A
woman turns to sassy and strong attorney Eva Taylor (Gwen Barbee) to help her
boyfriend beat a murder rap. Almost
immediately, you’ve kind of got to love Eva. For starters, there weren’t many (in any) women
of color attorneys seen on the silver screen in the ‘70s, let alone as the main
character. She’s certainly the only
attorney I know of who has a large poster of W.C. Fields hanging in her office. Because of that alone, she’d be the first
lawyer I’d call if I was in a jam!
Bad
Black and Beautiful is a sloppy but charming bargain basement Blaxploitation
action drama with some good ideas, a progressive stance, and some of the most
slipshod filmmaking I’ve seen in a long time. Sure, there’s not much here in the way of
craftsmanship, but that’s kind of what I dug about it. It’s just as scrappy and independent as
its main character.
Let
me give you an idea how awesome this movie is:
Not only is Eva a well-respected lawyer by day, she’s a race car driver
by night! We know that because of the
blurry stock footage of a race followed by a brief shot of her getting out of a
car and being handed a trophy. Incredible.
Seriously,
the way writer/director Bobby Davis repurposes stock footage would make Ed Wood
envious. For instance, when Eva’s client
tells her about her boyfriend’s stint in Nam, her narration is played over a
bunch of grainy unrelated war footage. The best scene though is when Eva and her
boyfriend get in a plane. Sure, most
movies would resort to using stock footage for a simple scene of a plane taking
flight, but how many use stock footage of planes for the scene where the heroine
introduces her boyfriend to the Mile High Club while surf music plays on the
soundtrack?
Oh,
and did I mention her boyfriend is ALSO the star reporter of the local
newspaper AND her rival on the stock car circuit?
As
fun as most of Bad Black and Beautiful (there’s no comma on the title screen)
is, it does stall out a bit in the second half when the focus shifts to a
private detective character who helps Eva search for a missing prostitute. It’s here when too many unnecessary
supporting players and superfluous subplots start to gum up the works. During this section of the film, Eva disappears
for long stretches at a time, which doesn’t help either. (It sometimes feels like two unfinished movies
cobbled together.) The good news is
there’s plenty of nudity to keep you from being bored.
The
second half is also padded with musical performances, which are at least good
for a laugh. Barbee sings a number in a
bar with all the soul of a Lawrence Welk backup singer. The awfully dubbed blues number is pretty
funny too.
My
favorite bit though might be the over the top romantic interlude where Eva and
her boyfriend feed the ducks, have a picnic, and ride a seesaw together. Just when you think it can’t get any nuttier,
along comes the jaw-dropping courtroom shootout finale. I kind of wish there had been more action
throughout the picture (we do get a crummy Kung Fu scene though), but there’s
so many laughs to be had here that I can say without a doubt that fans of
no-budget Blaxploitation will thoroughly enjoy Bad Black and Beautiful as much as
I did.
AKA: Mob War.
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