Black Belt Jones Lacks Punch, Needs More Kicks

The popularity of Blaxploitation films had already begun to wane by 1974, just three brief years after Shaft made a box office splash. The genre needed a kick and producer Fred Weintraub hoped to provide that--literally--with his urban martial arts film Black Belt Jones. Weintraub and director Robert Clouse were responsible for the previous year's international hit Enter the Dragon, which sealed Bruce Lee's superstardom. Their idea to blend Blaxploitation and kung fu must have seemed like a natural fusion. To ensure a smooth transition, they cast American African karate champion Jim Kelly, who appeared in Enter the Dragon, in Black Belt Jones.

Kelly plays the title character, a streetwise kung fu master, who comes to the aid of his mentor Pop Byrd (Scatman Crothers). Pop's inner city Black Bird Karate School has attracted the attention of a local Mafioso with inside knowledge of the real estate's future value. When Pop refuses to sell, Don Steffano sends some thugs (led by Pinky...nice name!) over to rough him up. During the fight, Pop has a heart attack and dies. Belt Belt is determined to avenge Pop, save the school, and help out the Feds--with some unexpected help from Pop's black black belt daughter Sydney (Gloria Hendry).

Kelly in fight mode as Black Belt Jones.

There are numerous excellent action films--Enter the Dragon and Where Eagles Dare spring to mind--that cast credibility aside. If the action scenes are well-staged and frequent enough, the viewer won't have time to dwell on plot flaws. It helps, too, if the performers are charismatic. Unfortunately, Black Belt Jones falls flat in these areas. The title sequence, consisting of freeze frames that interrupt Kelly's swift punches and powerful kicks, is indicative of the film's problems. It robs a potentially exciting fight scene of its speed and rhythm. As the film progresses, the pacing problem worsens and the more time we have to dwell on its plot, the more incredulous Black Belt Jones becomes. A toupeed Scatman Crothers as a kung fu master?

With John Saxon in Enter the Dragon.

Kelly was fine as a supporting player in Enter the Dragon (especially considering he was a last minute replacement for Rockne Tarrington). It helped, of course, that the screenwriters gave him many of the film's memorable quips ("Man, you're right out of a comic book!"). Also, if you add up his screen time, Kelly wasn't in much of Enter the Dragon, which was designed as a star vehicle for Lee. In Black Belt Jones, Kelly is expected to carry much of the load. He manages well in the fight scenes (though, even there, his martial arts style is not as fluidly cinematic as Lee's). In his "acting" scenes, he tries to exude cool--though his cool quotient  is relatively low compared to charismatic actors such as Richard Roundtree in Shaft.

Surprisingly, Black Belt Jones has its admirers, which I attribute to its karate scenes and camp factor. I suppose one could argue that it was always intended as camp, making my criticisms pointless. My belief is Weintraub and Clouse wanted to make a mindless genre film mixing action and humor. Achieving that right amount of balance (as Jackie Chan did in many of his films) can be challenging and that's where Black Belt Jones fails for me. Still, it did well enough at the box office to garner a sequel, 1976's Hot Potato, which sends Black Belt to an Asian country to rescue a senator's daughter.

Kelly worked steadily throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, with lead roles in films like Black Samurai. He also appeared in three films with Jim Brown and Fred Williamson: Three the Hard Way; the unusual Blaxploitation-Spaghetti Western Take a Hard Ride; and One Down, Two to Go (also with Richard Roundtree). Except for occasional film appearances, he retired from acting in 1982. He subsequently became a professional tennis player and appeared on the USTA Senior Men's Circuit.

It doesn't even look like a
Jackie Chan movie.

Filmmakers Fred Weintraub and Robert Clouse continued to make occasional martial arts films with splashes of humor. They introduced Jackie Chan to American audiences with The Big Brawl in 1980. Unfortunately, it veered too much from Jackie's natural persona and never found an audience. Jackie Chan wouldn't hit it big in the U.S. until 15 years later when Rumble in the Bronx became a sleeper hit.

My 100 Favorite Films: From 30 to 21

This month’s countdown list features my favorite Hammer horror film and my favorite Disney animated movie. As always, please keep in mind that these films are not what I'd consider the best 100 movies ever made. They are simply one classic fan's favorites. (An underlined title means there's a hyperlink to a full review at the Cafe.)

David Peel, who looks rather pleasant
here, with Yvonne Monlaur.

