The Definitive List Of Black Movies From The 40's, 50's, 60's, and 70's
by AfrocentricFilmsCollaborative | created - 31 Jul 2017 | updated - 29 Aug 2018 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Cooley High (1975)
PG | 107 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In 1964 on Chicago's Near-North Side, the lives of four carefree high school seniors and best friends, including an aspiring playwright and an all-city basketball champion, takes a tragic turn.
Director: Michael Schultz | Stars: Glynn Turman, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Garrett Morris, Cynthia Davis
Votes: 5,544
2. Nothing But a Man (1964)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama, Romance
A black man and his school-teacher wife face discriminatory challenges in 1960s America.
Director: Michael Roemer | Stars: Ivan Dixon, Abbey Lincoln, Julius Harris, Gloria Foster
Votes: 1,984 | Gross: $0.02M
3. Porgy and Bess (1959)
Not Rated | 138 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A woman whose past is scorned by nearly everyone around her meets a man who'd love her regardlessly- if only everyone else would allow them to.
Directors: Otto Preminger, Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis Jr., Pearl Bailey
Votes: 1,913
4. A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
Approved | 128 min | Drama
A substantial insurance payment could mean either financial salvation or personal ruin for a poor black family.
Director: Daniel Petrie | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands
Votes: 9,566
5. Uptight (1968)
M | 104 min | Drama, Thriller
In this landmark collaboration between activist and actress Ruby Dee and director Jules Dassin, Black revolutionaries are betrayed by one of their own. Based on the 1935 classic "The Informer."
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Raymond St. Jacques, Ruby Dee, Frank Silvera, Roscoe Lee Browne
Votes: 964
6. Black Orpheus (1959)
PG | 100 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, set during the time of the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro.
Director: Marcel Camus | Stars: Breno Mello, Marpessa Dawn, Lourdes de Oliveira, Léa Garcia
Votes: 12,250
7. Shaft (1971)
R | 100 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A crime lord hires black private eye, John Shaft, to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.
Director: Gordon Parks | Stars: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi, Christopher St. John
Votes: 21,019 | Gross: $16.69M
8. Car Wash (1976)
PG | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A comedic take on the daily life of car-wash employees, chronicling their hopes, fears, joys, dreams, and tribulations, and meeting some eccentric customers along the way.
Director: Michael Schultz | Stars: Richard Pryor, Franklyn Ajaye, Sully Boyar, Richard Brestoff
Votes: 8,194
9. Across 110th Street (1972)
R | 102 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Two New York City cops go after amateur crooks who are trying to rip off the Mafia and start a gang war.
Director: Barry Shear | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Yaphet Kotto, Anthony Franciosa, Frank Adu
Votes: 7,143 | Gross: $3.60M
10. Truck Turner (1974)
R | 91 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
While tracking a strong-armed pimp who has skipped bail, a bounty hunter discovers a contract has been put out on him and must go on the run.
Director: Jonathan Kaplan | Stars: Isaac Hayes, Yaphet Kotto, Alan Weeks, Annazette Chase
Votes: 3,590 | Gross: $0.18M
11. Imitation of Life (1959)
Not Rated | 125 min | Drama
An aspiring white actress takes in an African American widow whose mixed-race daughter is desperate to be seen as white.
Director: Douglas Sirk | Stars: Lana Turner, John Gavin, Sandra Dee, Susan Kohner
Votes: 18,213 | Gross: $13.99M
12. Cabin in the Sky (1943)
Passed | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A compulsive gambler dies during a shooting, but he'll receive a second chance to reform himself and to make up with his worried wife.
Directors: Vincente Minnelli, Busby Berkeley | Stars: Ethel Waters, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong
Votes: 3,412
13. Blacula (1972)
PG | 93 min | Fantasy, Horror, Romance
An 18th-century African prince, turned into a vampire by Dracula, finds himself in modern-day Los Angeles.
Director: William Crain | Stars: William Marshall, Vonetta McGee, Denise Nicholas, Thalmus Rasulala
Votes: 7,862 | Gross: $3.00M
14. Friday Foster (1975)
R | 90 min | Action
At Los Angeles airport, magazine photographer Friday Foster witnesses an assassination attempt against billionaire Blake Tarr and is drawn into a murky political conspiracy.
