Blaxploitation Films of the 1970s

Blackness and Genre

Novotny Lawrence

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781135900359
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia mondiale

During the early years of the motion picture industry, black performers were often depicted as shuckin' and jivin' caricatures. Specifically, black males were portrayed as toms, coons and bucks, while the mammy and tragic mulatto archetypes circumscribed black femininity. This misrepresentation began to change in the 1950s and 1960s when performers such as Dorothy Dandridge and Sidney Poitier were cast in more positive roles. These performers paved the way for the black exploitation or blaxploitation movement, which began in 1970 and flourished until 1975. The movement is characterized by films that feature a black hero or heroine, black supporting characters, a predominately black urban setting, a display of black sexuality, excessive violence, and a contemporary rhythm and blues soundtrack. Blaxploitation films were made across varying genres, but the questionable elements of some of the pictures caused them to be referred to as "blaxploitation" films with little or no regard given to their generic categorization. This book examines how Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), Blacula (1972), The Mack (1973), and Cleopatra Jones (1973) can be classified within the detective, horror, gangster, and cop action genres, respectively, and illustrates the manner in which the inclusion of "blackness" represents a significant revision to the aforementioned genres.

Chapter One
“Two Detectives Only a Mother Could Love”

Cotton Comes to Harlem and the Detective Genre

The detective genre initially began to flourish in the 1930s with the release of the original version of The Maltese Falcon (1931), The Thin Man series (1934–1946), and Satan Was a Lady (1936). These films are typically referred to as “classical” detective films because they feature a detective who “had a cultivated wit and used scientific methods of deduction” in order to resolve the film’s conflict (Schatz 124). In addition, the detectives featured in the aforementioned films were “part of a generally organized society whose occasional problems could be solved with deductive reasoning” (Schatz 125).

The classical detectives and the worlds that they inhabited are a stark contrast to the genre’s subsequent films, which are often referred to as hardboiled detective films because they were imbued with the noir style. Many of the quintessential detective films are film noirs (black film), which is the title that French critics bestowed upon a group of American films produced between the early 1940s and the late 1950s.¹ As the name suggests, films noir were dark in theme, style, and content: “The world of the film noir is the city, primarily at night, indifferent to suffering, with the possibility of violence or death around every corner. Within this world, characters lie, deceive, and kill one another in a desperate struggle to avoid their own fated destructions” (Nachbar 65).

Many noir films were adapted from the writings of authors such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, whose novels were transformed into the classic noir films The Maltese Falcon remake (1946) and The Big Sleep (1946), respectively. These stories feature lone detectives, Phillip Marlowe and Sam Spade (both played by Humphrey Bogart), searching for truth in the sleazy cityscape. Although the classic and hardboiled detective films differ in theme and style, they share significant commonalities. Specifically, both belong to the detective genre and prominently feature whites as the protagonists, but the diegesis unfolds in a multicultural world that features few minorities. In short, The Thin Man series and The Big Sleep adhere to the exclusionary racist practice traditionally implemented by Hollywood at the time the films were produced.

While the aforementioned films excluded significant minority representation, they are classic embodiments of the detective genre and their influence can be viewed in the pioneer blaxploitation film Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970). However, the film’s inclusion of blackness, in the form of its protagonists, setting, supporting characters, music, sociopolitical themes, and the use of humor, leads to a significant revision of the genre. The remainder of this chapter discusses how Cotton functions as a hybrid detective/comedy film while also transgressing the traditional conventions of the detective genre.

Many accounts of the blaxploitation movement begin their explorations with Melvin Van Peebles’s Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1970), which is commonly credited as the motion picture that started it all. Although Sweetback is a landmark film, it was not the catalyst of the blaxploitation movement, as is suggested. The first film to prominently feature the characteristics that would come to define the movement was the detective/comedy film Cotton Comes to Harlem, which was released approximately nine months prior to Sweetback by United Artists in the summer of 1970 (Massood 87).

