Five On The Black Hand Side 6/10
Last week L and I watched this movie randomly. I had vaguely heard of it but knew the phrase the title is based off of. Knew nothing about the story or anything but since it was made in 1973 I assumed I would see some titties. I was super wrong. This is the most anti-titty movie which is sad cause Miss Dubois is in this. So it starts off with this asshole husband bossing this lady around. I thought she was a maid but she had on sleepwear which I thought was odd. Turns out it is his wife who he never refers to by her name. This man has her entire day planned out for her before he heads to work. She just spends the first ten minutes of the movie looking like this.
We then go to this dude Gideon that could easily be living in West Hollywood doing karate on the roof of a building after he wakes up. Black people loved karate in the 70s. He is in protest against his father, Mr. Brooks the angry husband. Meanwhile his sister Gail is planning on getting married the next day and moving out. Mr. Brooks hates that Gideon is very pro-Black and wants to go to college for something he is interested in not what will make his prosperous. His daughter Gail is having an African wedding. And his other son (who I thought would be gay but that is just how men wore shirts back then) Booker T. Washington, that is for real what his daddy named him, of militant Black and going by a new name. Oh, and his secret love for white women.
While Mr. Brooks is at work his wife, Gladys, tells her friend that she has had enough and plans to divorce Mr. Brooks. Another friend shows up to give her some tips on how to deal with this and stand up for herself. She makes a list of demands and gets a makeover. Thank god because that hairstyle she had was not the business! She shows up at her husbands barbershop and embarrasses him much to the delight of everyone there. He is outraged but it gets worse because she stages a protest and everything. This man refuses to break though.
The barbershop scenes are all very long and entertaining but L was laughing at how these people had jobs and uniforms but no one was doing their jobs and just sitting there laughing all day. Dudes come there to preach, talk shit, or complain. Not one of them looks different when they leave the shop though. They cut a few stray hairs and get paid for it.
Its time for the wedding and Mr. Brooks refuses to give in to his wifes demands. The wedding goes by smoothly with him standing there looking like a bump on the log. He leaves but returns in African garb and everyone makes up. The end. It was really that fast. This was so not the type of movie from the 70s I grew up watching where titties would be out for no reason and people would be throwing punches that landed two feet from someones face or drugs were rampant. This was just a nice story about a family having issues and how Black people were learning that Africa had an actual culture that we could adopt. The shit they talk about in this movie that came out 53 years ago are conversations that are still being had today.
Clarice Taylor as Mrs. Gladys Ann Brooks
Leonard Jackson as Mr. John Henry Brooks Jr.
Virginia Capers as Ruby
Glynn Turman as Gideon Brooks
D'Urville Martin as Booker T. Washington Brooks
Dick Anthony Williams as Preston
Sonny Jim Gaines as "Sweetmeat"
Ja'net DuBois as "Stormy" Monday
Bonnie Banfield as Gail Brooks
Carl Franklin as Marvin
Dick Anthony Williams as Preston
Godfrey Cambridge as himself
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