Director: Arthur Marks | Stars: Pam Grier, Yaphet Kotto, Godfrey Cambridge, Thalmus Rasulala
Votes: 2,548
15. The Cool World (1963)
105 min | Crime, Drama
A look at the horrors of Harlem ghetto slum life filled with drugs, violence, human misery, and a sense of despair due to the racial prejudices of American society.
Director: Shirley Clarke | Stars: Rony Clanton, Carl Lee, Yolanda Rodríguez, Clarence Williams III
Votes: 660
16. Black Caesar (1973)
R | 87 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Raised in Harlem, Tommy Gibbs becomes a successful mob boss but he clashes with the rival Mafia and his old enemy, dirty cop McKinney.
Director: Larry Cohen | Stars: Fred Williamson, Gloria Hendry, Art Lund, D'Urville Martin
Votes: 3,891
17. Carmen Jones (1954)
Approved | 105 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
Contemporary version of the Bizet opera, with new lyrics and an African-American cast.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge, Pearl Bailey, Olga James
Votes: 5,916
18. Black Belt Jones (1974)
R | 85 min | Action
A Mafia buy out of Papa Byrd's karate school downtown ends in his death. Byrd's daughter, Sydney, refuses to sell, and wants revenge. Byrd's students call the Black Belt Jones for help. Jones reluctantly teams with Sydney in many battles.
Director: Robert Clouse | Stars: Jim Kelly, Gloria Hendry, Scatman Crothers, Eric Laneuville
Votes: 2,724 | Gross: $0.73M
19. Bucktown (1975)
R | 94 min | Action, Crime, Drama
After being hassled by The Man in a southern town, a cool operator asks some violent friends for help. After all, if you can't trust another brother, who can you trust?
Director: Arthur Marks | Stars: Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, Thalmus Rasulala, Tony King
Votes: 1,598
20. The Learning Tree (1969)
PG | 107 min | Drama
A bittersweet, idyllic story about a year in the life of 14-year-old Newt Winger, born into a poor Black family in Kansas, who learns about love, fear, racial injustice, and immorality.
Director: Gordon Parks | Stars: Kyle Johnson, Alex Clarke, Estelle Evans, Dana Elcar
Votes: 1,621
21. Willie Dynamite (1974)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama
A social worker tries to get a pimp to change his ways.
Director: Gilbert Moses | Stars: Roscoe Orman, Diana Sands, Thalmus Rasulala, Joyce Walker
Votes: 1,313 | Gross: $0.48M
22. Sugar Hill (1974)
PG | 91 min | Action, Crime, Horror
When her boyfriend is murdered by mobsters, Sugar Hill decides not to get mad, but BAD. She asks the voodoo priestess Mama Maitresse to summon Baron Samedi, the Lord of the Dead, to help ... See full summary »
Director: Paul Maslansky | Stars: Marki Bey, Robert Quarry, Don Pedro Colley, Betty Anne Rees
Votes: 2,302 | Gross: $0.03M
23. Sergeant Rutledge (1960)
Approved | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Western
Respected Black cavalry Sergeant Brax Rutledge stands court-martial for raping and killing a white woman and murdering her father, his superior officer.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Jeffrey Hunter, Woody Strode, Constance Towers, Billie Burke
Votes: 5,364
24. The Beast Must Die (1974)
PG | 93 min | Horror, Mystery
Eight people are invited to an island estate for the weekend. One of them is a werewolf. Can you guess which one?
Director: Paul Annett | Stars: Calvin Lockhart, Peter Cushing, Marlene Clark, Charles Gray
Votes: 4,172
25. Bright Road (1953)
Approved | 68 min | Drama, Music
Based on the story, See How They Run (The Ladies' Home Journal June 51), and subsequently won that year's Christopher award. The story was written by Mary Elizabeth Vroman, a 4th generation... See full summary »
Director: Gerald Mayer | Stars: Dorothy Dandridge, Philip Hepburn, Harry Belafonte, Barbara Randolph
Votes: 809
26. Anna Lucasta (1958)
Passed | 97 min | Drama
A young woman struggling with a sordid past finds that her biggest enemy had larger demons than she did.
