Blaxploitation Week: Three the Hard Way

Welcome, welcome, welcome boys and girls to Blaxploitation Week and we need to kick this game off right with not one, not two but three action heroes for your movie!   From director Gordon Parks Jr. (Super Fly, Thomasine & Bushrod and Aaron Loves Angela)comes a film that was too big for one lone hero to handle and a soundtrack by the one and only Funk, Soul and R&B Curtis Mayfield still with his band The Impressions bringing the love with “That’s What Love Can Do” and “ Three the Hard Way” giving us some sweet harmonies for a bizarre film.   This is Three the Hard Way.

Dirty Harry's compensating. Dig?

Jagger Daniels: Y’know, spoiler. You come to town I know there’s gonna be trouble.

The credits have barely breezed by before we get right into it as record producer Jimmy Lait (Jim Brown of 100 Rifles,  The Dirty Dozen, El Condor, Black Gunn, Slaughter and I Escaped from Devil’s Island) and his girl Wendy (Sheila Frazier of Super Fly, The Hitter, All About You, The Last Stand and NCIS) find Jimmy’s buddy, House (No, not Hugh Laurie) gut shot and dying.  Wait gets House to the hospital were House explains he just escaped a medical facility and House tells Lait that someone is out there aims to kill us all and they got a way to do it.  Lait gets back to the studio to record the Impressions while Wendy looks in on House.  No sooner is she on the phone with Wait, two hoods sneak in through the window and pop House.  Wendy spots this event, screams and becomes girl hostage.

Slouching ain't sexy m'man.

Wait tries to waste the muthas on his own but finds out they are too well organized and goes looking for some back up.  On the horn with his friends Jagger Daniels, (Fred Williamson of MASH, Black Caesar, 1990: The Bronx Warriors, From Dusk Till Dawn and Vamped) a no nonsense business man with a damn good aim and Mister Keyes (Jim Kelly of Black Samurai, Black Belt Jones, Enter the Dragon and Death Dimension) a martial arts master that is second to none.   Together these men find out from copious gun and fist fights that there is a worldwide conspiracy to commit genocide and it has all be created by the devious Monroe Feather…really?...that’s the villain’s name?   Really doesn’t stand well against say; Doctor Doom, The Red Skull or Even Ernest Blofeld, does it?  

Moving right along, our intrepid trio soon discovers that chemical compounds have been introduced into malt liquor that is completely harmless to white men but will sterilize black men.   Oh yes, thank you for keeping all the trailer park scumbags that knock up women 30 or so times and slap them upside the head when dinner is not hot enough.   Today, Malt liquor…tomorrow KFC!!!   Yeah it is a bit corny but I am sure more than a few chuckles to be had.  Guess if the tables were turned the compound would have been put in Baloney and Wonder Bread.

Filmed in Spherical 35 mm and sadly recorded in mono the film has some amazing aerial shots via helicopter, across the river front for some tight zooms and clearly some steady crane for the street fights.    This film came in three different versions so more than a few folks I spoke to about it were confused.  The TV version comes to us at just a little over 105 minutes, which include an additional song and some re-shoots to clothe some of the ladies, the WB of the 4 Pack collection that I have stops off at 89 minutes with yes fellas, plenty of nudity, language and violence.  Finally, the theatrical version hails at 93 minutes which frankly is four minutes longer than my DVD.  So if you need some chuckles at neo fascism, inside jokes and stereotype urban legends or if you just want to watch Fred Williamson, Jim Brown and Jim Kelly whoop the holy hell out of these Nazi bastards then this is the flick for you. 

You want some, viewer?  Didn't think so.