Aubrey Hale Clayton (Rudy Challenger) is a black politician who is making a run for governor. On the night of his big fundraiser, armed thieves storm the ballroom and steal his campaign donations. The whole thing becomes a political powder keg when public opinion believes the crime was racially motivated. Bassett (Alex Rocco), a white detective, is assigned to the case, but fearing a PR nightmare, the department partners him with a black cop named Williams (Hari Rhodes) to find the crooks.
Directed by Arthur Marks, Detroit 9000 isn’t exactly a Blaxploitation flick, although it contains many of the same elements found in those pictures. While there are various Blaxploitation staples like smooth black detectives, pimps, and prostitutes in the mix, it’s really more of your standard cop thriller set in the black community. Rhodes even gets his own Dirty Harry-style introduction scene disarming a gunman and goading him to draw his weapon. Honestly though, the movie needed more hardboiled action beats like this to qualify it as a Blaxploitation actioner.
The “a dash of this and a dash of that” philosophy of the screenwriters ultimately doesn’t work as a whole. Since it’s neither fish nor fowl, it doesn’t really satisfy the demands of either the cop or Blaxploitation genres. There are also touches of political thriller, and stabs at social messaging that sort of get lost in the shuffle.
Even though nothing quite gels, Detroit 9000 is nevertheless engaging for the most part, and that’s largely due to the performances. The scenes with Rocco are the best parts. Whether he’s dealing with his mentally unstable wife in a sanitarium, bedding hookers, or befriending his new partner, his charisma helps keep the film afloat. So much so that when he disappears from the action in the third act, his presence is sorely missed. Rhodes is quite good too, especially in his scenes with Vonetta (The Great Silence) McGee. Challenger also fares well as the crooked politician, but sadly, the great Scatman Crothers is woefully underutilized as a priest.
Marks went on to direct such Blaxploitation classics as Bucktown, Friday Foster, and J.D.’s Revenge.
AKA: S.O.S. Black Guns. AKA: Call Detroit 9000. AKA: Detroit Heat. AKA: Police Call: 9000.
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