Warning: this review contains scenes of violence and nudity
AKA: Ghetto Warriors
Dir: Lee Frost
Starring: Rod Perry, Charles Robinson, Phil Hoover, Angela Brent, Lee Frost
Ok, that title doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. In this
latest post I’ll be looking at the oxymoronically titled The Black Gestapo (1975) a blacksploitation vigilante flick from
the prolific and highly regarded exploitation filmmaker Lee Frost.
General Ahmed (Rod Perry) has set up the People’s Army to protect the black citizens of Watts, California from local mobsters. However, when violence against the citizens of Watts increases and the police don’t do anything to help, Ahmed reluctantly gives in to pressure from Colonel Kojah (Charles Robinson) to set up a special protection squad. This new squad responds with violence of it’s own and the gangsters are driven from town. However, Kojah transforms the squad into his own militia which becomes way more corrupt than the mob ever was. Ahmed must stop him before it becomes too powerful.
Blackspoitation was a big part of the drive-in movie scene in 1970s America. Films of this subgenre were brash, exciting and had great soundtracks. Although aimed at primarily an urban black audience, they were good enough to cross racial divides. The era produced some classic films including Shaft (1971) and Foxy Brown(1974), and made cult stars out of likes of Pam Grier and Fred Williamson. The subgenre has even influenced modern day filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino – who paid homage to blacksploitation with JackieBrown in 1997 starring Grier – and many Hip-Hop artists. The Black Gestapo came out at the height of the genres popularity and is often heavily criticised. However, in truth, I found it to be very entertaining and not nearly as bad as some of the negative comments I’ve heard about it.
Lee Frost, along with his
writer/producer partner Wes Bishop, was a very prolific American exploitation
director throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s. Most of his films were highly enjoyable
affairs and he filmed across many different subgenres, including sexploitation
(The Animal [1968]), Mondo
documentaries (Mondo Bizarro [1966])
and westerns (Hot Spur [1968]). He also directed arguably the first ever
Nazisploitation film, the controversial Love Camp 7 (1969).
The Nazi link in The Black Gestapo is a very loose one.
There is a brief opening credits sequence in which stock footage of Hitler and
the Nazis is played, but, apart from the film’s title, that’s the only literal
reference to the Third Reich in the movie. Kojah’s militia may where SS-like
uniforms but they don’t where Swastikas or even refer to themselves as ‘the
Black Gestapo’. I can only assume that the title was just a ploy to stir up
some controversy – not an uncommon tactic for these sorts of films. As if you
didn’t know, the Nazis hated black people as much as jews, so the idea of an
African-American Nazi militia doesn’t make sense. It would be like if the film
was called ‘The Black Klu Klux Klan’!
So no, this is not
Nazisploitation. For its first half, the movie plays like a vigilante flick
with Kojah’s ‘protection squad’ trading blows with the gangsters – “he sends
one of yours to the hospital, you send of his to the morgue”. The film’s most
memorable scene comes during this period. Nurse Marsha (Angela Brent) is raped and badly
beaten by a couple of the mobsters. In response, Kojah and his men break in to
the home of one of the rapists to dish out some vengeance. The squad ambush him
while he’s taking a bath. While the rest of the squad hold him down, Kojah
takes out a razor and slices off the gangster’s testicles. He then proceeds to
flush them down the toilet!
Both lead actors in The Black Gestapo made their names in
TV. Rod Perry was a member of the cast of S.W.A.T.
and Charles Robinson is best remembered for Night Court. Lee Frost also made numerous cameo appearances in his
films. In this one he plays the role of mob boss Vincent, who wears a toupee
and has a pet schnauzer. There’s even an appearance by busty beauty Uschi Digard, showing off her impressive ... er, talents.
As I mentioned before, The Black Gestapo gets a lot of stick.
It even featured in a Rotten Tomatoes piece called 25 Movies so Bad they’re Unmissable alongside such titles as Troll 2 and The Room. I didn’t think it
deserved it, to be honest. Sure, the title is just bizarre and you expect a car
crash because of it, but it never really happens. It’s rough around the edges
but it’s entertaining and competently directed all things considered. Or maybe
I’ve just watched too many shitty movies to notice anymore.