Director: Arnold Laven | Stars: Eartha Kitt, Frederick O'Neal, Henry Scott, Rex Ingram
Votes: 720
27. Native Son (1951)
91 min | Drama, Film-Noir
In 1940s Chicago, a young black man takes a job as a chauffeur to a white family, which takes a turn for the worse when he accidentally kills the teenage daughter of the couple and then tries to cover it up.
Director: Pierre Chenal | Stars: Richard Wright, Jean Wallace, Gloria Madison, Nicholas Joy
Votes: 496
28. The Harlem Globetrotters (1951)
Approved | 78 min | Drama, Sport
Abe Saperstein, owner/manager of the world-famous "Harlem Globetrotters", an all-Negro professional basketball team, signs Billy Townsend, an All-American, to play with the "Globetrotters."... See full summary »
Directors: Phil Brown, Will Jason | Stars: Harlem Globetrotters, Thomas Gomez, Dorothy Dandridge, Bill Walker
Votes: 248
29. Dilemma (II) (1962)
89 min | Drama
Around 1960, Englishman Toby Hood comes to Johannesburg to run a publishing company. He is open-minded and befriends people with different social ranks, but the harsh realities of society force him to make a choice about friendships.
Director: Henning Carlsen | Stars: Ivan Jackson, Evelyn Frank, Marijke Mann, Zakes Mokae
Votes: 106
30. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Approved | 110 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A black Philadelphia police detective is mistakenly suspected of a local murder while passing through a racially hostile Mississippi town, and after being cleared is reluctantly asked by the police chief to investigate the case.
Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant
Votes: 83,535 | Gross: $24.38M
31. Cry, the Beloved Country (1951)
103 min | Drama
In the back country of South Africa, black minister Stephen Kumalo (Canada Lee) journeys to the city to search for his missing son, only to find his people living in squalor and his son a ... See full summary »
Director: Zoltan Korda | Stars: Canada Lee, Sidney Poitier, Charles Carson, Joyce Carey
Votes: 994
32. New Faces (1954)
Approved | 99 min | Comedy, Musical
Ronny Graham is in trouble on opening night because a big check is due before the curtain can go up. A wealthy Texan says he will put up the money since his daughter is in the show - but he wants to see the show first.
Directors: Harry Horner, John Beal | Stars: Ronny Graham, Eartha Kitt, Robert Clary, Alice Ghostley
Votes: 193
33. Halls of Anger (1970)
GP | 96 min | Drama
An all-black inner city school has to become an integrated school. Few dozen white kids are transferred there, but the black students are aggressively opposed to this. The school then approaches a tough black teacher for help.
Director: Paul Bogart | Stars: Calvin Lockhart, Janet MacLachlan, Jeff Bridges, James A. Watson Jr.
Votes: 436
34. Rio, 40 Degrees (1955)
100 min | Drama
A semi-documentary on the people of Rio de Janeiro. The camera follows boys from a hillside shanty town who sell peanuts at Copacabana, Sugar Loaf Mountain, and a soccer game. Various ... See full summary »
Director: Nelson Pereira dos Santos | Stars: Modesto De Souza, Roberto Bataglin, Jece Valadão, Ana Beatriz
Votes: 860
35. The Mark of the Hawk (1957)
Approved | 83 min | Drama
Obam finds himself caught in the middle of hostility between British colonists and African villagers who want to reclaim their land. He sets out to save his country before tensions get out of control.
Director: Michael Audley | Stars: Eartha Kitt, Sidney Poitier, Juano Hernandez, John McIntire
Votes: 303
36. St. Louis Blues (1958)
Not Rated | 105 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The story of W. C. Handy, the undisputed father of the blues.
