Willie Dynamite (1974)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Gilbert Moses

Writers:

Ron Cutler (screenplay)
Ron Cutler (story)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

Ain't no one crosses WILLIE "D"

Plot:

A social worker tries to get a pimp to change his ways. |

Plot Keywords:

Pimp | 1970s | Pimpmobile | Urban Decay | Detective

Cast

Roscoe Orman	...	William Andrew Short aka Willie Dynamite
Diana Sands	...	Cora
Thalmus Rasulala	...	Robert Daniels
Joyce Walker	...	Pashen
Roger Robinson	...	Bell
George Murdock	...	Celli
Albert Hall	...	Pointer
Norma Donaldson	...	Honey
Juanita Brown	...	Sola
Royce Wallace	...	Mrs. Short - Willie's Mother
Judith M. Brown	...	Gorgia
Marilyn Coleman	...	Connie
Mary Charlotte Wilcox	...	Scatback
Marcia McBroom	...	Pearl
Jack Bernardi	...	Willie's Lawyer

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

USA:R

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Goofs:

Continuity: When Willie is talking to Cora at the end of the movie, there is a light scar along his right cheek. As he's leaving her apartment, the scar not only gets noticeably worse, but additional scars also mysteriously appear on his forehead and nose. Yet when Willie comes out of the apartment building to see his car being towed, all of the scars are gone.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "TCM Underground: Willie Dynamite/Sweet Jesus, Preacherman (#1.61)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Willie D.

This Guy Is Having One Bad Week!

In the course of one week, poor Willie the pimp is getting the heat from rival pimps, from the cops (including the wonderful Albert Hall), and from a reformed prostitute who is trying to get Willie's ‘girls' to unionize (`You can call me the Ralph Nadar for prostitutes', she snaps in one of the film's funniest lines). He even gets the IRS on his ass, although that scene isn't terribly realistic since no pimp and/or drug dealer with even half a brain would put his earnings in a bank!. What else? His purple Caddy gets towed about twice a day, his girls get busted (or worse!) and ultimately, his poor mom strokes out. Pimping just doesn't pay! This film isn't like most of the other blaxploitation films. It downplays the guns and drugs angle, and the lead character is not so baaad that he's good – or vice versa. He's a nut, really. You can even see people in the background who were unaware they were in a film, pointing at him and laughing. You can almost feel sorry for him because he's more stupid than evil, and that's where the film wins the viewer over. The film breaks away from formula a number of times, and despite the OUTRAGEOUS costumes and decor (even the telephones are fur-lined!), we care about the people in this film. There are good cops and bad cops, and there is a nice balance of giving us women with brains and brawn, but who are still capable of a pretty nasty catfight when the need arises. Something for everyone! My only beef is that despite a pretty ‘bad' theme song, the score doesn't rock at all. In fact, there are even a number of scenes that are scored with folky harmonica music. How uncool is that? It's also a shame that this film wasn't nominated for Best Costume design, but we all know how unlikely it was that most of the Academy members ever even saw this film. Just isn't fair! Overall, I think this is one of the best films of the blaxploitation genre, and along with `Unholy Rollers' and `Switchblade Sisters', one of the best exploitation films of the seventies.