back on this movie and just taking it for what it is now and not for where it was as part of a genre in its time.
952
00:55:23,000 --> 00:55:26,000
And now I think it's a really fun movie.
953
00:55:26,000 --> 00:55:35,000
My main objection to it is how repellent the character of Tommy Gibbs is but he's supposed to be that's the whole point of the movie so that's not a ding against the movie.
954
00:55:35,000 --> 00:55:40,000
That's just me wishing I could like him a lot more than I do because I wanted to and I don't.
955
00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:47,000
But I think that also is what makes the movie good because they have this character he's not even an anti hero he's just a bad guy.
956
00:55:47,000 --> 00:55:57,000
And yet you follow his story and you can't look away because it's played by such a compelling actor and everything that's happening is really interesting.
957
00:55:57,000 --> 00:56:02,000
And this just let me try to agree with you that this is a good movie and it's worth an A.I love this genre.
958
00:56:02,000 --> 00:56:06,000
I love so many things about it. I love the music chosen. The soundtrack is fantastic.
959
00:56:06,000 --> 00:56:07,000
It is.
960
00:56:07,000 --> 00:56:08,000
It's so good.
961
00:56:08,000 --> 00:56:12,000
And I don't know what the big deal was with James Brown delivering too much music.
962
00:56:12,000 --> 00:56:17,000
I mean I edit music myself and it's not that big of a deal. You just fade out here.
963
00:56:17,000 --> 00:56:24,000
Bade up there overlay this with a similar beat doesn't really pose that much of a difficulty as a digital editor anyway.
964
00:56:24,000 --> 00:56:30,000
What they had to do back then I'm not really sure but black exploitation movies have this underdog story as well.
965
00:56:30,000 --> 00:56:37,000
People who are powerless becoming powerful and sticking it to the man and I think that's a story that anybody can get behind.
966
00:56:37,000 --> 00:56:52,000
And I love that about this movie and I love that about movies like coffee and bucktown and a lot of the other ones that we've seen where people who have nothing gets something and I think we can all be inspired by that and black Caesar is an exemplary movie of the genre.
967
00:56:52,000 --> 00:57:04,000
So it gets an A for me to those other films you mentioned they're driven by the revenge plot and the one instance of revenge is when McKinney gets his and that is the most satisfying part of all black Caesar I think it is.
968
00:57:04,000 --> 00:57:17,000
So that is a recurring theme he kind of gets revenge against his dad to not by killing him but just by getting to confront him with everything that he's lost and all the potential that he had that didn't get realized because he didn't have a father.
969
00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:26,000
And we don't really necessarily blame the dad because he had his own struggles but we get to see what that meant for a boy growing up in poverty.
970
00:57:26,000 --> 00:57:29,000
And that's something that you probably wouldn't expect to see in a film of this caliber.
971
00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:33,000
No it's a little deeper than you would think upon first impression.
972
00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:50,000
It's nuanced and we get both sides and there's no black and white obviously there's black and white in terms of who's good and who's bad but in that instance from a figure to standpoint there's no pure bad pure good and I think for a Larry Cohen movie it's really good to acknowledge that humanity.
973
00:57:50,000 --> 00:57:59,000
To find out more about Black Caesar and other films we've covered on the American International Podcast you can visit our website aippod.com and there you can find posters,
974
00:57:59,000 --> 00:58:09,000
lobby cards trailers and more plus you can contact us to tell us what you thought about the films or what you didn't like what we said about the films that we've covered again that's aippod.com.
975
00:58:09,000 --> 00:58:18,000
And I think it's time for us to stagger off home for the American International Podcast I'm Cheryl Lightfoot and I'm Jeff Markin and we'll meet you at the drive in.
976
00:58:18,000 --> 00:58:28,000
Follow the American International podcast on Instagram and letterbox @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast
977
00:58:28,000 --> 00:58:39,000
The American International podcast is produced and edited by Jeff Markin and Cheryl Lightfoot.
978
00:58:39,000 --> 00:58:42,000
A girl hungry for too many things.
979
00:58:42,000 --> 00:58:56,000
The American International podcast is part of the Pop Culture Entertainment Network.
980
00:58:56,000 --> 00:59:06,000
[Music]