Director: Allen Reisner | Stars: Nat 'King' Cole, Eartha Kitt, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald
Votes: 725
37. Take a Giant Step (1959)
Approved | 100 min | Drama
A black high school senior struggles with becoming a man, and living in a middle class white neighborhood in the late 1950s U.S. In protest of the paternalistic views of the Civil War ... See full summary »
Director: Philip Leacock | Stars: Johnny Nash, Estelle Hemsley, Ruby Dee, Frederick O'Neal
Votes: 489
38. I Passed for White (1960)
Not Rated | 93 min | Drama
A young girl meets and marries the man of her dreams--only she hasn't told him that she is half-black, and he and his rich family and friends are white.
Director: Fred M. Wilcox | Stars: Sonya Wilde, James Franciscus, Patricia Michon, Elizabeth Council
Votes: 320
39. This Rebel Breed (1960)
90 min | Drama
Damon's in black-face as blacks take on whites who take on Hispanics in this very entertaining teenage gang war extravaganza. Teenage punks slice and dice each other, turn innocent young ... See full summary »
Directors: Richard L. Bare, William Rowland | Stars: Rita Moreno, Mark Damon, Gerald Mohr, Jay Novello
Votes: 196
40. The Connection (1961)
Not Rated | 110 min | Drama
A director tries to film a group of junkies in Leach's room while they are waiting for Cowboy to bring their heroin connection.
Director: Shirley Clarke | Stars: William Redfield, Warren Finnerty, Garry Goodrow, Jerome Raphael
Votes: 1,008
41. Buck and the Preacher (1972)
GP | 102 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
A wagon master and a con-man preacher help freed slaves dogged by cheap-labor agents out West.
Directors: Sidney Poitier, Joseph Sargent | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, Cameron Mitchell
Votes: 2,685 | Gross: $3.03M
42. Pressure Point (1962)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama
A black prison psychiatrist is assigned the distasteful task of helping a paranoid American Nazi charged with sedition.
Directors: Hubert Cornfield, Stanley Kramer | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Bobby Darin, Peter Falk, Carl Benton Reid
Votes: 2,025
43. All Night Long (1962)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, Music
This movie, based on William Shakespeare's Othello, is neatly positioned as a vehicle to showcase some of the best jazz musicians of the period, including Dave Brubeck and Charles Mingus.
Director: Basil Dearden | Stars: Patrick McGoohan, Keith Michell, Betsy Blair, Paul Harris
Votes: 1,526
44. Black Like Me (1964)
Approved | 105 min | Drama
Based on the true story of a white reporter who, at the height of the civil-rights movement, temporarily darkened his skin to experience the realities of a black man's life in the segregated South.
Director: Carl Lerner | Stars: James Whitmore, Sorrell Booke, Roscoe Lee Browne, Al Freeman Jr.
Votes: 764
45. One Potato, Two Potato (1964)
92 min | Drama
In his wanderlust, Joe Cullen moves from the US to South America to work in a mining camp, he leaving behind his wife Julie and their infant daughter, Ellen Mary. After Joe stops writing ... See full summary »
Director: Larry Peerce | Stars: Barbara Barrie, Bernie Hamilton, Richard Mulligan, Harry Bellaver
Votes: 940
46. A Patch of Blue (1965)
Unrated | 105 min | Drama, Romance
A blind, uneducated white girl is befriended by a black man who becomes determined to help her escape her impoverished and abusive home life by introducing her to the outside world.
Director: Guy Green | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters, Elizabeth Hartman, Wallace Ford
Votes: 9,534
47. A Man Called Adam (1966)
Not Rated | 104 min | Drama, Music
A famous jazz trumpeter finds himself unable to cope with the problems of everyday life.
Director: Leo Penn | Stars: Sammy Davis Jr., Louis Armstrong, Ossie Davis, Cicely Tyson
Votes: 686
48. Ballad in Blue (1965)
Not Rated | 89 min | Drama, Music
Ray Charles attempts to help a down-on-their-luck boozing family whose son is blind. He wants to finance the recovery of his eyesight, but the family is afraid of what might happen if something goes wrong.
Director: Paul Henreid | Stars: Ray Charles, Tom Bell, Mary Peach, Dawn Addams
Votes: 166
49. Sweet Love, Bitter (1967)
M/PG | 92 min | Drama, Music
A loose fictitious of Charlie Parker's last years and a portrait of the jazz scene in 1960's New York.
