Black Eye

Summary

“Well there’s no place like home, Lou…. how ‘bout another double.”

I have a hard time staying away from Warner Archive’s releases when they focus their attention on blaxploitation films of the Seventies. Warner has a good track record of these types of releases including three Shaft pictures, Black Belt Jones, Cleopatra Jones, Superfly, and many more (with more to come including Hit Man next month.) I have a fondness for these films because of numerous reasons but a lot of it comes down to a sense of style. The music, cinematography, settings, era, and fashions of those films appeals to me. I was happy to check out Warner Archive’s recent release of Black Eye starring Fred Williamson. This picture was directed by Jack Arnold. Jack Arnold was a seasoned studio veteran of the B-movie genre having made some classic science fiction thrillers from the Fifties such as This Island Earth, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and Tarantula. This pairing of Arnold and Williamson led to two pictures. Black Eye was made one year before they would make the Western Boss Nigger together. I have not seen that picture, but based on my reaction to Black Eye, I would happily check it out if it was given a release. I watched Black Eye the other night, and while I was not totally blown away by the picture, I did find myself happy enough to kill some time with the movie.

In Los Angeles, a silent film actor named Marcus dies. His trademark walking cane is held by his wife at the funeral. She places it atop Marcus’s casket. A prostitute named Vera walks up and grabs the cane after the funeral ends. A blonde man walks to Vera’s apartment. She assumes he is just another John sent from a friend of hers working at a nearby hotel. She assumes incorrectly. The blonde man has a knife she doesn’t see. Vera tells him the price for a quickie. He brandishes the knife and says that she knows what he is there for. Private eye Stone (Fred Williamson) brings flowers to a woman in his apartment complex named Cynthia (Teresa Graves,) but to his dismay, she is seeing another girl, Miss Francis (Rosemary Forsyth.) Stone walks upstairs and tries to check on Vera after seeing the blonde man exit and then walk back into her apartment. A scuffle occurs between Stone and the blonde killer, who also is verbally racist during the fight. While Stone is dazed from a blow, the killer escapes with the cane. Vera’s dead body is inside the apartment. The killer receives a call from his employer. He lays out that he wants a hundred grand for the cane. Stone meets with Lieutenant Bill Bowen (Richard X. Slattery) at the scene of the crime. Stone had been on the force but he resigned after a violent incident. Stone’s sister had died of a drug overdose, and Stone had strangled her drug pusher. Stoneis given $200 from Bowen to chase down some leads in the case and he also gets a permit to attack the case. Stone gets a hot tip on the street that Vera had worked for porn maker Max Majors. He goes to a set where an adult film is being made and locates Max. He inquires about Vera. After the shrug off, Max answers a call. The person on the phone explains that Vera’s apartment was searched but the cane was not recovered. He also explains that Shepard Stone is on their case. At the bar that Stone offices out of, a Mr. Dole (Richard Anderson) introduces himself and offers Stone a job locating his missing daughter Amy. The plot unfolds from there, and the two seemingly unrelated cases are (as you would expect) related.

Black Eye scratched an itch for me. I like these type of pictures and have always enjoyed watching Fred Williamson in any number of B-movies made both in the United States and abroad in Italy. Williamson is both a charming leading man and a formidable physical presence. In terms of casting, the film could not have done better than placing Williams in the lead role. The script of the picture shows a good amount of promise in the first half, reminding me somewhat of the Chevy chase-Goldie Hawn picture Foul Play, but the second half loses a little bit of steam. That said, there is plenty to enjoy about aspects of the writing by Mark Haggard and Jim Martin (based on a novel called Murder on the Wild Side by Jeff Jacks.) The aspect I liked the most was that the character of Stone has some enjoyable idiosyncrasies. For example, he spends money getting his watch back from the pawn shop instead of just spending money on leads. He also gives out a phone number of a local bar as his office number, and he literally works out of the bar. Those types of character building details are not lost on me. I also enjoyed the way that the film played fast and loose with sexuality in the Seventies. The characters are all over the place romantically in this film. As I said before, Black Eye has a lot of promise in its first half, I just thought the second half lacked some of the rhythm of the first. Jack Arnold had years of experience in genre films and he handles the directing duties well. This isn’t Oscar winning stuff, but I liked the way the movie looked pretty well thanks to a steady hand by cinematographer Ralph Woolsey (who had years of experience in television and also served as cinematographer on the excellent The New Centurions.) The movie captures sunny Los Angeles well and fans of Altman’s The Long Goodbye will probably like the tour of Los Angeles given in Black Eye. The score by Mort Garson fits the action onscreen well. Overall – Black Eye won me over as an enjoyable distraction that will probably sink into the back of my mind as soon as I finish writing this review.

Video

Presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio from a new 4K scan from the original camera negatives, Black Eye looks pretty terrific. Grain is well resolved and any softness seems to be a product more of the filmmaking itself than of the transfers. The cinematography by the seasoned Ralph Woolsey does a solid job of presenting sunny Los Angeles. It’s an attractive presentation. Fans will be very pleased.

Audio

Similar to the video treatment, the audio treatment on Black Eye is very solid. Warner have provided a great DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono track. The film has a fun score from Mort Garson which fits the onscreen action well. Dialogue is very clear. I did not detect any noticeable hiss or distortion. The score sounds crisp and clean. This is another solid track from Warner Archive.

Supplements:

• Theatrical Trailer

Overall scores

Video – 4.5/5

Audio – 4.5/5

Supplements – .5/5

Overall – 3.5/5

Black Eye is an enjoyable Blaxploitation private detective film that benefits from a strong lead performance by Fred Williamson and workmanlike direction by Jack Arnold. The picture stumbles slightly in the second half, but the script creates a pretty solid character in Shepard Stone by allowing him to have a number of interesting idiosyncrasies. The picture ends up being somewhat forgettable, but I still had a good time watching it. Fans will definitely want to pick up Warner Archive’s Blu-ray release because the new 4K transfer from the original camera negative is top-notch.

The film can be purchased at www.moviezyng.com.