PIRANHA (1972)

  Not to be confused with the 1978 Joe Dante animals run amuck classic, this one is more of a jungle adventure flick starring the great William Smith as a nefarious hunter taking some people on a hunt for diamonds. Perhaps if this had been called anything other than PIRANHA it would not have been as disappointing. Actual piranhas only show up during the opening credits and one fleeting scene but that's hardly worth naming your whole movie after. For William Smith completists only. 

 This film was marketed as a MOST DANGEROUS GAME take-off  but that's also some false advertising. AKA PIRANHA! PIRANHA!  

                                                    

                                                     Channel 9 late night movie!:

BOSS (1975)

 Way better known under it's original title of BOSS NIGGER (the DVD I own of this not only cuts "the n-word" from the title but also from the opening theme song) this is the story of a couple of black bounty hunters(Fred "The Hammer Williamson and that bad D'Urville Martin) in the old west. The story tales a sorta similar journey as Williamson's BUCKTOWN(also from 1975) where our heroes become sheriff of a town and pretty much take over. Unlike that film though it's still the olden days so things don't go very smoothly for our dark-skinned lawmen. They also have to contend with hulking, muscular badass William Smith and his gang of unruly outlaws who are not very progressively-minded to say the least.
 Directd by Jack "CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON" Arnold and written by Williamson himself this is a pretty interesting mash-up of blaxploitation and western that works really better as a novelty than a particularly good film but if you get sick of either of those 2 genres it's worth a watch. Also it makes a great double-feature with THE LEGEND OF NIGGER CHARLEY from '72 which also featured Williamson and Martin in an old west setting.

RUN, ANGEL, RUN! (1969)

 One of my favorite character actors William Smith stars in his first biker movie as Angel, a guy who rats on his fellow bikers, The Devils Advocates(which is also the name of the biker group in THE LOSERS and maybe some other similar films), and spends most of the film doing what the title says. You get some of the staples of the biker flick including a barroom brawl, rape, lots of riding and other assorted violence. The soundtrack, including Tammy Wynette, could have been a lot better with some more rockin' Steppenwolf or psychedelic tunes. Overall the film runs along pretty smoothly until you get about 3/4's of the way through when it gets really bogged down in Angel's relationship with his old lady and heavy drama ensues.

GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE (1972)

 The main vampire in this, in addition to killing people and drinking their blood is also a rapist. This leads to the birth of a half-vampire son played by one of my favorite actors, Mr. William Smith. Smith is not too happy about his lineage and goes looking to destroy his vampire dad. Unfortunately for most of the film it's pretty slow-moving. You do get a classic William Smith brawl to end things and I couldn't help but wonder if the creators of the comic-book character Blade, who debuted the next year, got the idea of a halfbreed vampire hero from this film. Also there's a scene of baby Smith feeding on his mum's blood which they used in some newer baby vampire movies that I vaguely remember since they probably came out in the 2000's which are, so far, a totally forgettable century.




Zombies and vampires! A good combo!:

INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS (1973)

"Me, for one, ain't gonna give up what little pleasure I get from screwin' my old lady, or anybody else for that matter!"

 I think my favorite thing about this movie is that it stars William Smith as the good guy. That's a pretty rare thing since he always plays the opposite role in everything from BLACK SAMSON to ANY WHICH WAY YOU CAN to every TV show from the 70's and 80's. It makes me think that he coulda been an equally awesome action hero as much as the villain-role he was typecast into.
The plot here is also pretty wacky involving women being mutated into "bee girls" and screwing guys to death. You get some high-quality naked boobs and wonky science. Unfortunately there are some really slow bits, in between the sexy stuff and action sequences, involving the investigations of the murders(blah,blah,blah) that drags this movie down a bit. Still worth a watch for some 70's horror groovieness. AKA GRAVEYARD TRAMPS

HAMMER (1972)

 Fred "The Hammer" Williamson took his nickname from this tale of a tough dock-worker who gets mixed-up in the boxing game and the mafia. That seems a little strange to me since Williamson would go on to do better, more memorable and more successful stuff(BLACK CAESAR) but I guess this is where his standard bad mother-fucker/lovable nice-guy character got started.  It has all the stuff you expect from a 70's blaxploitation flick including pimps, evil honkies, outrageous clothing, drugs and violence.  The strangest bit is probably a scene in a nightclub where a whip-weilding dominatrix-stripper does her thing.  A great supporting cast including the great William Smith as his typical monsterous musclehead character, that bad D'Urville Martin, that guy who played Goeorge Jefferson's brother on ALL IN THE FAMILY(Bernie Hamilton), Leon Isaac from PENITENTIARY(who is super young and looks like a little kid here) all do a good job.  The only downside to this is that it doesn't really ever go over the top in the action sense like some of the later black-action films and sticks to a basic boxing scam/mob plot but it's still a good watch even if just for historical reasons.