Director: Herbert Danska | Stars: Don Murray, Dick Gregory, Diane Varsi, Robert Hooks
Votes: 134
50. The Story of a Three Day Pass (1967)
Not Rated | 87 min | Drama, Romance
A black American soldier is demoted for fraternizing with a white girl in France.
Director: Melvin Van Peebles | Stars: Harry Baird, Pierre Doris, Christian Marin, Nicole Berger
Votes: 617
51. For Love of Ivy (1968)
G | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Upon learning their maid will be leaving to earn an education, the son of the family decides to set her up with a man.
Director: Daniel Mann | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Abbey Lincoln, Beau Bridges, Nan Martin
Votes: 897
52. A Piece of the Action (1977)
PG | 135 min | Crime, Comedy
A retired Chicago cop blackmails two rich thieves into "volunteering" to help juvenile delinquents change paths.
Director: Sidney Poitier | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, James Earl Jones, Denise Nicholas
Votes: 1,459
53. Uptown Saturday Night (1974)
PG | 104 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
At Madame Zenobia's illegal nightclub, when Steve Jackson and Wardell Franklin get robbed of their wallets containing a winning lottery ticket, they set out to recover it.
Director: Sidney Poitier | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Harry Belafonte, Flip Wilson
Votes: 2,809 | Gross: $4.57M
54. Let's Do It Again (1975)
PG | 110 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Two Atlanta men raise funds for their charity by rigging boxing matches in New Orleans, but their tricks attract the mob's attention.
Director: Sidney Poitier | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Calvin Lockhart, John Amos
Votes: 3,300
55. Black Girl (1966)
Not Rated | 65 min | Drama
A black girl from Senegal becomes a servant in France.
Director: Ousmane Sembene | Stars: Mbissine Thérèse Diop, Anne-Marie Jelinek, Robert Fontaine, Momar Nar Sene
Votes: 6,010
56. Borom sarret (1963)
20 min | Short, Drama
Boron Sarret is arguably the first film made by a black African. It illustrates poverty in Senegal, particularly for the working man.
Director: Ousmane Sembene | Stars: Ly Abdoulay, Albourah
Votes: 1,521
57. The Lost Man (1969)
M | 122 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A gang of black militants plots to rob a factory to finance their "revolutionary struggle".
Director: Robert Alan Aurthur | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Joanna Shimkus, Al Freeman Jr., Michael Tolan
Votes: 221
58. Putney Swope (1969)
R | 84 min | Comedy
The board of directors at a Madison Avenue ad agency must elect a new chairman. In the maneuvering to make sure that enemies don't get votes, all the members accidentally cast their ballot for the board's token black man, Putney Swope.
Director: Robert Downey Sr. | Stars: Arnold Johnson, Stan Gottlieb, Allen Garfield, Archie Russell
Votes: 4,356 | Gross: $2.73M
59. Mandabi (1968)
Not Rated | 92 min | Comedy, Drama
A money order from a relative in Paris throws the life of a Senegalese family man out of order. He deals with corruption, greed, problematic family members, the locals and the changing from... See full summary »
Director: Ousmane Sembene | Stars: Makhouredia Gueye, Ynousse N'Diaye, Isseu Niang, Mustapha Ture
Votes: 1,461
60. Change of Mind (1969)
R | 98 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
A white man's brain is transplanted into a black man's skull.
Director: Robert Stevens | Stars: Raymond St. Jacques, Susan Oliver, Janet MacLachlan, Leslie Nielsen
Votes: 115
61. Moi, un noir (1958)
Not Rated | 70 min | Drama
"I, a Negro" depicts young Nigerien immigrants who left their country to find work in the Ivory Coast, in the Treichville quarter of Abidjan, the capital. These immigrants live in squalor ... See full summary »
Director: Jean Rouch | Stars: Oumarou Ganda, Gambi, Petit Touré, Alassane Maiga
Votes: 1,098
62. Tick, Tick, Tick (1970)
G | 100 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Racial tensions threaten to explode when a black man is elected Sheriff of a small, racially divided town in the deep south.
