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Scott Joplin


            Los Angeles, 1968. Jeff Gerber (Godfrey Cambridge) lives in an average suburban neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley with his seemingly liberal housewife Althea (Estelle Parsons), who tolerates her husband's character flaws out of love, and two children, 10-year-old Burton (Scott Garrett) and eight-year-old Janice (Erin Moran). Every morning when Jeff wakes up, he spends some time under a sun lamp, bats around a boxing ball, drinks a health drink, and races the bus to work on foot.Jeff works as an insurance agent in downtown L.A. where he presents himself to his co-workers and other people as happy-go-lucky and quite a joker, but others tend to see him as obnoxious and boorish. Althea, who watches the 1968 race riots every night on TV with great interest, chastises Jeff for not having sympathy for the problems of black Americans.One morning, Jeff wakes up to find that his pigment has inexplicably changed; he is a black person. He tries to fall back asleep, thinking that it is a dream, but to no avail. He tries taking a shower to wash the "black" off him, but finds it doesn't work, when Althea walks into the bathroom, and screams. He explains to her that the "Negro in the bathroom" is him.At first, Jeff believes this to be the result of spending too much time under the sun lamp. He spends almost the entire day at home, afraid to go out of the house, only going out once to venture into the "colored part of town" in order to find a pharmacy to buy "the stuff they use in order to make themselves look white." His attempts to change his skin color fail from using skin creme, to industrialized soap, to even a "milk bath".The next day, he is persuaded to get up and go to work. As he normally does, he races down the street with joy to catch his bus but when he, a "black man", is spotted he is harassed by several racist white people who call the police thinking that Jeff is running because he has just committed a crime. When the police question him all of the white people surround him as the police check his briefcase. When they find a pair of shoes inside they accuse him of stealing them and he tries to explain that they are his work shoes he changes into when he arrives at work. The crowd is now loudly shouting and the police make him try the shoes on.... when they fit they are still unsure until the bus driver, whom is black, comes to his defense explaining that he is a regular passenger who was simply running to catch it. With that, the police leave without arresting Jeff who thanks the bus driver for helping him out of this jam. The bus driver tells Jeff that he never realized that he was black before. Some witty banter ensues as they board the bus.He gets off of the bus near his office building and walks into the diner he stops at every morning for his health drink and he is met with the same shock and confusion by the black man who serves him his drink every day. The server also says he never realized he was black before and more witty banter about his color ensues.Upon arrival at work, his co-workers all react with shock at his new "black" appearance and are at a loss of words to ask Jeff what has happened to him. His boss wants to see him immediately and he walks into his office and sits down in front of him. His boss doesn't seem to "get" that Jeff has turned black but asks him if he is spending too much time under his sun lamp as his tan is very dark. Jeff makes a witty comment back and his boss is so occupied with Jeff's decreased sales that he passes right over the fact that Jeff is now black and continues to question him about how he can bring his sales up and warns him he must. Jeff agrees and walks back into his own office where he sits at his desk and begins to make sales calls.The previous day, Jeff had set up a lunch appointment with a wealthy client at an upscale restaurant. When he arrives at the restaurant he is rudely greeted by the door man who will not let him in due to his race. Jeff explains he has a meeting with his client to no avail. By this time all of the black people witnessing this begin to rally around Jeff and cause a scene. The manager comes outside and again Jeff politely tries to explain he is meeting someone for a business lunch and asks the manager to get the man inside to clear it all up but the manager refuses and the police are called. They bring Jeff back to his office and ask his boss if he is in fact his employee and when his boss confirms that he is, the police leave him there again without making an arrest. His boss is still not fully understanding about Jeff's condition but sees that somehow this can help drum up business.After work, Jeff goes his local physician and makes an appointment who is equally shocked and cannot explain Jeff's "condition" either but agrees to look into it.The next day, Jeff is forced to sit at the bus stop instead of running to catch the bus to avoid any more hassles with white people. Jeff is forced to sit in the back of the bus by the current segregation laws to leave the front seats only for white people. At lunch, Jeff is now forced to go across town to eat at a diner which is a "blacks only" eating place. After a second visit to his doctor for his "skin condition" reveals nothing of the ordinary about his skin, his racist doctor shows his own "true colors" when he suggests that Jeff might be more comfortable with a black doctor and refuses to consul with him anymore.Returning home that afternoon, he finds the front door locked (which it usually isn't) as well as the curtains and shades drawn, and Althea afraid to leave the house, look out the windows, or answer the ringing phone. He doesn't understand why until he receives an anonymous phone call from an unseen man who says: "move out, nigger!" Jeff is forced to take the phone off the hook for the night since it keeps ringing every few minutes with more anonymous phone calls from racist people telling him to move out. Also, unseen people throw eggs and splatter black paint at his front door and windows.At work the next day, a secretary (who had previously ignored him) makes several advances toward him, finding him more attractive as a black man. Jeff's boss suggests that they could drum up extra business with a "Negro" salesman which he persuades Jeff to travel to African-American neighborhoods across the city to pitch more of his sales over the next few days as Jeff becomes more observant to other black people and how they live.After returning home from work one evening, he finds four men in his home who had apparently made the threatening phone calls to his house (despite their unconvincing denials), who offer him $50,000 to move out of the neighborhood despite the fact they have known him for several years. The racist neighbors tell Jeff right to his face that they don't want a "nigger" living on the same street at they do. Jeff manages to raise the price to $100,000 by using some veiled threats about moving "his people" into the neighborhood. After the men leave, Althea, somewhat angered that Jeff used his new race to blackmail his neighbors into bribing him to move out of the neighborhood, sends their two children away to live with a relative. Burton and Janice tell Jeff they they are both awkward and uncomfortable with their father being black. On top of all that, they are now being bullied at their school by their classmates over their father's new racial affiliation.Although she still loves Jeff, Althea's sanity begins to break from the stress of the whole thing of Jeff now being black and of the neighbors continuing to make harassing phone calls and leaving threatening letters. As a result, she leaves him to rejoin her kids and move far away, thus leaving Jeff alone and without a home to live in.Finally accepting the fact that he is black (and always will be for the rest of his life), Jeff goes to work the next day where he tells off his boss by saying that he quits and vows to open his own insurance business. Jeff moves out of the all-white suburban neighborhood and into a small apartment in a black neighborhood in the downtown part of the city. Jeff then starts his own insurance company which soon becomes successful due to his education and expertise. Jeff also starts a tryst with his former secretary whom continues to be turned on by his new negro appearance. However Jeff still manages to communicate with his wife while he embraces his new race by going out evenings to "blacks only" nightclubs, restaurants, bars, and other places.The very last scene shows Jeff practicing martial arts with a group of black menial workers, apparently having become one of the militants he used to put down.
    

