Amor y fuego

One of the funniest movies meant not to be funny. If you like to sit around with friends and watch old goofy movies in the late hours, then this is a movie you should rent. I am so fond of this movie that I named myself in part after the man I call Black Shampoo. The star of the movie has a Lou Ferrigno quality. You'll enjoy laughing at scenes that make no sense other that to show some nudity or punch some wise guy in the nose. A wild ride that may or may not have inspired some of the greatest movie makers of our time.

Right before director Greydon Clark did "Satan's Cheerleaders", he made this 1976 violent blaxploitation cheese ball about a salon owner/gigolo, Mr. Johnathan (John Daniels, who looks like a smaller, african american Lou Ferrigno) getting revenge on the white mobsters who kidnap his secretary/girlfriend, beat up his gay hairdressers and trash his salon. This has plenty of cheezy acting, especially from the stereotypical gay hairdressers. The film is definitely not boring, except for some romantic 70s montages in the middle. There's plenty of sex, nudity, and violence resulting in a conclusion that involves chainsaw mutilations and a pool cue impaling! It shouldn't dramatically disappoint fans of the genre, but don't expect laughs like the Dolemite films. After you see it once, you probably won't come back to it. Its good for a cheap rental on bad 70s night. Black Shampoo goes mostly for a serious tone, although it has problems staying there. How serious can you take an angry hairdresser?

Black Shampoo (1976) is a gem that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a male black female hairstylist who is also a gigolo and white chick magnet. His new female front desk employee may cause him to fall in love and change his ways. Unfortunately for him her ex-boyfriend is a member of the mob and has other plans for her.

This movie is directed by Greydon Clark (Angel's Brigade) and stars John Daniels (Getting Over), Tanya Boyd (The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood), William Bonner (Big Foot), Anne Gaybis (Friday the 13th Part III) and Jacqulin Cole (Angels' Brigade).

This felt like a movie that couldn't decide if it wanted to be soft porn or a blaxploitation film, so it's a little bit of both. The soundtrack is excellent and the premise had potential. Unfortunately, John Daniels isn't as charismatic as some main characters from this era and his lines are nothing special, but the sex scenes are excellent and ladies are gorgeous. The ending of this film with the chainsaw and ax is a 10/10 and the highlight of the film.

Overall, this movie is very average with a tremendous ending. I would score this a 6/10 and recommend seeing it once.

"Mr. Jonathan" (John Daniels) is a black hairstylist who owns a salon on the Sunset Strip which is quite popular to his rich, female clientele. Not only does this salon have two dedicated hairdressers in "Artie" (Skip E. Lowe) and "Richard" (Gary Allen) but it also features the talents of the aforementioned Mr. Jonathan who the ladies simply cannot resist. Be that as it may, one day while paying a house call to one of his customers, three men enter his salon and, after physically assaulting Artie, order the newly-hired receptionist named "Brenda St. John" (Tanya Boyd) to contact a mob boss by the name of "Mr. Wilson" (Joseph Carlo)--or else. Quite distraught about being located by Mr. Wilson--and upset that Artie has been hurt--she reluctantly agrees to call him that night. However, before she does that, she feels obliged to apologize to Mr. Jonathan first. One thing eventually leads to another and the two of them become lovers. What Mr. Jonathan doesn't realize, however, is that Mr. Wilson is not a person to trifle with and he is determined to have Brenda as his mistress again. Now, rather than reveal any more I will just say that this turned out to be an entertaining movie to a certain degree in spite of the rather low-budget production values. To that effect, both the script and the acting was equally weak with Skip E. Lowe probably turning in the most uneven performance overall. The one saving grace, however, was the performance of Tanya Boyd who dominated every scene she was in. Granted, she was either partially-clad or completely nude in some of them, but even so she was quite attractive and her appearances definitely benefited the film to a large degree. That being said, while this clearly wasn't a great movie by any means, I guess it had its moments and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

They just don't make 'em like this no more. Grungy as only a '70s B-Movie can be, and filled with hilariously overblown 'tude. The acting is minimal, the script is charmless and vulgar, and the lousy video version I saw made it look like a cheapo porn flick.

If you want to invite your friends over for a MST3K-type party, this would be a good one to rent. The opportunities to throw wisecracks at the screen are hard to resist!