30. Brides of Dracula – How can Chris Lee be absent in Hammer Films’ best movie—a Dracula entry, no less? It seems downright peculiar, but, regardless, Brides of Dracula is an exciting, intelligent film with surprising depth, a showcase role for Peter Cushing, and a stylish vampire villain. Yvonne Monlaur plays Marianne, a young French woman on her way to a new teaching position in a boarding school. When a coachman abandons her along the way, she accepts an invitation by the elderly Baroness Meinster (the superb Martita Hunt) to spend the night in a nearby castle. She soon meets young, handsome Baron Meinster (David Peel). His mother keeps him in shackles and you can guess why—but Marianne doesn’t. Pretty soon, there’s an outbreak of vampirism at the boarding school and it’s Van Helsing to the rescue. His climatic confrontation with Meinster in a dilapidated windmill sets the stage for the most ingenious ending of all vampire films.

29. Beach Blanket Bingo – I ignored the Beach Party movies for most of my life…but finally realized what I was missing about 15 years ago. Maybe it’s the nostalgia factor, the portrait of an innocent age that never existed except on celluloid. Regardless, I now always enjoy an annual trip to the beach with Frankie, Annette, and the gang. The best of the series is easily Bingo. Donna Loren sings her best song. Frankie tries to make Annette jealous with Deborah Walley, while Annette tries to make Frankie jealous with John Ashley. Bonehead dates a pretty mermaid while Linda Evans’s Sugar Kane calls him Boney. Paul Lynde cracks jokes while South Dakota Slim just acts creepy. And, best of all, there’s Eric Von Zipper, who tells Sugar that he likes her—and when Eric Von Zipper likes someone, they stay liked!



Diane McBain as the "bad girl"
in Parrish.

28. Parrish – Delmer Daves wrote and directed three big screen soaps circa the early sixties, all starring Troy Donahue: A Summer Place, Parrish, and Susan Slade. These films have their detractors, but I don’t even feel obligated to defend them. The first two are exceedingly well made, with engrossing plots, plush scenery, and sumptuous Max Steiner music. Yes, Troy wasn’t a great actor—I get that, but he was a likable, good-looking chap. In Parrish, he and his mother (Claudette Colbert) move to Connecticut to work for tobacco farmer Dean Jagger. While Parrish (Troy) tries to figure out what to do with his life, he romances a sharecropper’s daughter (Connie Stevens), a rich bad girl (Diane McBain), and a richer good girl (Sharon Hugueny). He also has to cope with a villainous tobacco magnate (delightfully overplayed by Karl Malden), who has eyes for Parrish’s mother. It’s such fun that just writing about it puts me in the mood to watch it again.

27. The List of Adrian Messenger – John Huston’s 1963 mystery is best known for its gimmick: several famous stars make cameos in heavy make-up. While trying to spot the stars is undeniably fun, the gimmick disguises the fact that The List of Adrian Messenger is a highly-entertaining, crafty film that starts as a mystery and evolves into a suspenseful cat-and-mouse game. In the opening scenes, author Adrian Messenger provides a list of ten names to his friend Anthony Gethryn (George C. Scott), a former MI5 operative, and asks him to quietly find out if the ten people on the list are still alive. Gethryn agrees to undertake the assignment. A few days later, a bomb explodes aboard a plane carrying Adrian as a passenger. Based on a 1959 novel by mystery author and screenwriter Philip MacDonald, The List of Adrian Messenger borrows the killer’s motive from another famous detective novel (no spoilers here!). But the “why” is only part of the fun in The List of Adrian Messenger. It’s the “how” that differentiates it from other mysteries. Among his many skills, the murderer, played delightfully by Kirk Douglas, is also a master of disguises. That provides the opportunity for Douglas to don a number of incredible “looks” designed by make-up master Bud Westmore. Thus, the killer appears as a pointy-chinned priest, a short mousey man, a white-haired elderly villager, and others.

James Stewart learns a little detail
he wishes he hadn't learned.

26. The Flight of the Phoenix – Director Robert Aldrich bookends The Flight of the Phoenix with a wild airplane crash and an exhilarating climax. But it’s the drama in-between that makes the film so fascinating: the friction among the survivors; their audacious plan to reach civilization again; and a brilliant plot twist that comes out of nowhere. Despite the presence of stars James Stewart, Peter Finch, and supporting actor Oscar nominee Ian Bannen, the cast standouts are Hardy Kruger and Richard Attenborough. Kruger creates an unforgettable character as a quiet, bespeckled German who proposes an incredible plan to save the plane crash survivors—he's irritating, childish, determined, and innovative. It’s a well-rounded performance matched by Attenborough’s wonderfully understated turn. As the unassuming man who holds everyone together, Attenborough’s character soothes egos and forges unlikely alliances in the best interests of the group.

