| Black Caesar Directed by Larry Cohen ( U.S.A –1973) Larry Cohen’s treatment for Black Caesar was originally intended as a drama vehicle for Sammy Davis jr. until A.I.P bought the rights in order to capitalize on the blaxploitation boom of the early to mid-seventies. In what is probably best described as a black action precursor to Martin Scorsese’s Goodfella’s, Black Caesar chronicles the rise and fall of Harlem gangster Tommy Gibbs. Unlike most alleged gangsters who wear copious gold chains and rap about a life of petty juvenile crime, Gibbs is the real deal. He’s a black Capone with the demeanor of a slightly irritable Chopper Read. This epic New York story begins in 1953. Tommy is a wiry teenager struggling to make ends meet through shoe shining, and the odd contract crime. As a high profile mobster passes by, young Tommy Gibbs offers to shine his shoes. “Make it quick” the mobster grumbles as he raises his foot upon Gibbs’ shine box. As Tommy polishes away, another gangster rounds the corner. The enterprising teen clutches his client around the leg, refusing to let him go. The mobster is a sitting duck as his approaching adversary reaches behind his lapel, and draws a pistol. He’s gunned down in broad daylight. A dead man with shiny shoes. The gunman casually leaves the scene. Tommy snatches up his shine box, and flees in the opposite direction. He’s just taken part in his first paid hit. Tommy meets the gunman in a distant alley later in the day to collect his money. He takes time to admire the executioner’s automatic weapon, then has to deliver some protection money to a local police officer. McKinney isn’t exactly one of New York’s finest. He’s been on the take for years, and unfortunately someone forgot to warn young Tommy that the ‘Mick’ hates blacks. He counts his take, then accuses Tommy of stealing fifty dollars from the envelope. “They wouldn’t dare shortchange me” he growls at the nervous teenage courier. He removes his police truncheon from his belt, then proceeds to give Tommy a beating of Rodney King proportions. As he recovers in hospital from his many injuries (including a broken leg that will cause him to limp for the rest of his days), Gibbs is visited by his young friend Joe. Throughout the film, Joe looks like Malcolm X, and acts like Martin Luther King. Unlike Tommy, Joe has chosen a life of education rather than a life of violent crime. But despite his academic nature, he realises that even an educated man has to bend the rules of society to get ahead. The bedridden Gibbs urges him to stay in school. “I want you to learn how to use money” he tells him solemnly. “Where to put it so you end up with more than you started with”. Flash forward to 1965. After years in and out of incarceration, an ambitious Tommy Gibbs is back on the streets. A big talking Las Vegas businessman by the name of Grossfield is having a shave in a black barbershop. “Make it snappy Sam” he tells his African American barber. “I gotta catch a four o’clock flight to Vegas”. “Yes sir” Sam mumbles. “Ever been to Vegas?” Grossfield asks. Sam admits that he hasn’t. “Figures” the businessman replies with just a hint of contempt. “I never seen any coloured folks around the tables at Vegas”. “You know; I oughta tell the boys to let ‘em in” Grossfield continues. For just a moment it seems that the whiny businessman may be a born again liberal, but Grossfield soon dispels any doubts about where his thoughts on race relations lie. “Fer Chrissakes, nobody likes to lose like the negro” he informs Sam, and the rest of the predominately black clientele of the barber shop. “They’re born losers. I should build a casino right out in the desert just for blacks. They’d hitchhike, they’d ride the rails, they’d even steal cars to get there” Grossfield chuckles to himself as a well dressed Tommy Gibbs casually wanders in. The atmosphere of the establishment turns icy cold. Gibbs is well known in the neighbourhood as an organised criminal. The nervous barber tells Tommy he’ll be right with him as his shaky hand scrapes the foam and whiskers from the cheek of Grossfield with a straight razor. He takes a seat, and removes his hat. “That’s okay” Gibbs cheerfully tells Sam. “Take your time… I want Mr. Grossfield to look his best for his friends and relatives”. Grossfield turns to the stranger at the mention of his name. “Who the hell are you?” he angrily asks Tommy Gibbs. The would be assassin doesn’t give his quarry an answer… just a chilling useless factoid. “Do you know a man’s beard keeps right on growing after he’s dead? Now you get it real close Sammy… we want it to last Mr. Grossfield” he tells the barber coldly. “You’re full of shit. You ain’t even got no gun” the businessman tells Gibbs mockingly as he calls his bluff. Tommy casually produces a Mauser automatic pistol. The sight of the large pistol changes the tune of the usually iron-fisted Grossfield. He tells Tommy that whoever sent him, something can be arranged. “Nobody sent me… I thought it all up myself” the gun toting Gibbs informs him. Firearms make Sammy nervous, and he accidentally slices his client’s cheek with the straight razor. “Sorry sir” he quickly apolagises, despite the fact that a minor nick is the least of Grossfield’s worries. “Sammy… don’t disfigure the man” Tommy chides sarcastically. “I was planning on givin’ it to him where it didn’t show!”