Director: Ralph Nelson | Stars: Jim Brown, George Kennedy, Fredric March, Lynn Carlin
Votes: 1,361 | Gross: $1.24M
63. Watermelon Man (1970)
R | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Jeff Gerber, a racist white man, wakes up one morning to discover that he has become black.
Director: Melvin Van Peebles | Stars: Godfrey Cambridge, Estelle Parsons, Howard Caine, D'Urville Martin
Votes: 2,867 | Gross: $1.50M
64. The McMasters (1970)
GP | 90 min | Action, Drama, Western
When a black Civil War veteran becomes co-owner of the southern McMasters ranch, the incensed local Confederate veterans come gunning for him and his Indian wife.
Director: Alf Kjellin | Stars: Burl Ives, Brock Peters, David Carradine, Nancy Kwan
Votes: 366
65. The Great White Hope (1970)
PG-13 | 103 min | Drama, Romance, Sport
A Black champion boxer and his white female companion struggle to survive while the white boxing establishment looks for ways to knock him down.
Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: James Earl Jones, Jane Alexander, Lou Gilbert, Joel Fluellen
Votes: 2,804 | Gross: $2.70M
66. Black Chariot (1971)
90 min | Drama
Young black man joins a black nationalist group, which is betrayed by a turncoat.
Director: Robert Goodwin | Stars: Bernie Casey, Barbarao, Richard Elkins, Paulene Myers
67. Walkabout (1971)
GP | 100 min | Adventure, Drama
Two city-bred siblings are stranded in the Australian Outback, where they learn to survive with the aid of an Aboriginal boy on his "walkabout": a ritual separation from his tribe.
Director: Nicolas Roeg | Stars: Jenny Agutter, David Gulpilil, Luc Roeg, John Meillon
Votes: 27,341 | Gross: $0.02M
68. The Bus Is Coming (1971)
GP | 109 min | Drama
A young black soldier returns home to Los Angeles from combat in Vietnam to find out that his brother had been killed by a gang of racist cops. Angered, he joins a black nationalist group to take his revenge.
Director: Wendell Franklin | Stars: Mike B. Sims, Lonnie Bradford, Stephanie Faulkner, Burl Bullock
Votes: 82
69. Ganga Zumba (1963)
100 min | Drama, History
The life of a runaway slave who founded the Quilombo dos Palmares, an outlaw community of Brazilian slaves.
Director: Carlos Diegues | Stars: Antonio Pitanga, Léa Garcia, Eliezer Gomes, Luiza Maranhão
Votes: 139
70. To All My Friends on Shore (1972 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 70 min | Drama
An airport redcap works hard to get his family out of the ghetto, only to discover that his son has sickle-cell anemia.
Director: Gilbert Cates | Stars: Bill Cosby, Gloria Foster, Dennis Hines, Bo Enivel
Votes: 183
71. The Final Comedown (1972)
R | 83 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Black revolutionaries take action in the white suburbs.
Director: Oscar Williams | Stars: Billy Dee Williams, D'Urville Martin, Celia Milius, Maidie Norman
Votes: 446 | Gross: $0.16M
72. Top of the Heap (1972)
R | 90 min | Drama
A D.C. black cop is pushed over the edge when he is passed over for a promotion, leading him on a violent personal crusade against criminals punctuated by feverish psychedelic dream visions.
Director: Christopher St. John | Stars: Christopher St. John, Paula Kelly, Florence St. Peter, Leonard Kuras
Votes: 398 | Gross: $0.26M
73. Of Gods and the Undead (1970)
97 min | Drama
In the 1930's, in the South of State of Bahia, Brazil, an adventurer with no name or history, who had already been shot 7 times, gets involved in the battle for land and cacao plantations. ... See full summary »
Director: Ruy Guerra | Stars: Norma Bengell, Othon Bastos, Ítala Nandi, Nelson Xavier
Votes: 150
74. Bone (1972)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Thriller
When a criminal breaks into the Beverly Hills home of a wealthy couple having marital problems, he unwillingly provides the spouses with an unlikely resolution to their conflicts as well as a solution to his own secret problem.
