BlackSampson

Black Samson (1974)

Samson is a pretty simple man. He has a bar where he serves drinks and hangs out with his lovely girl Leslie (played by friend of the site Carol Speed). All he wants to do is keep his part of the neighborhood nice and smack free. But when the mob tries to move in on him lead by bad boy Johnny Nappa (William Smith) it really hits the fan. Nappa won’t take no for an answer and after Samson refuses their offer to buy him off by hanging a mob lawyer off the roof they start playing for keeps. They blow up the bar, kill Samson’s friend and kidnap his lady. All this does is make Samson mad and making him mad is a very bad idea.

Okay here is the deal. Many of these Blaxsploitation movies follow a familiar formula. You have a hero that is fighting some sort of outside influence to protect his family, community, or property. This time around the lead character is up against the mob to protect his neighborhood from dope pushers. Now this is such a simple story that you would be surprised how many movies can screw it up. But Black Samson does it right. The movie starts off establishing Samson as a bad ass right away when he beats down the mobster who shows up in the bar looking to pick a fight. From there on it hits every note right on key and gives the fans (count me in) of these movies exactly what we expect. This is a perfect example of a movie that knows what the audience wants and doesn’t mess around while serving it up.

You have a great heroic character in Samson, which is played with the right amount of stoic tough guy appeal by Rockne Tarkington. He owns every scene that he is in, both physically because of his large stature as well as his presences as an actor. We need a lovely leading lady and for my money it doesn’t get any better then Carol Speed, who might not be as well known as some of the other more common names, but was a really good actress. Finally the filmmakers made a great choice and went with one of the “go to” bad guys of 70s drive-in and exploitation cinema, William Smith. This is especially important because they needed someone that could hold his own in scenes with Tarkington and Smith fits that bill perfectly. But it isn’t just the cast that is solid. The movie gives us some great music, a fun car chase, several well-executed fight sequences, and an ending that is very memorable and fun.

Now to be fair everything isn’t perfect. There are a few actors in the movie that are a bit rough. And I’ll be honest there were a few slow spots as well. So this isn’t a perfect flick. But again it gets the job done and I had fun with it. To me if you make a movie that is entertaining then that is all I can ask. Black Samson is entertaining and worth checking out. If that isn’t enough to recommend it to you guys you can currently pick it up on a 4 pack with Black Belt Jones, Hot Potato, and 3 the Hard Way. All this for less then 8 bucks means you need to go get it now!

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer