Kicks (Timothy Brown) and Tony (Geoffrey Land) are cops out to bust a hotel full of hookers. The girls also help the sleazy kingpin Ziggy (Russ Tamblyn) pull off a series of heists. After Ziggy kills Tony, he tricks his grieving girlfriend (Jana Bellan) into setting up his next score. It’s then up to Kicks to get revenge and bring Ziggy down.
You can say a lot of things about the quality of the movies Al Adamson and Sam Sherman made together, but you have to admire the ingenuity they had when it came to selling them. Black Heat is an example where the genesis of the film is more interesting than the finished product. They were looking to make a Blaxploitation actioner and a sexploitation potboiler, and figured why not just make two for the price of one? They would create two different marketing campaigns under two different titles and film two different opening scenes (one that played up the gunrunning angle, the other featuring a bunch of scenes of the girls in the hotel getting naked, fucking, and showering) but keep the rest of the pictures the same. They’d then play them in separate markets and the filmgoing public would be none the wiser.
The film itself is serviceable at best. Like most of Adamson’s work, the plot is a bit slipshod, with a few too many extraneous subplots that get in the way of the fun. For example, the final junkyard confrontation between Brown and Tamblyn is well done, but unfortunately, the movie keeps going for another ten unnecessary minutes. There is some trademark Adamson sleaze here (gang rape, forced lesbianism, a guy getting his legs ran over by a car, etc.), although not really enough to make it recommended. Still, it’s not a bad Blaxploitation flick, all things considered. (The score by Paul Lewinson is appropriately funky.)
The performances are what keep it afloat. Brown is likeable as the suave badass cop Kicks. He has an easy chemistry in the streets with Land and between the sheets with Tanya Boyd, who plays his reporter girlfriend. Naturally, Adamson’s wife, Regina Carrol also turns up (as a nightclub singer), although she isn’t given a whole lot to do this time out.
AKA: U.S. Vice. AKA: Syndicate Vice. AKA: The Murder Gang. AKA: Girls’ Hotel. AKA: Town Rats.
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