The screenplay for Cotton Comes to Harlem was based on a series of novels by Chester Himes, who began writing while serving an eight-year prison term for armed robbery (Chelminski 60). Himes sold his first short story to Esquire in 1934 while still in prison. After being paroled in 1936, Himes worked odd jobs and continued writing. In 1945 he produced his first novel titled, If He Hollers Let Him Go, which was based on his experiences working in a Los Angeles shipyard. The novel became a bestseller and earned Himes a literary award (Chelminski 60). Unfortunately, his next two efforts, Lonely Crusade and Cast the First Stone, were not well received, and by 1953 he was unpublishable in the United States (Chelminski 60). This, along with racial discrimination, served as the catalyst for Himes’s relocation to Europe, where his publisher proposed that he write a detective novel (Chelminski 61). Himes’s initially scoffed at the suggestion; however, he eventually conceded, and the result was La Reine de Pommes, which became a bestseller in France. It was also named best detective novel of the year (Chelminski 61). Significantly, Pommes was the first of Himes’s novels to feature the detectives popularized in Cotton. These detectives were born in the same tradition as those featured in noir films because Himes modeled his writing style after famous detective novelist Dashiell Hammett (Chelminski 60).

Himes sold the screen rights to his detective series to producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr., who envisioned making a franchise out of the novels (Gold 62). Goldwyn initially hired white scriptwriter Arnold Perl to write the film adaptation of Cotton Comes to Harlem. However, after reading the first draft of Perl’s screenplay, Goldwyn was not satisfied because he felt that it lacked an authentic representation of black life. He contacted Ossie Davis, whom he had originally hired to star as one of the film’s detectives, for suggestions about how the script could be improved.² Davis provided minor revisions, and Goldwyn was so impressed by his work that he asked him to provide a major rewrite of the original screenplay. After Goldwyn assured him that Perl was no longer committed to the project, Davis rewrote the screen adaptation (Davis and Dee 335–36).

While Davis was rewriting the script, Goldwyn asked him who he felt was qualified to direct the project. Davis never suspected that he would be called upon to fill the position. In With Ossie and Ruby, Davis recounts the conversation in which Goldwyn informed him that he would direct Cotton. Goldwyn stated, “Ossie, I’ve found the director. I ran him by United Artists—they’re financing Cotton—and they’ve agreed.” When Davis asked who the director was going to be, Goldwyn replied, “You are” (Davis and Dee 336).³ Davis accepted the position.

After accepting the job as director, Davis assisted Goldwyn in casting Arthur Johnson, who adopted the screen name Raymond St. Jaques to take his place as police detective Coffin Ed Johnson (Davis and Dee 336). Prior to appearing in Cotton, St. Jaques established himself as a promising actor of both stage and screen. Significantly, he appeared onstage in High Name Today (1959) and The Cool World (1960); his film credits included roles in The Comedians (1967), The Green Berets (1968), and If He Hollers Let Him Go (Bogle, Blacks 466).

Cotton also features comedian Godfrey Cambridge as Coffin Ed’s partner, Gravedigger Jones. Cambridge was a versatile performer who appeared in Davis’s stage and film versions of Purlie Victorious (Mabunda 823). As a comedian, he amused “The Tonight Show” audience with material that was drawn from contemporary racial situations, and he thoroughly entertained moviegoers in Melvin Van Peebles’s satiric comedy Watermelon Man (1970).

In addition to St. Jaques and Cambridge, Cotton also stars Calvin Lockhart as Reverend Deke O’Mally. Lockhart originally moved to New York to study engineering, but after a brief stint in school, he dropped out to pursue an acting career (Bogle, Blacks 412). He made his acting debut in New York theater productions alongside St. Jaques in The Cool World (1960) and later appeared in The Dark Moon (1960) (Bogle, Blacks 412). Although Lockhart gained acting experience in the theater productions, he received a small number of roles, which prompted him to move to Europe. He remained in Europe for eight years where he appeared in BBC television shows as well as in the film Joanna (1968). He eventually returned to the United States, and starred in films such as Dark of the Sun (1968), Melinda (1972), and Uptown Saturday Night (1974), among others.

Comedian Redd Foxx made his film debut in Cotton as a junk dealer named Uncle Bud. Prior to appearing in the film, Foxx gained notoriety working as a stand-up comic whose frank discussions about race and sex were considered obscene by some and hilarious commentaries by others. He made the transition to television in the 1960s, appearing in popular shows such as “Mr. Ed” (1965), and “Green Acres” (1966). Foxx later starred in his own television series titled “Sanford and Son” (1972–1977).

Cotton tells the story of Reverend Deke O’Mally, a preacher and a con man, who has organized a Back to Africa crusade and swindled $87,000 from poor people in Harlem. However, O’Mally is not alone in his racket. He has a white partner named Calhoun (J. D. Cannon), who seizes the money, escapes in a meat truck, and hides the cash in a bale of cotton. During a chase sequence in which Calhoun is followed by O’Mally, and both are pursued by Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, the bale bounces from the truck and is found by Uncle Bud, who sells it as a prop to a stripper. While she is undressing on stage, Calhoun and O’Mally appear, search for the money, and are arrested by Gravedigger and Coffin Ed. The $87,000, however, cannot be found. Eventually, the detectives coerce a Mafia leader into compensating O’Mally’s congregation for the missing money, and at the finale, they receive a postcard from Uncle Bud, who found the loot and is living the high life in Africa (Magill 528–29).

