Melvin Van Peebles Movies
The son of a black Chicago tailor, Melvin Van Peebles attended West Virginia State College, then earned a BA from Ohio Wesleyan. Van Peebles served three years in the Air Force as a navigator/bombardier. Out of uniform, Van Peebles pursued a painting career, made a handful of amateur films, and held down jobs as a postal worker and San Francisco cable-car grip. Refusing ever to allow grass to grow under his feet, he spent some time in Mexico, attended graduate school in Holland and picked up spare change (and a few overnight jail terms) as an unlicensed street entertainer in Paris. Still a relatively young man, he remained in Paris to write five novels (all in English, because he never bothered to learn any French); one of these was La Permission, the story of a star-crossed interracial romance. On the strength of his book, Van Peebles became eligible for admission to the French Cinema Center as a director. Unexpectedly receiving a grant of $70,000, he converted La Permission into his first feature film, The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1968). On the strength of this film, Van Peebles was courted by several Hollywood studios, who had no idea he was African American and assumed he was a French auteur. While few studios in 1968 were willing to take a chance on a black director (couldn't offend any bigots, you know), Columbia Pictures gave Van Peebles carte blanche to direct a satirical comedy-fantasy on the topic of black-white stereotyping, Watermelon Man (1970). He kept the costs low on this project so that he could invest his salary into a privately financed labor of love, Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song (1970). Crude and offensive by "establishment" standards, this tale of a black fugitive's one-man vendetta against Whitey proved to be an enormous hit with African American audiences. It also proved that Hollywood had itself a genuine "renaissance man" in Van Peebles; he not only produced, directed, wrote and starred in Sweet Sweetback, but also edited and scored the film. Having briefly satiated his filmmaking aspirations, Van Peebles turned to Broadway, writing and scoring the 1971 musical Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death. His next theatrical project was 1972's Don't Play Us Cheap, which won first prize at the Belgian Film Festival when a hastily produced movie version was offered in competition. Since that time, VanPeebles has developed a TV-movie pilot, Just an Old Sweet Song (1977), and has written and acted in a number of movie and TV projects, frequently in collaboration with his actor/director son Mario Van Peebles. As of this writing, Melvin Van Peebles' only movie directorial effort of the past two decades has been the hit-and-miss fantasy Identity Crisis (1990). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1987
Produced for public television, Taking Care of Terrific spotlights Joanne Vanicola as a teenaged baby sitter named Enid. Enjoying quality time in the park with her charge Joshua (Benjamin Barrett), Enid is given a strong dose of reality when some bag ladies wander into view. Enid and Joshua then and there decide to arrange one wonderful evening's worth of entertainment for the park's homeless. They are given a hand by street musician Melvin Van Peebles. The 60-minute Taking Care of Terrific first aired January 16, 1988, as part of PBS' Wonderworks children's series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This third sequel to the 1975 mega-hit Jaws returns Lorraine Gary to the role of Ellen Brody, widow of the Roy Scheider character from the first two films. When her son Sean, the current police chief of shark-plagued Amity Island, is killed by the beast, Ellen goes to the Bahamas to comfort her surviving son. Michael Brody (Lance Guest) and his friend Jake (Mario Van Peebles) are marine biologists there to help, but in the end it is up to Ellen and her new beach-bum love -- played by Michael Caine -- to put a halt to the fishy horror. Director Joseph Sargent concludes the series with an ending chosen from several alternate possibilities. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Caine, Lorraine Gary, (more)
- 1986
An TV news satire from director Robert Downey, this film concerns a cable evening news show that gradually turns into chaotic performance art. Head newscaster Terrence Hackley (Zack Norman) has been caught by his wife Joy (Tammy Grimes) with a plaid skirt in his suitcase, so he covers up by wearing it in his interviews. The sagging ratings start to go up and then they zoom sky-high after Joy and the weatherman bounce the station's signal off the moon and it lands in houses around the world. Several zany vignettes send up media moguls and film directors as the news program becomes increasingly bizarre. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zack Norman, Tammy Grimes, (more)
In what can only be described as a dramatic change of pace, Robert Altman directed this raunchy teen comedy based on the antics of two characters featured in a series of stories published in the National Lampoon. Oliver Cromwell Ogilvie (Daniel Jenkins), aka O.C., and his buddy Mark Stiggs (Neil Barry), are a pair of misfit teenagers whose greatest joy in life is making those around them miserable. O.C.'s ancient grandfather (Ray Walston) has just had his insurance cancelled, and when he discovers that suburbanite salesman Randall Schwabb (Paul Dooley) is responsible, O.C. and Stiggs swing into a summer-long campaign to get revenge on Schwabb and his family. While it received some of the most brutally negative reviews of Altman's career, O.C. and Stiggs is worth a quick look for its cast, which includes fellow outcast auteurs Dennis Hopper and Melvin Van Peebles, comics Louis Nye and Jane Curtain, the one-time glamour girl of the Clifford Irving scandal Nina Van Pallandt, and Thomas Hal Phillips, reprising his role as Hal Phillip Walker from Nashville. World music superstars King Sunny Ade and his African Beats appear and provide the musical score. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Jenkins, Neil Barry, (more)
