When some small-time Harlem crooks go up against the Mafia, racist slurs are shot out in addition to the excessive gunfire. The cops get involved, lots of people are killed, and nothing is resolved.
This could actually be considered a "Northern" version of "In the Heat of the Night" where an Italian cop (Anthony Quinn) is paired with a black one (Yaphet Kotto) to solve this case where the mafia got an execution style assassination where $300,000 is stolen. The streets of Harlem are not going to be safe for anybody, and there seems to be more people involved in this heist than the ones first shown committing the caper on-screen.
While there is some excellent location footage used for some fast-moving chase and fight sequences, the film is badly photographed so a lot of it appears either blurry or dark. A sequence at a club that appears to be involved in a full-on orgy is interrupted by the mobsters where none of the black people standing in the background do anything to keep Antonio Fargas from getting smashed to bits. It isn't the violence or even excessive foul language which makes this a mediocre blaxploitation film; It is the convoluted editing and transition between different characters either on the side of the law or the mafia, with some of the characters (particularly Quinn's) being rather undefined. Quinn's character goes through moments where he seems sympathetic to certain blacks, yet all of a sudden is violently racist. Kotto is definitely playing a character modeled after Sidney Poitier's Mr. Tibbs which makes him likable yet un-original.
The scene where Fargas's wife is told of his death is probably one of the few excellent dramatic movies in the film. I give this an extra star above bomb because as a Harlem resident, I can see some areas of reality. Had this had a more personal story and less gruesome gratuitous violence, it would have been alright.
This could actually be considered a "Northern" version of "In the Heat of the Night" where an Italian cop (Anthony Quinn) is paired with a black one (Yaphet Kotto) to solve this case where the mafia got an execution style assassination where $300,000 is stolen. The streets of Harlem are not going to be safe for anybody, and there seems to be more people involved in this heist than the ones first shown committing the caper on-screen.
While there is some excellent location footage used for some fast-moving chase and fight sequences, the film is badly photographed so a lot of it appears either blurry or dark. A sequence at a club that appears to be involved in a full-on orgy is interrupted by the mobsters where none of the black people standing in the background do anything to keep Antonio Fargas from getting smashed to bits. It isn't the violence or even excessive foul language which makes this a mediocre blaxploitation film; It is the convoluted editing and transition between different characters either on the side of the law or the mafia, with some of the characters (particularly Quinn's) being rather undefined. Quinn's character goes through moments where he seems sympathetic to certain blacks, yet all of a sudden is violently racist. Kotto is definitely playing a character modeled after Sidney Poitier's Mr. Tibbs which makes him likable yet un-original.
The scene where Fargas's wife is told of his death is probably one of the few excellent dramatic movies in the film. I give this an extra star above bomb because as a Harlem resident, I can see some areas of reality. Had this had a more personal story and less gruesome gratuitous violence, it would have been alright.