Watermelon Man

Cotton Comes to Harlem

Five on the Black Hand Side


            On New Year's Eve 1974 in Los Angeles, California, Monk Riley (Julius Harris), the editor of Glance Magazine, is unable to locate Shawn North, his favorite photographer, so he telephones Shawn's assistant, Friday Foster (Pam Grier), a young African American woman. Monk orders her to the airport to photograph the arrival of Blake Tarr (Thalmus Rasulala), known as "America's wealthiest black millionaire", who has been out of the country for years. Before she can leave her apartment, Friday receives a telephone call from Clorils Boston (Rosalind Miles), her best friend and a famous model, who begs Friday to come to her party. Although Clorils claims it is a matter of life and death, Friday explains she has to work.At the airport, Friday bribes a guard to get access to Tarr's private hangar. As she hides and readies her camera, three assassins, Yarbro (Carl Weathers), Chet Freed (Tony Brubaker), and another man, enter carrying automatic pistols and dressed as security guards. As Tarr and his entourage enter the hangar, the three assailants shoot him in the shoulder and kill most of his bodyguards before the police arrive. As Friday photographs the gun battle, Chet is wounded and escapes by a side door while Yarbro bumps into Friday as he runs away. Yarbro leaps into his car, and a car chase ensues during which a police cruiser crashes into a truck. A bleeding Chet arrives at Clorils's home and drops dead at her feet.Later that night, Riley bawls out Friday for almost getting killed, but changes his tune when Shawn North (Stan Stratton) arrives and they develop the film. One of Friday's photographs shows Chet's face. Friday has seen him before, but cannot remember where.Note: a minor unrelated subplot involves Friday's younger teenage brother Cleve (Tierre Turner) who lives with her and does some black market dealing on the sides with a local pimp named Fancy Dexter (Ted Lange) for some valuable items to earn some extra spending money.The next day, Clorils is backstage at a fashion show talking on the telephone, begging "Charlie" to help her. When Friday arrives, she goes to assist Shawn, but runs into Colt Hawkins (Yaphet Kotto), an old friend and private detective. Their reunion is interrupted when Madame Rena (Eartha Kitt) steps onstage and starts the fashion show. As models parade Rena's wares, Clorils stumbles from behind the curtain with a knife in her back. With her last dying breath, she declares that she wanted to save Chet from "Black Widow." When police lieutenant Jake Wayne (Edmund Cambridge) arrives, Madame Rena tells him she believes that Ford Malotte (Godfrey Cambridge), a rival designer, killed Clorils and reveals that Malotte has been flying Clorils back and forth between Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. for months.Later, Friday is in the shower at her apartment when Yarbro sneaks into her apartment carrying a switchblade knife. The telephone rings, and Friday goes to the living room. She sees Yarbro and runs into the hallway... clad in only a towel. A neighbor appears, and Yarbro flees. After Friday reports the attack to Colt Hawkins and Lt. Wayne, she learns that Chet's body and a cache of narcotics were found in Cloril's house. Friday realizes it was Chet she recognized in her photographs.A few days later, Friday spots Yarbro at Clorils' funeral, but before she can react, Yarbro gets in his car and drives off. Friday leaps into a nearby hearse and chases him to an abandoned warehouse, where Yarbro tries to strangle her. Friday douses him with pepper spray and runs. Two policemen appear and arrest her for trespassing, allowing Yarbro to escape.Later, at the Glance magazine office, Colt Hawkins informs Friday and Riley that Ford Malotte arranged meetings between Clorils and U. S. Senator David Lee Hart (Paul Benjamin) in Washington D.C. Shawn arrives with more photographs of the airport gunfight and Friday recognizes Yarbro as the man who tried to kill her.The next day, Friday and Colt fly to Washington and meet Malotte at a bar catering to a homosexual clientele. Malotte clams up when Friday mentions "Black