Director: Larry Cohen | Stars: Yaphet Kotto, Andrew Duggan, Joyce Van Patten, Jeannie Berlin
Votes: 1,375
75. The Man (1972)
G | 93 min | Drama
An African-American senator becomes the designated survivor of a tragic accident that kills the President of the United States. Now the first black President, he attempts to end the bigotry and divide standing in his way.
Director: Joseph Sargent | Stars: James Earl Jones, Martin Balsam, Burgess Meredith, Lew Ayres
Votes: 411
76. Super Fly (1972)
R | 91 min | Action, Crime, Drama
The daily routine of cocaine dealer Priest who wants to score one more super deal and retire.
Director: Gordon Parks Jr. | Stars: Ron O'Neal, Carl Lee, Sheila Frazier, Julius Harris
Votes: 8,589
77. Super Fly T.N.T. (1973)
R | 87 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A Harlem drug dealer and his girlfriend retire to Rome, where he joins an African revolution.
Director: Ron O'Neal | Stars: Ron O'Neal, Roscoe Lee Browne, Sheila Frazier, Robert Guillaume
Votes: 409
78. Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
R | 97 min | Action, Crime, Drama
After saving a Black Panther from some racist cops, a black male prostitute goes on the run from "the man" with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels.
Director: Melvin Van Peebles | Stars: Melvin Van Peebles, Hubert Scales, John Dullaghan, Simon Chuckster
Votes: 5,862 | Gross: $15.18M
79. Three the Hard Way (1974)
R | 89 min | Action, Thriller
Blaxploitation film about three martial-arts specialists who prevent white supremacists from tainting the U.S. water supply with a toxin that's only harmful to black people.
Director: Gordon Parks Jr. | Stars: Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, Jim Kelly, Sheila Frazier
Votes: 1,755 | Gross: $1.28M
80. Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)
R | 97 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Two Harlem cops investigate a robbery, believing that a reverend has staged it in order to steal the money he's collected for a local fundraiser.
Director: Ossie Davis | Stars: Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques, Calvin Lockhart, Judy Pace
Votes: 2,685 | Gross: $4.39M
81. Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1972–1985)
TV-Y7 | 30 min | Animation, Comedy, Family
The educational adventures of a group of Afro-American inner city kids.
Stars: Bill Cosby, Gerald Edwards, Lou Scheimer, Erika Scheimer
Votes: 2,618
82. Sounder (1972)
G | 105 min | Drama, Family
The oldest son of a loving and strong family of black sharecroppers comes of age in the Depression-era South after his father is imprisoned for stealing food.
Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks, Carmen Mathews
Votes: 4,826 | Gross: $3.10M
83. Lady Sings the Blues (1972)
R | 144 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The story of the troubled life and career of the legendary Jazz singer, Billie Holiday.
Director: Sidney J. Furie | Stars: Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, James T. Callahan
Votes: 4,843 | Gross: $6.03M
84. Goodbye Uncle Tom (1971)
Unrated | 123 min | Drama
Two documentary filmmakers go back in time to the pre-Civil War American South, to film the slave trade.
Directors: Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi | Stars: Stefano Sibaldi, Susan Hampshire, Dick Gregory, Gualtiero Jacopetti
Votes: 1,750
85. Trouble Man (1972)
R | 99 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A neighborhood "problem solver" is framed for murder by a couple of local crime bosses trying to get him out of the way.
Director: Ivan Dixon | Stars: Robert Hooks, Paul Winfield, Ralph Waite, William Smithers
Votes: 1,605
86. Trick Baby (1972)
R | 93 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Two Phildelphia con men try to evade gangsters they have conned and cops who are trying to put them in jail.
Director: Larry Yust | Stars: Kiel Martin, Mel Stewart, Dallas Edward Hayes, Beverly Ballard
Votes: 651 | Gross: $0.62M
87. The Horse (1973)
Not Rated | 14 min | Short, Drama
A young black boy tends to a horse while four white men wait for the kid's dad to euthanize the horse.
Director: Charles Burnett | Stars: Gordon Houston, Maury Wright, Gary Morrin, Roger Collins
Votes: 421
88. The Harder They Come (1972)
R | 120 min | Crime, Drama, Music
Wishing to become a successful reggae singer, a young Jamaican man finds himself tied to corrupt record producers and drug pushers.
