''Trouble Man'' is a 1972 American

blaxploitation Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president ...

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...

thriller Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...

film directed by Ivan Dixon and produced and released by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...

. The film stars

Robert Hooks Robert Hooks (born Bobby Dean Hooks; April 18, 1937) is an American actor, producer, and activist. Along with Douglas Turner Ward and Gerald S. Krone, he founded The Negro Ensemble Company. The Negro Ensemble Company is credited with the laun ...

as "Mr. T.", a hard-edged private detective who tends to take justice into his own hands. It is still of note today for its

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrac ...

, written, produced and performed by

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...

Plot summary

An inner-city point man is on the run from both the cops and the crooks in this streetwise drama. T (Robert Hooks) is a combination pool shark, private detective, and all-purpose ghetto fixer who operates out of a billiards parlor in

South Central Los Angeles South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southwestern Los Angeles County, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of downtown. It is "defined on Los Angeles city maps as a ...

. T has done well for himself—he buys a fancy new car every year, wears expensive suits, and lives in an upscale apartment. But, he also looks out for folks in South Central, has lukewarm connections with both the police and gangsters, and generally knows how to tell the good guys from the bad guys on either side of the law. T is approached by Chalky ( Paul Winfield) and his partner, Pete ( Ralph Waite), who run floating dice games in the neighborhood. Chalky tells T they've been ripped off several times by a group of four robbers, and they want to hire him to find out who the masked stick-up men are. T takes it as a routine assignment and is willing to do the job for the right price. What he does not know is that Chalky and Pete are trying to take down rival crime kingpin Big (

Julius Harris Julius W. Harris (August 17, 1923 – October 17, 2004) was an American actor who appeared in more than 70 movies and numerous television series in a career that spanned four decades. Harris is best known for his roles in 1970s films such as '' ...

). They frame T for the killing of one of Big's underlings, who is shot by Chalky moments after a dice game is robbed by four men (T was present at the hold-up). An anonymous informant fingers T for the killing and makes him the target for Big and for LAPD captain Joe Marx ( William Smithers), who dislikes T on principle. That sets off a series of cunning twists and confrontations that T is determined to survive, which becomed complicated when Big is shot and killed in front of T.

Cast

as Mr. T * Paul Winfield as "Chalky" Price * Ralph Waite as Pete Cockrell * William Smithers as Captain Joe Marx * Paula Kelly as Cleo *

as "Big" * Bill Henderson as Jimmy * Wayne Storm as Frank * Akili Jones as Billy Chi * Vince Howard as Preston * Stack Pierce as Collie * Nathaniel Taylor as Leroy * Lawrence Cook as Buddy * Virginia Capers as Macy * Rick Ferrell as Pindar * James "Texas Blood" Brown as Wesley *

Gordon Jump Alexander Gordon Jump (April 1, 1932 – September 22, 2003) was an American actor best known as the clueless, yet occasionally wise, radio station manager Arthur "Big Guy" Carlson in the TV series ''WKRP in Cincinnati'' and the incompetent Ch ...

as Salter * Jean Bell as Leona

Production

The film was written and executive produced by John D. F. Black, who had co-written ''

Shaft Shaft may refer to: Rotating machine elements * Shaft (mechanical engineering), a rotating machine element used to transmit power * Line shaft, a power transmission system * Drive shaft, a shaft for transferring torque * Axle, a shaft around whi ...

'' (1971). Black, who had written for various television shows such as ''

Johnny Staccato ''Johnny Staccato'' is an American private detective television series starring John Cassavetes which ran for 27 episodes on NBC from September 10, 1959 through March 24, 1960. Synopsis Titular character Johnny Staccato, played by John Cassav ...

'', hoped to cash in on the trend set by that film. This was the directorial debut of Ivan Dixon, who had become a director in 1970 after trying to hone his craft by asking questions when acting on ''

Hogan's Heroes ''Hogan's Heroes'' is an American television sitcom set in a Nazi German prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during World War II. It ran for 168 episodes (six seasons) from September 17, 1965, to April 4, 1971, on the CBS network, the longest broadcast ...

''. Black and his wife were interviewed about the making of the film in 2019 for the podcast ''

The Projection Booth ''The Projection Booth'' is a podcast featuring discussions of films from a variety of genres with critical analysis. , more than 500 episodes had been released. The show is hosted by Mike White, the director of ''Who Do You Think You're Fooling ...

''.

Critical reception

The film was featured in the 1978 Harry Medved book, '' The Fifty Worst Films of All Time''. In contrast, '' Complex'' included ''Trouble Man'' on its 2009 list of "The 50 Best Blaxploitation Movies of All Time". ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' reviewer

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

described it as "a horrible movie, but worth thinking about." Jimi Izrael of

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

called ''Trouble Man'' "a strong film" but one that "never had an entry point for mainstream audiences to grasp."

References

External links