25. The Magnificent Seven – At the risk of offending Kurosawa fans, I’ll confide that I prefer this Western remake of The Seven Samurai to the original film. Don’t get me wrong—The Seven Samurai is an impressive cinematic achievement and certainly the more important of the two films. I just don’t find it as entertaining as John Sturges’s crisp, energetic Western. Yul Brynner stars as the down-on-his-luck gunfighter hired by a small, poor Mexican village to defend it from bandits. My favorite part of the film (no surprise to Café regulars) is when Yul recruits the rest of the reluctant heroes—played by the likes of Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, and James Coburn. Toss in Eli Wallach as the despicable outlaw and Horst Buchholz as a young whippersnapper and you’ve got one of the all-time great casts. As an added bonus, Elmer Bernstein provides an incredible music score, capped with the rousing title theme.

24. Enter the Dragon – In the early 1970s, Bruce Lee, frustrated with the lack of decent roles, decided to take the “Clint Eastwood path” to Hollywood stardom. He left the U.S. and returned to Hong Kong to make a couple of inexpensive martial arts films. Two worldwide smashes later, Hollywood came calling—offering the lead in a James Bond-style martial arts adventure. Warner Bros. hedged its bets by casting a well-known American actor (John Saxon) and an African American real-life karate champ (Jim Kelly). Still, Enter the Dragon was clearly tailored for Lee, who plays a martial artist hired to infiltrate a super villain’s island fortress by participating in a fight tournament. A near-perfect action film, Enter the Dragon never takes itself too seriously and showcases Lee’s natural charisma and humor. It’s interesting to ponder Lee’s career arc had he lived longer--would he have alternated polished films like this with his own more personal pictures (e.g., Way of the Dragon)?

The bell tower climax--yes, it was
filmed indoors.

23. Black Narcissus – Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger’s masterpiece follows a group of nuns who are sent to a remote Himalayan village to establish a school and hospital. These new surroundings stir repressed emotions in several of the nuns, ultimately leading to tragedy. Powerful and understated, Black Narcissus is anchored by a brilliant performance by Deborah Kerr and a compelling one from Kathleen Byron (whose acting career petered out all too quickly). Technically, the film is an incredible achievement. Many of the outdoor scenes, to include the stunning tower climax, were filmed inside a studio using “glass shots” and miniatures designed by Alfred Junge. Jack Cardiff’s color cinematography is often touted as the best example of the Technicolor process. Both Junge and Cardiff earned well-deserved Oscars.

22. The Long, Hot Summer – This engrossing trip into William Faulkner's South stars Paul Newman as drifter Ben Quick, the son of a barn burner (which makes one instantly unpopular). Ben arrives in the small hamlet of Frenchman's Bend, Mississippi, where bigger-than-life Will Varner (Orson Welles) owns just about everything. Varner, who recently recovered from a heart attack, is obsessed with getting "some more Varners" in the way of grandchildren. His weak-willed son Jody (Tony Franciosa) isn't making much progress with his pretty, but somewhat flighty wife Eula (Lee Remick). So, Varner is determined that his smart, headstrong daughter Clara (Woodward) get married. And if it's not to her long time, would-be suitor Alan (Richard Anderson)...than it may as well be to that ambitious "big stud horse" Ben Quick. The near-perfect cast brings these colorful characters to life, to include Angela Lansbury as Varner's mistress. The lively exchanges between Newman and Welles are a joy to behold (Varner to Ben: "I've been watching you. I like your push, yes. I like your style. I like your brass. It ain't too dissimilar from the way I operate.") But the heart of the film is the sparkling chemistry between Newman and Woodward; they were married the same year the movie was released. My favorite scene is an exchange between them in a general store, which goes from playful to surprisingly enlightening.

Pongo and Perdy get married with
their owners (in background).

21. 101 Dalmatians – Easily my favorite Disney animated feature, it puzzles me that 101 Dalmatians is rarely mentioned among the Disney “classics” like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bambi, and Pinocchio. Set in London, the well-known plot traces the courtship and marriage of Dalmatians Pongo and Perdy (and their human “pets” Roger and Anita). It’s a happy home until Anita’s wealthy “friend” Cruella De Vil pays a visit and decides that Perdita’s puppies would make “such perfectly beautiful coats.” When Roger and Anita rebuff Cruella’s offer to buy the puppies, her bumbling goons Horace and Jasper kidnap the pups. It’s a well-paced, entertaining story rich with fully developed characters. Even the puppies get memorable personalities, with my favorite of the litter being the plump Rollie who spouts classic lines like: “I’m so hungry I could eat an elephant” and (a few minutes later) “I’m hungry, Mother…I really am.” Anyone who has loved a dog will appreciate the care with which the animators have captured canine traits. Pongo drags Roger mercilessly on walks, shakes off water vigorously when wet, and sticks his butt in the air when getting playful.

Next month, we reach the Top 20 as this countdown nears its conclusion. The next ten movies will include appearances by Gene Tierney (but not Laura), Cary Grant (in a non-Hitchcock role), an eccentric Scotland Yard inspector, and perhaps the longest sword fight on film.