Black Caesar (film)
Encyclopedia
Black Caesar is a 1973 American blaxploitation
film, starring Fred Williamson
and Gloria Hendry
. The film was written
and directed
by Larry Cohen
. It is a remake
of the 1931 film Little Caesar
. It features a notable musical score
(Black Caesar
) by James Brown
(with heavy input from his bandleader
Fred Wesley
), his first experience with writing music for film. A sequel titled, Hell Up in Harlem
was released in late 1973.
) is an African-American who grew up in Harlem
, New York City
. As a kid, he was brutally assualted by a racist white cop. The incident led him to a life of crime. As an adult, he joins New York mafia
and becomes the head of a black crime syndicate in Harlem. He wages a gang war with the Italian
mobsters of New York City and begins to establish a criminal empire. Later on, he meets and falls in love with a beautiful black woman named Helen(Gloria Hendry
) and marries her.
Some of James Brown
's songs used in the film were sampled by prominent rap
musicians - Das EFX
and Ice-T
("The Boss" which is the background music where Tommy Gibbs is shot while crossing a street corner was sampled for Ice-T's "You Played Yourself", and also for Trick Daddy
's "Take It To Da House"). More recently, by The Alchemist
for Prodigy
's album Return of the Mac
. The song is also sampled on Nas' album God's Son on "Get Down".
The film is name-checked in Public Enemy's song "Burn Hollywood Burn
", when guest rapper Big Daddy Kane
reacts to the abandonment of black culture by Hollywood filmmakers by saying "I got Black Caesar back at the crib." Kane makes another reference to the movie in his song "How U Get A Record Deal".
According to the DVD commentary, Larry Cohen originally wrote this film with Sammy Davis Jr. in mind for the title role, but after the success of Shaft
, the film was retooled for Fred Williamson.
In 2009 Empire
named it eighteenth in a poll of the "20 Greatest Gangster Movies You've Never Seen* (*Probably)".
Blaxploitation
Blaxploitation or blacksploitation is a film genre which emerged in the United States circa 1970. It is considered an ethnic sub-genre of the general category of exploitation films. Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, although the genre's audience...
film, starring Fred Williamson
Fred Williamson
Fred "The Hammer" Williamson is an American actor, architect, and former professional American football defensive back who played mainly in the American Football League during the 1960s.-Football career:...
and Gloria Hendry
Gloria Hendry
Gloria Hendry is an American actress. She is sometimes credited as "Gloria Henry."-Career:Hendry began her acting career in the 1968 Sidney Poitier film For Love of Ivy....
. The film was written
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by Larry Cohen
Larry Cohen
Lawrence G. "Larry" Cohen is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter. He is best known as a B-Movie auteur of horror and science fiction films - often containing a police procedural element - during 1970s and 1980s...
. It is a remake
Remake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
of the 1931 film Little Caesar
Little Caesar (film)
Little Caesar is a 1931 Warner Bros. Pre-Code crime film. It tells the story of a hoodlum who ascends the ranks of organized crime until he reaches its upper echelons. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, the film stars Edward G. Robinson and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.. The story was adapted by Francis Edward...
. It features a notable musical score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
(Black Caesar
Black Caesar (album)
Black Caesar is a soundtrack album recorded by James Brown for the film of the same name and released in 1973. The album also features The J.B.'s and Lyn Collins.-Track listing:-References:...
) by James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
(with heavy input from his bandleader
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
Fred Wesley
Fred Wesley
Fred Wesley is an American jazz and funk trombonist, best known for his work with James Brown in the 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:...
), his first experience with writing music for film. A sequel titled, Hell Up in Harlem
Hell Up in Harlem
Hell Up in Harlem is a 1973 blaxploitation film, starring Fred Williamson and Gloria Hendry. The film was written and directed by Larry Cohen...
was released in late 1973.
Plot
Tommy Gibbs(Fred WilliamsonFred Williamson
Fred "The Hammer" Williamson is an American actor, architect, and former professional American football defensive back who played mainly in the American Football League during the 1960s.-Football career:...
) is an African-American who grew up in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. As a kid, he was brutally assualted by a racist white cop. The incident led him to a life of crime. As an adult, he joins New York mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
and becomes the head of a black crime syndicate in Harlem. He wages a gang war with the Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
mobsters of New York City and begins to establish a criminal empire. Later on, he meets and falls in love with a beautiful black woman named Helen(Gloria Hendry
Gloria Hendry
Gloria Hendry is an American actress. She is sometimes credited as "Gloria Henry."-Career:Hendry began her acting career in the 1968 Sidney Poitier film For Love of Ivy....
) and marries her.