Widow." Thinking Colt's manly charms might persuade him to talk, Friday steps outside. A red Ford Mustang screeches around the corner and chases her down an alley before crashing into a power line and electrocuting the driver. Later, Malotte telephones Blake to inform him that Friday knows about "Operation Black Widow." As he talks, Yarbro arrives in a truck and smashes into the phone booth, crushing Malotte.Across town, Friday crashes Senator Hart's fund raising party and meets Rev. Noble Franklin (Scatman Crothers), a lecherous old preacher who invites her to his estate, "Jericho," to give her a "private interview." The Senator interrupts them and when Friday tells him she is a friend of Clorils, he suggests they go back to his place. Before they leave, however, the Senator tells his assistant, Charles "Charlie" Foley (Jason Bernard), to handle the party guests.At the senator's home, Hart tells Friday that his people believe Blake Tarr staged his own assassination attempt as part of an operation called "Black Widow." However, they have not been able to discern what "Black Widow" is. After a few drinks, Friday and Hart make love.The next morning, Charlie meets Enos Griffin (Jim Backus), a wheelchair-bound millionaire at his estate somewhere in Virginia who is funding Hart's political career. Charlie tells Enos he believes he can use Friday to flush out Blake Tarr.Back in Los Angeles, Madame Rena orders Friday to meet her at her office. When Friday and Colt arrive, Yarbro appears and shoots Rena. Colt gives chase while the dying Rena gives Friday a telephone number. Colt chases Yarbro down across the streets and rooftops of various buildings where he catches up and kills him in a gunfight. Without informing Colt, Friday telephones the number she was given and explains that Rena and Yarbro are dead. She is advised to come to the City National Bank Building. Once there, she goes to the rooftop and Blake Tarr arrives by helicopter. Tarr explains that "Black Widow" is Senator Hart and that something bad is going to happen on Valentine's Day. Tarr takes Friday to his mansion and they make love.The next day, Friday and Colt arrive back in Washington and discover all the black politicians are missing. They arrive at Senator Hart's office where a secretary claims the politician left after saying "the walls would come crumbling down today". Realizing this is a reference to the biblical story of Joshua at Jericho, Friday remembers it is also the name of Rev. Franklin's estate. When Friday and Colt step out of the Capitol building, they spot two thugs by their car. Colt tells Friday to telephone Tarr while he distracts the men. Unable to reach Tarr, Friday steals an empty milk truck. She drives to Colt, who has beaten up the two men, and tells him to follow her. However, as Friday drives off, Colt's car refuses to start. Tarr arrives, picks up Colt, and drives after Friday.At Rev. Franklin's hunting retreat, Friday is stopped by a group of armed men. She smashes a milk bottle over a man's head and speeds for the main house. Charlie appears and orders his men to attack. Once inside the house, Friday finds the missing black politicians conducting a meeting. Friday finds Rev. Franklin to warn him that Hart is coming, but Hart appears and explains he is attempting to build a black caucus and the "walls crumbling down" is a metaphor for ending prejudice. Bullets shatter windows and riddle the walls. As Rev. Franklin hands out shotguns, Hart realizes Charlie and Enos Griffin manipulated him into calling the meeting so they could get all the black politicians in one place to kill them. A man leaps through a window and Friday shoots him, only to discover he is white man wearing "black face." As the battle rages, a helicopter arrives carrying Tarr, Colt and a small army of bodyguards, who catch the attackers in a crossfire. Charlie makes a run for it, but Colt chases him down and knocks him to the ground.Days later back in Los Angeles, Colt visits Friday and finds her apartment full of gifts from both Tarr and Hart. However, she insists Colt is her "main man."
    

Godfrey Cambridge

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