The Film Detective Preps Five New Film Restorations For Delivery To The DVD Marketplace On Aug. 22

The Film Detective has five new film restorations lined up for delivery to the DVD market place on Aug. 22, including two entries from the golden age of Blaxploitation films.

The first of these is director William Witney’s 1975 film release of Darktown Strutters, starring Trina Parks (perhaps best known as “Thumper” in Diamonds are Forever) as Syreena, the leader of all-black, all-female motorcycle gang who hail from the mean streets of Los Angeles.   

When word arrives that her mother, Cinderella (Frances E. Nealy), has gone missing, Syreena embarks on one of the wildest missing person searches in the history of the City of Angels.   She crosses paths with the KKK, a mystery involving the disappearance of prominent members of the black community and a loony tunes by the name of Cross (Norman Bartold), who has developed a cloning machine and has some bizarre plans of its usage!

Make no mistake, Darktown Strutter has a unique niche in the annals of ‘70s’ Blaxploitation films … part action, part satire (heavy on race relations) with a mix of comedy that would certainly have members of today’s “PC” culture squirming in their seats.

Also on Aug. 22 is writer/director Bobby Davis’ ultra-rare Blaxploitation flick, Bad, Black and Beautiful, starring Gwen Barbie (aka: Gwynn Barbee) as Eva Taylor, a bad-ass attorney who takes on the case of a Vietnam vet named Johnny (Terry Starnes) who is accused of murder.

It appears that the film was shot in 1972 and then couldn’t find a distributor so it sat on the self until 1975 when it got limited distribution (perhaps only a few 35mm prints that were “bicycled” from city to city).   

In any case, The Film Detective has come up with a print and fans of the genre can now get their hands on a copy of Bad, Black and Beautiful, which combines Vietnam flashbacks, political corruption, ‘70s style Kung Fu (thank you Enter the Dragon), the mob and murder … and a trial that finds Eve seducing the judge in the courtroom to get her client off.  

Bad, Black and Beautiful is loaded with action, including a climatic shootout that rids the world of the real murderer and a most of the mob … and Eva finds her true love as the credits roll!!!

Rounding out the Aug. 22 film restorations on DVD are Cosmo Jones: The Crime Smasher (1943, directed by James Tinling and starring Frank Graham as Professor Cosmo Jones, who dreams of being a detective), New Mexico (1951, starring Lew Ayres and Marilyn Maxwell, with a pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr, plus Robert Hutton and Andy Divine … direction by Irving Reis) and director Earl Bellamy’s 1974 film adaptation of Honore Morrow’s book “On to Oregon,” which was titled for the screen as Seven Alone.