The Black Gestapo
The Black Gestapo (also released as Ghetto Warriors) is a 1975 American crime film about a vigilante named General Ahmed, who starts an inner-city "People's Army" to protect the black citizens of Watts.[2][3][4] However, when the Army succeeds in chasing the mob out of town, Ahmed is replaced by his colleague Colonel Kojah, who reforms the movement into a National Socialist criminal organization in order to have complete control over the town.[5]
| The Black Gestapo | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Lee Frost |
| Screenplay by | Lee Frost Wes Bishop |
| Story by | Ronald K. Goldman Lee Frost Wes Bishop |
| Produced by | Wes Bishop |
| Starring | Rod Perry Charles P. Robinson |
| Cinematography | Derek Scott |
| Edited by | Joanna Terbush |
| Music by | Allan Alper[1] |
Production company | Saber Productions |
| Distributed by | Bryanston Distributors |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
It was written and directed by Lee Frost, and stars Rod Perry, Charles P. Robinson, Phil Hoover, Ed Cross and features a cameo from Russ Meyer regular Uschi Digard. It depicts African-American men dressed as Nazis and contains many scenes of violence (including a castration scene) and soft-core nudity.[6]
Cast
- Rod Perry as General Ahmed
- Charles P. Robinson as Colonel Kojah
- Phil Hoover as Vito
- Ed Cross as Delmay
- Angela Brent as Marsha
- Wes Bishop as Ernest
- Lee Frost as Vincent
- Dona Desmond as White whore
- Charles Howerton as Joe
- Rai Tasco as Dr. Lisk
- David Bryant as Dope Pusher
- J. Christopher Sullivan as T. V. Owner
- Susan Randolph as Vincent's Girl
- Colin Male as Newscaster
- Gene Russell as Gambler
- Uschi Digard as Kojah's Girl
- Chuck Wells as Trooper
- Bill Quinn as The Accountant
- Tim Wade as Hood
- Roger Gentry as Hood
Critical responses
Writing in Allmovie, critic Donald Guarisco wrote that the film "lives up [to] the offensive potential of its title by cramming every bit of nastiness it can muster into its short running time," and that although it "is socially irresponsible [...] At its best, it's even inspired in a very twisted sort of way."[7] Critic Matthew Roe wrote in Under the Radar magazine that the "nazi iconography in this film is as subtle as the apocolypse," that "everything about this film screams 70s action schlock," and although "there are scattershot moments of interesting introspection, the movie keeps the dial cranked up and keeps cheap thrills coming its entire runtime."[8]
As the Gestapo was the interior secret service of the Third Reich, it appears that the producers of the movie mixed the name up with the paramilitaric SS which was founded as the private army of the Nazi Party and fits much more to the organisation showed in the movie, so the movie's title would have been more accurate as "The Black SS" rather than "The Black Gestapo".
See also
References
- Allan Alper – The Black Gestapo (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) at Discogs
- The Black Gestapo at The Grindhouse Cinema Database
- "The Black Gestapo (1975)" at DAARAC (Department of Afro–American Research and Culture, December 11, 2008)
- Decker, Nathan. "The Black Gestapo (1975)" (Million Monkey Theater B–Movie Reviews, January 2010)
- Walker, David. "blaxploitation archive – THE BLACK GESTAPO" (April 12, 2014)
- Strack, Nathan. "The Black Gestapo (1975)" at Awesome B Movies (June 11, 2015)
- Guarisco, Donald. "The Black Gestapo (1975)". Allmovie. Netaktion LLC. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
- Roe, Matthew. "Soul Team Six". Under the Radar. Under the Radar Magazine. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
External links
- The Black Gestapo at IMDb
- The Black Gestapo at the American Film Institute Catalog
- The Black Gestapo at the TCM Movie Database
- The Black Gestapo at AllMovie
- The Black Gestapo at TV Guide (1987 write-up was originally published in The Motion Picture Guide)
- The Black Gestapo at Trash City