No Way Back

For reasons hidden somewhere in my subconscious, I enjoyed this ultra-low budget blaxploitation tale of a black private detective on the trail of a missing banker with a stash of stolen money, which basically serves as a vanity outing for director, producer, and star Fred Williamson. Every second of the screen time is devoted to Williamson's unstoppable P.I., a man who can take a rock to the skull with only a couple of scratches, and a man who keeps coming back after being beaten down again and again. In many ways, with the glamorisation of his character and the endless macho posturing, Williamson reminds me of Steven Seagal, except that his heroes are a little more flawed and a little bit more human.

The plot is nothing special, so worthless that it barely registers. There are the requisite number of good guys, bad guys, innocent victims, and a surprisingly number of topless women who inevitably drool over our ex-football star hero. The script is at a comic-book level, laced with profanity and severely lacking in wit or intelligence; yet despite this Williamson's character is impossible to dislike. Whether it's the old-fashioned swagger or his sheer confidence in doing his job, Jesse Crowder is a man to be reckoned with and Williamson is the actor to fit the bill perfectly. The bad guys - led by the imposing Stack Pierce - are bad and the girls are sometimes pretty, and the various action sequences are cheap but hard-hitting. I especially like the shot of Williamson skidding and nearly falling off his motorbike which has just been left in the film! There is nothing at all memorable about this movie and nothing to make it stand out from the crowd. The story has been done a million times before and since and the action is never that exciting. Yet something - and I can't quite pin my finger on it - keeps it watchable and, yes, entertaining to a degree.

This film essentially begins with a bank employee by the name of "Mr. Pickens" (Charles Woolf) leaving work a bit early and getting into a car driven by an attractive woman named "Candy" (Tracy Reed). As it so happens, Pickens has just stolen $2 million in stocks and bonds and, together with Candy, the two of them plan on exchanging the bonds for cash and leaving the country as soon as possible. However, when he fails to come back home that afternoon, his wife "Mildred Pickens" (Virginia Gregg) becomes concerned and has his brother "James" (Argy Allen) look around for a private detective to help find him. To that effect, they hire a man named "Jesse Crowder" (Fred Williamson) who tells them up front that he doesn't come cheap and if they want to find Mr. Pickens it's going to cost them. They quickly agree and Jesse immediately begins to investigate. What he doesn't know, however, is that others are aware of the money Pickens has in his possession and some of them will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that, although this was an interesting blaxploitation film, it suffered somewhat from its low-budget nature which was more than evident during some of the rather amateur looking fight scenes. Be that as it may, I still thought it was good enough for the time spent and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

One of the greatest films to emerge from the blaxploitation period. Breathtaking. Williamsons amazing direction prove he is one of the greatest auteurs in black american film history, if not the greatest of them all. A true shame his work is often overshadowed by "Shaft" and "Sweet Sweetbacks Baaadasss Song".

And not a very good one at that. A black private detective (played by Fred Williamson) must track down a married middle aged guy who is planning to elope to South America with a younger girl and two million dollars of a pimp's money. The escapee's wife hires him, she says she is desperate to have him back and will pay him well, but things aren't as clear as they appear..

So, when you stick this in your VCR (You were expecting a DVD release?! HAHAHAHAHA Oh, 'scuse me..) what can you expect to see? Bar-room brawls? Rooftop chases? Flash motors? Plenty of jive talk? Gratuitous nudity? Sex scenes accompanied by old 70's tunes? If so, you won't be disappointed. On the other hand, if you like understandable plots, convincing fight sequences, fantastic acting, non-padded screenplays and attractive girls, I'm afraid you're way off.

Plus, I must mention the fact that my copy of the video had a very annoying black line going down the middle of the screen for the first half-an-hour at least, with an awful amount of background flicker throughout as well. I don't think this problem just affects my video, I believe that the fault lays with the original version.. probably due to the very low budget and the inept camera-work throughout. Still, it is very irritating, and the film should not have been released in this condition.

If you are a die-hard fan of the blaxploitation genre, you may derive some enjoyment from this lacklustre effort. The rest of us though, know that.. as sure as eggs is eggs and the sun will come up tomorrow, Fred Williamson ain't no Richard Roundtree, and this movie is not fit to even lace Shaft's bootlaces. 3/10