. He explains to the businessman that he’s trying to break into the organised crime business at the top. He also tells Grossfield that his trusted associate Cardoza is the man that signed his death warrant. The businessman grabs Sammy’s razor in a heartbeat, and rushes his assassin. Gibbs dispatches him with his Mauser before he’s able to reach striking distance. As he surveys the bloody body of Grossfield and cuts off his ear as a gruesome gift for Cardoza, Tommy Gibbs has some parting words for the shocked barber. “You did a sloppy job Sammy...ain’t gonna let you shave me”. He drops in on Cardoza unannounced as the mob boss is enjoying a plate of spaghetti in a non-descript Italian restaurant. Tommy unwraps a crumpled piece of paper, then dumps Grossfield’s severed ear onto Cardoza’s coils of steaming pasta. “Jesus Christ!” the gluttonous don gasps. “Sauce looked like it needed a little more meat” Tommy shrugs. “What the hell are you doing? Who are you?” Cardoza demands to know. “Just a jig who heard that Grossfield needed killing” Gibbs explains casually. Dropping a piece of a dead man’s body onto a prospective employer’s favorite pasta dish probably isn’t the best way to get off on the right foot. Cardoza tells Tommy that the contract was intended for a professional. Gibbs counters that he spent eight years in some of the finest criminal tertiary institutions in the country. When the mobster berates Gibbs for carrying out a hit in broad daylight in a crowded barbershop, he calmly explains that there is a method to his madness. “That’s why I did it” he tells Cardoza. “So everybody could see it. Everybody knows your organization don’t employ no niggers”. The mob boss invites him to sit down, and despite the ear on the table it seems that his appetite is still unabated. Cardoza tells Gibbs to order something, and surprisingly he does so in Italian. Apparently he learned the language from a Sicillian cellmate in prison. Despite his admiration for Tommy’s linguistic abilities, Cardoza offers him a paltry $200 for the hit. “Since when did the price go down?” Gibbs asks accusingly. “Since when did spades make as much as whites?” Cardoza retorts. “Listen shadow… you’re lucky I’m even talking’ to you”. He explains to Gibbs that he won’t use the same man in the same city twice to make a hit. Tommy points out that he has a built in disguise. When witnesses see him, they don’t notice his face, or even his limp. All they see is a black man. A theory that has some merit perhaps… unless the witnesses are also black. But Tommy wants to be more than just an average ‘live fast, die young’ gun for hire. He wants to control a square block of turf in Harlem. He reasons that the Italian mobsters aren’t savvy enough to deal with Negroes and Peurto Ricans. “It’s a jungle… it takes a jungle bunny to run it” he tells his Italian partners in crime later in the film. The remainder of Black Caesar sees Tommy Gibbs reach the dizzying heights of a mob kingpin, and also depicts his self destructive fall from the top. Fred Williamson is the Rodney Dangerfield of blaxploitation, and indeed of independent cinema. Despite being possibly the most prolific actor/producer/director of all time. the man gets no respect. Even from usually supportive exploitation fans. His role as Tommy Gibbs is probably Fred’s finest hour, and he clearly learned a lot from Larry Cohen’s maverick style of filmmaking. The influence is evident in many of Fred’s shot from the hip independently produced films. Although Black Caesar has the feel of an epic gangster movie, it’s also a textbook example of guerilla filmmaking. Many scenes appear to be shot on the run, and confused onlookers give these scenes a gritty aesthetic that could never be accomplished with paid extras. Nowhere is this more evident than in the climactic shooting and subsequent chase that occurs outside the famed Tiffany’s jewelry store in bustling Manhattan. Passers by seem to think that the staggering Fred Williamson has really been shot, due to the fact that the majority of the scene is filmed using a handheld camera, and a lot of long shots. Some of the concerned pedestrians seem to be on the verge of offering assistance. Filming such improvised action sequences on crowded city streets would undoubtedly be a taboo in today’s litigious society. When people think of quintessential New York filmmakers, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, or Spike Lee are the ones that usually spring to mind. It can be argued that Larry Cohen deserves an honourary place among these directors. Both Black Caesar, and Q– The Winged Serpent are New York movies through and through. The city almost shares top billing with the human stars of these films that capture a more jungle-like Manhattan real or imagined of times gone by. ENTERTAINMENT : 3 out of 4 WATCHABILITY : 2 out of 4 OVERALL : 2.5 out of 4 Reviewed by Blake |