- 1981
The three-part TV miniseries The Sophisticated Gents covers 25 years in the lives of a group of close friends. Nine African-American members of a sports club gather for a quarter-century reunion. As they reminisce over the high and low points of their lives, some of the members await the arrival of the group's troublemaker with less than enthusiasm. The story comes to an out-of-left-field conclusion involving an escaped killer (Melvin van Peebles) and a pursuing cop. The nine "gents" of the title are played by Ron O'Neal, Thalmus Rasulala, Bernie Casey, Dick Anthony Williams, Raymond St. Jacques, Robert Hooks, Rosey Grier, Paul Winfield...and the aforementioned Melvin van Peebles. Based on John A. Williams' novel The Junior Bachelor Society, the 4-hour The Sophisticated Gents was originally telecast September 29, October 1 and October 2, 1981; for reasons unknown, its debut had been postponed for nearly two years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Winfield, Bernie Casey, (more)
- 1977
- PG
Based on the life story of NASCAR auto racing champion Wendell Scott, this film, starring Richard Pryor as Scott, covers his struggles -- from the end of World War II to 1971-- to overcome racism and gain the freedom to demonstrate his winning auto-racing skills to everyone. He is not without support: he has Mary Jones (Pam Grier), his loving wife, a sense of humor, and quite a few good friends, including the white race-car driver Hutch (Beau Bridges). Filmed in the Atlanta area, this movie features performances by folksinger Richie Havens, Julian Bond (later a Congressman), and Maynard Jackson (at one time Atlanta's mayor). ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Pryor, Beau Bridges, (more)
- 1976
Originally telecast September 14, 1976, as a CBS "General Electric Theater" special, Just an Old Sweet Song was the first of three pilots for Down Home, a proposed TV series created by filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles. Robert Hooks and Cicely Tyson star as Nate and Priscilla Simmons, the patriarch and matriarch of a middle-class Detroit family. Upon learning that their grandmother (Beah Richards) is not long for this world, Nate and Priscilla pack up their kids and head down South. Eventually, the family rediscovers its African-American roots and elects to stay in their new rural surroundings. Robert Hooks' real-life sons (Kevin and Eric Hooks) appear as his screen sons, Junior and Highpockets. Just an Old Sweet Song was followed by two 60-minute sequels in 1978: Kinfolks (in which Madge Sinclair replaced Cicely Tyson as Priscilla Simmons) and Down Home. Alas, none of the three films yielded a weekly series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Melvin Van Peebles' first film after his groundbreaking blaxploitation effort Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was this photographed version of his Broadway musical Don't Play Us Cheap, in which a pair of Satan's helpers, in order to earn their horns, are dispatched to Harlem to crash into (and break up) a wild party. Don't Play Us Cheap received only a minimal release in 1973, and was largely unseen until it was released on videotape in the mid-'90s. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Esther Rolle, Avon Long, (more)
- 1971
- R
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Produced, directed, written, scored by, and starring Melvin Van Peebles, this landmark "blaxploitation" film was as controversial as it was popular for its then X-rated story of one African-American man's triumph over the Man. After beating a couple of white cops he witnessed brutalizing a local black revolutionary, sex show performer Sweetback (Van Peebles) has to go on the run. As he flees through decrepit South Central Los Angeles, Sweetback demonstrates his formidable potency through sex as well as violence, evading the police manhunt by any means necessary. As Sweetback runs off into the sunset, however, Van Peebles warns that the story, like the 1960s racial strife, isn't over. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melvin Van Peebles, Simon Chuckster, (more)
African-American activist and actor Melvin Van Peebles directed this comedy-drama starring Godfrey Cambridge as Jeff Gerber, a white, middle class husband to Althea (Estelle Parson) and father of two who is also a mild bigot. One morning, Jeff wakes up to discover that he has become a black man overnight. After trying in vain to remove his new pigment, Jeff ventures out into the world, only to discover the hostility he once engendered himself. After his neighbors petition to get him out of the neighborhood, his boss (Howard Caine) tries to use his new identity to the company's advantage and his doctor suggests he seek medical care elsewhere, Jeff comes to see the many sides of racism. The only rays of hope in his situation are the friendship of several fellow black people, including a bus driver (D'Urville Martin) and a restaurant counter man (Mantan Moreland). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Godfrey Cambridge, Estelle Parsons, (more)
Artfully squeezing every penny out of a grant from the French Cinema Center, Melvin Van Peebles made his directorial debut with Story of a Three-Day Pass. Harry Baird plays a black American GI, Turner, who falls in love with French mademoiselle (Nicole Berger). Upon his return from an idyllic weekend, Turner is demoted by his bigoted captain for fraternizing with a white girl. Honored as the French entry in the San Francisco Film Festival, this poignant little romantic drama "made" Van Peebles, who on the strength of his newly established reputation was assigned to direct Columbia's The Watermelon Man. Story of a Three-Day Pass was based on Van Peebles' own novel La Permission. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Doris, Christian Marin, (more)