Director: Perry Henzell | Stars: Jimmy Cliff, Janet Bartley, Carl Bradshaw, Ras Daniel Hartman
Votes: 7,031
89. Oh, Sun (1970)
98 min | Drama
A native of Mauritania is delighted when he is chosen to work in Paris. However, he is disappointed when he sees racial inequity as blacks are relegated to manual labor while less skilled whites are given preferential treatment.
Director: Med Hondo | Stars: Robert Liensol, Théo Légitimus, Ambroise M'Bia, Gabriel Glissant
Votes: 834
90. The Mack (1973)
R | 110 min | Crime, Drama
Goldie returns from five years at the state pen and winds up King of the pimping game. Trouble comes in the form of two corrupt white cops and a crime lord who wants him to return to the small time.
Director: Michael Campus | Stars: Max Julien, Don Gordon, Richard Pryor, Carol Speed
Votes: 3,300
91. Book of Numbers (1973)
R | 81 min | Crime, Drama
Two waiters in Depression-era Arkansas get involved in the numbers racket.
Director: Raymond St. Jacques | Stars: Raymond St. Jacques, Philip Michael Thomas, Freda Payne, Hope Clarke
Votes: 95
92. Charley-One-Eye (1973)
R | 96 min | Western
A black, Union Army deserter and his crippled American Indian hostage form a strained partnership in the interests of surviving the advancing threats of a racist bounty hunter and neighboring bandits.
Director: Don Chaffey | Stars: Richard Roundtree, Roy Thinnes, Nigel Davenport, Jill Pearson
Votes: 287
93. Coffy (1973)
R | 90 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A sexy Black nurse takes vigilante justice against inner-city drug dealers after her sister becomes their latest victim.
Director: Jack Hill | Stars: Pam Grier, Booker Bradshaw, Robert DoQui, William Elliott
Votes: 12,926
94. Fox Style (1973)
R | 84 min | Drama
A wealthy nightclub owner struggles to reconcile his country upbringing with his city environs.
Director: Clyde Houston | Stars: Chuck Daniel, Juanita Moore, Denise Denise, Richard Lawson
Votes: 87
95. The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973)
PG | 102 min | Action, Drama, Crime
A black man plays 'uncle Tom' in order to gain access to CIA training, then uses that knowledge to plot a new American revolt.
Director: Ivan Dixon | Stars: Lawrence Cook, Janet League, Paula Kelly, J.A. Preston
Votes: 1,565 | Gross: $1.00M
96. Child of Resistance (1973)
36 min | Short, Drama
A woman dressed in a robe, hands bound, is being transported through a barroom into a jail cell, directly outside of which later appears a jury box filled with jurors. Linearity is rejected... See full summary »
Director: Haile Gerima | Star: Barbarao
Votes: 34
97. Five on the Black Hand Side (1973)
PG | 96 min | Comedy
In contrast to most of the violence-laden "blaxploitation" films of the period, this low-budget effort eschews exploitation for humanity and domestic drama. Leonard Jackson plays a barber ... See full summary »
Director: Oscar Williams | Stars: Godfrey Cambridge, Clarice Taylor, Leonard Jackson, Virginia Capers
Votes: 487 | Gross: $1.72M
98. Sambizanga (1972)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama
A man is wrongfully arrested and tortured to death after he is suspected of being part of a revolutionary group.
Director: Sarah Maldoror | Stars: Elisa Andrade, Domingos de Oliveira, Jean M'Vondo, Dino Abelino
Votes: 773
99. A Dream for Christmas (1973 TV Movie)
100 min | Drama
A Southern minister is assigned to a poor church in California where the congregation is drifting away and the church itself is scheduled for demolition.
Director: Ralph Senensky | Stars: Hari Rhodes, Beah Richards, Lynn Hamilton, George Spell
Votes: 115
100. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 110 min | Drama, History
Story of a black woman in the South who was born into slavery in the 1850s and lives to become a part of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
Director: John Korty | Stars: Cicely Tyson, Eric Brown, Richard Dysart, Joel Fluellen
Votes: 2,497
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