Cast
- Fred WilliamsonFred WilliamsonFred "The Hammer" Williamson is an American actor, architect, and former professional American football defensive back who played mainly in the American Football League during the 1960s.-Football career:...
as Tommy Gibbs - Gloria HendryGloria HendryGloria Hendry is an American actress. She is sometimes credited as "Gloria Henry."-Career:Hendry began her acting career in the 1968 Sidney Poitier film For Love of Ivy....
as Helen - Art Lund as McKinney
- D'Urville MartinD'Urville MartinD'Urville Martin was an American actor and director in both film and television. He appeared with regularity in numerous 1970s movies in the blaxploitation genre of films. He also appeared in the first two pilots of what would become All in the Family as Lionel, the role later played by Mike Evans...
as Reverend Rufus - Julius HarrisJulius HarrisJulius W. Harris was an American actor who appeared in more than 70 movies and numerous television series in a career that spanned four decades.-Early life and career:...
as Mr. Gibbs - Minnie Gentry as Mama Gibbs
- Philip Roye as Joe Washington
- William Wellman Jr. as Alfred Coleman
- James Dixon as Bryant
- Val Avery as Cardoza
- Patrick McAllister as Grossfield
- Don Pedro ColleyDon Pedro ColleyDon Pedro Colley is an American actor.Colley was born in Klamath Falls, Oregon to Muriel and Pete Colley. He attended Klamath Union High School and actively played American football and athletics, which led to an unsuccessful try-out for the 1960 Summer Olympics...
as Crawdaddy - Myrna HansenMyrna Hansen-Education:She graduated from Carl Schurz High School in Chicago, Illinois, in June 1953. Prior to competing in the1953 Miss Universe contest, Hansen planned to study animal husbandryin Colorado...
as Virginia Coleman - Omer Jeffrey as Tommy as a boy
- Mike Anthony Jones as Joe as a boy
Some of James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
's songs used in the film were sampled by prominent rap
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
musicians - Das EFX
Das EFX
Das EFX is an American hip hop duo. It consists of emcees Skoob and Dray...
and Ice-T
ICE-T
* Ice-T, an American rapper and actor* ICE T , a tilting model of the German InterCityExpress series of high-speed trains...
("The Boss" which is the background music where Tommy Gibbs is shot while crossing a street corner was sampled for Ice-T's "You Played Yourself", and also for Trick Daddy
Trick Daddy
Maurice Young , better known by his stage name Trick Daddy, is a certified platinum American rapper and producer from Miami, Florida.-Music career:...
's "Take It To Da House"). More recently, by The Alchemist
The Alchemist (producer)
Alan Daniel Maman , better known as The Alchemist, is an American hip hop producer, DJ and rapper. He hails from Beverly Hills, California...
for Prodigy
Prodigy (rapper)
Lance Albert Johnson Banks, better known as Prodigy, is an American rapper and one half of the hip-hop and rap duo Mobb Deep....
's album Return of the Mac
Return of the Mac
Return of the Mac is the second studio album by rapper Prodigy, released on March 27, 2007 through E1 Music. The album was intended to be a mixtape serving as a prequel to Prodigy's next album, H.N.I.C. Pt. 2, but was released as a traditional album due to the unexpected level of quality of the...
. The song is also sampled on Nas' album God's Son on "Get Down".
The film is name-checked in Public Enemy's song "Burn Hollywood Burn
Fear of a Black Planet
Fear of a Black Planet is the third studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released April 10, 1990, on Def Jam Recordings and Columbia Records. Production for the album was handled by the group's production team The Bomb Squad, who expanded on the dense, sample-layered sound of the...
", when guest rapper Big Daddy Kane
Big Daddy Kane
Antonio Hardy better known by his stage name Big Daddy Kane, is an American rapper who started his career in 1986 as a member of the rap group the Juice Crew. He is widely considered to be one of the most influential and skilled MC's in Hip Hop...
reacts to the abandonment of black culture by Hollywood filmmakers by saying "I got Black Caesar back at the crib." Kane makes another reference to the movie in his song "How U Get A Record Deal".
According to the DVD commentary, Larry Cohen originally wrote this film with Sammy Davis Jr. in mind for the title role, but after the success of Shaft
Shaft
- Long narrow passages :* Elevator shaft* Ventilation shaft, vertical passages used in mines and tunnels to move fresh air underground, and to remove stale air* Shaft , an underground vertical or inclined passageway...
, the film was retooled for Fred Williamson.
In 2009 Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
named it eighteenth in a poll of the "20 Greatest Gangster Movies You've Never Seen* (*Probably)".
Release on DVD & HD
- In 2001 it was released on DVD.
- In 2010 it was digitized in High Definition (1080i) and broadcasted on MGM HDMGM HDMGM HD is an all high-definition television channel. It features commercial-free movies from MGM's library of approximately 1,200 movies mastered in a high-definition-compatible format as well as feature films from their library of 4,100 theatrical titles...
.