Cotton’s narrative structure follows the same pattern as traditional detective films. First, a crime is committed, which prompts the hero/heroine’s search to discover the perpetrator and uncover his/her motives. This standard formula is prevalent in classic detective literature, such as Red Harvest and The Glass Key, as well as in detective films like The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep. While Cotton’s narrative structure is similar to other prominent detective works, the film is not presented in the traditional lily-white Hollywood style. Cotton injects the conventions of the detective genre with blackness as the film’s detectives, setting, sociopolitical themes, and music are rooted in the black experience.

Police detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones are revisions of the standard white detective protagonist. Prior to the release of Cotton, ethnic detectives appeared both in popular fiction and on the silver screen. However, these detectives, functioning as native informants, “explore cultural differences—in perception, in way of life, in visions of the world—and act as links between cultures, interpreting each to each, mainstream to minority and minority to mainstream” (MacDonald and MacDonald 60). Additionally, these ethnic detectives are constructed through the stereotypical tropes that position them as the exotic other rather than the subjects of serious explorations. Charlie Chan serves as a prime example of this type of ethnic detective. Based on an actual Honolulu police detective, he was known for his flowery Confucian aphorisms, his lapses into Pidgin English, his patience, attention to detail, character analysis, and discourses on justice, tradition, and cultural identity (MacDonald and MacDonald 60). Chan provided the mold in which future ethnic detectives such as John P. Marquand’s Mr. Moto and Del Shannon’s Lieutenant Luis Mendoza were constructed.

Cotton’s detectives, however, are considerably different from traditional white detectives as well as their stereotyped ethnic predecessors. Significantly, more often than not, white detectives are depicted as loners. In Black and White Noir, Paula Rabinowitz notes, “They may have started out with partners as do Phillip Marlowe in the Maltese Falcon or Jeff Bailey in Out of the Past (1947). But, conveniently, the partners always die leaving the partner free of the institutional structures of the bureaucratic workplace” (143).

In “Chandler Comes to Town,” Peter J. Rabinowitz offers an explanation for this difference in black and white detectives:

[Chester Himes] had to deviate from the tenets of the hard-boiled school because, being a dispossessed black writer, he simply could not go along with its underlying ideology. Chandler’s brand of individualistic heroism, that is the lonely detective’s maintenance of his principles in the face of an intrinsically evil world, is impossible for Himes’ black precinct detectives, and indeed, the fact that they always appear as a team is itself a clue that individualism of the Marlowe sort is not available on the streets of Harlem. (21)

Coffin Ed and Gravedigger maintain the hardboiled attitude, but as a team they operate under a different set of circumstances than white private detectives. This is particularly related to W. E. B. DuBois’ notion of the “twoness” of American racial life that “describes the anomaly of American racial arrangements, which segregate black from white, discriminate along racial lines, and yet oblige Afro Americans to assimilate the values of White America” (qtd. in Cripps, Black 5). These circumstances are magnified by the Harlem neighborhood in which the detectives work. Significantly, in The Ethnic Detective, Peter Freese notes:

Gravedigger and Coffin Ed have to perform their duty in the black ghetto, that is, in a world which is defined by racial discrimination, in which most people [ … ] consider the police as public enemies and in which, moreover, “colored folks” [don’t] respect colored cops. Thus, Himes’ black policemen are not only up against a social order in which it [is] the rigid code of colored people to stick together against white cops, but in which, consequently, black detectives are looked upon as traitors to their race, because although their very color should put them among the oppressed, their badges make them representatives of the oppressive machinery of “The Man.” (60)

Thus, Coffin Ed and Gravedigger Jones work in an environment where they are both black and detectives. They must protect and serve in a manner that illustrates that they will not tolerate criminal activity but more importantly, that also demonstrates that they do not share the oppressive views of the establishment that employs them.

A particular scene that emphasizes Jones and Johnson’s struggle to protect and serve while maintaining order occurs after viewers are initially introduced to the detectives. Specifically, Coffin Ed and Gravedigger suspect that Reverend O’Mally’s Bac...