Tony King Movies

Leslie Uggams guest stars as jazz singer Alexis Carter, with whom T.C. (Roger E. Mosley) had fallen in love during the Vietnam war. Now that Alexis has apparently come back into his life, T.C. hopes to rekindle the romance. This turn of events positively baffles Magnum (Tom Selleck), who knows only too well that Alexis precipitates disaster wherever she goes--and sure enough, the lady is presently on the lam from a Detroit drug ring over an $18,000 "misunderstanding." Leslie Uggams sings "Nowhere to Run" and "Here's That Rainy Day" in this episode, which also features a rare acting appearance by musical legend Chuck Mangione. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this derivative war-action film by Antonio Margheriti, both the Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now have been raided for scenes and events that were rearranged to tell the story of an American officer who treks far into North Vietnamese territory to retrieve a radio transmitter that is broadcasting propaganda messages to U.S. soldiers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A psycho kills a stripper causing the dead woman's sister to get a job at the same club so she can investigate her sibling's death in this exploitative horror outing. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A Chicago cop is wrongly accused of theft and dismissed from the force. In order to clear his name, he goes after the real culprits -- without the extra baggage of police regulations that might have made his task more difficult if he were still active in the department. This script was originally intended for a Dirty Harry vehicle, but was never realized. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

Half zombie epic, half cannibal gorefest, this unusual blend of two popular Italo-horror subgenres results in a high-octane thriller that delivers the gory goods. The story involves a group of former Vietnam POW's who contract a bizarre disease in captivity which compels them to eat human flesh. Needless to say, this makes assimilation into post-war American life rather difficult as the gestating disease takes hold on the returning veterans, whose cannibal instincts eventually fight their way to the surface. One such victim is commando Norman Hopper (John Saxon), who is bitten by one of the POW's during a rescue mission and carries the gestating contagion back home. When the soldier who bit him (John Morghen) is released from a veterans' psychiatric hospital after apparently being cured, he makes brief phone contact with Saxon before succumbing to an immediate relapse, leading to a gory rampage and subsequent shootout with police. When Saxon begins feeling the urge to munch -- first developing an appetite for the teenage cupcake next door -- he springs his fellow cannibals from the hospital, leading to another bloody confrontation with the police -- this time in the city sewers. Director Antonio Margheriti (alleged ghost-director of Andy Warhol's Blood for Dracula and Flesh for Frankenstein) manages to fuse crime-thriller conventions with gory cannibals-in-the-streets horror without losing viewers' interest, although the drastically-edited video version (under the title Invasion of the Flesh Hunters) suffers badly from the absence of Gianetto De Rossi's chunk-blowing makeup effects. The dialogue, while better than the average Italian post-dubbing job, is so overloaded with profanity that it becomes unintentionally hilarious. Released under a dozen titles, the best-known being Cannibal Apocalypse. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

An aging, diminutive private detective from Harlem works to track down an elusive robber while staving off crooked cops and vicious gangsters in this largely ad-libbed, independent black comedy shot on a shoestring budget by a handful of amateur actors and filmmakers. When local numbers lady (Virginia Fields) is held up by Hi-Yo (Bill Jay) in Central Park, her daughter (Marcella Lowery) hires Super Spook (Leonard Jackson) to track the thief down. Now the closer Super Spook gets to his target, the more he starts to realize that he isn't the only one searching for Hi-Yo. As cops and criminals alike begin to turn up the heat on the nervous numbers runner, Super Spook realizes this is one case that's going to take some serious overtime. He may not be as smooth as Shaft, but Super Spook always gets his man. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

This hastily assembled sequel to the blaxploitation hit Black Caesar downplays the gritty drama of that film to create a pure action tale with a comic book flavor. The story begins with badly wounded crimelord Tommy Gibbs (Fred Williamson) escaping an assassination attempt masterminded by corrupt District Attorney DiAngelo (Gerald Gordon) with the help of his estranged father, Papa Gibbs (Julius Harris). When DiAngelo's thugs attempt to kill him, Papa fights back and joins his son's criminal organization, a move that angers Gibb's top henchman Zach (Tony King). As Tommy and Papa build up their criminal empire, Zach secretly plots against them with DiAngelo. Zach also murders Helen (Gloria Hendry), Tommy's traitorous ex-wife, and pins in it on Papa to drive a wedge between them. Tommy gives up his New York crime operation and runs off to California. Papa takes over the operation, only to get killed by Zach during a fistfight. Angered by his father's death, Tommy returns to settle the score with Zach and DiAngelo. Hell up in Harlem delivers plenty of action set pieces and did fairly well at the box office, but lacks the consistency and the dramatic punch that made Black Caesar so memorable. As a result, it is considered to be one of Larry Cohen's lesser efforts. ~ Donald Guarisco, Rovi

Richard Roundtree cuts a startlingly new and powerful heroic figure as John Shaft, "the cat who won't cop out, when there's danger all about" in Gordon Parks' seminal action film, Shaft. John Shaft is a black private eye with a small office near Times Square. On his way there one day, he gets pumped for information by Lt. Victor Androzzi (Charles Cioffi), a friend of his on the police force, about something big going down in Harlem involving black crime kingpin Bumpy Jonas (Moses Gunn). Shaft can't help him and leaves, only to just miss being waylaid by two of Bumpy's strong-arm men at his office, one of whom ends up dead on the pavement eight floors or so below. Squeezed by the cops, who are holding a potential manslaughter arrest over his head, Shaft contacts Bumpy, who reveals that his teenage daughter, whom he's always kept away from his business, has been kidnapped. There's been no ransom demand and no clue as to who did it, and he wants Shaft to find the culprits, insisting that he start with a group of Harlem-based black militants led by Shaft's onetime friend Ben Buford (Christopher St. John). No sooner does he find Buford, holed up in a decaying part of Harlem, however, than his friend's comrades are mowed down by submachine gun fire, and Shaft and Buford barely escape. With Shaft angry and out for blood, everyone is forced to come clean -- Bumpy knows that it's the Mafia that kidnapped his daughter, as they want in on the Harlem drug trade that he controls; they're holding her somewhere else outside of Harlem, where his men are no good to him, which is why he wanted Shaft to hook up with Buford. Androzzi tells Shaft that a dozen Mob trigger men from out of town have been spotted in Greenwich Village. He doesn't know why they're there, but he does know that if fighting breaks out between Bumpy's men and the Mafia, it's going to look like a race war, and the whole city could erupt. Shaft doesn't like the way he's been manipulated, but he sees Androzzi's point -- he links the trigger men to the kidnapping and finds the girl, but loses her again, getting shot in the process. Even though he's wounded, Shaft heads for a final confrontation with the kidnappers, supported by Ben's friends in an armed assault on the building where they're holed up. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

A trio of musically talented Harlem sisters rise to become major stars of the '50s. Unfortunately, their sudden popularity causes much turmoil in their lives. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi