''Dolemite'' is a 1975 American

blaxploitation In American cinema, Blaxploitation is the film subgenre of action movie derived from the exploitation film genre in the early 1970s, consequent to the combined cultural momentum of the black civil rights movement, the black power movement, ...

crime comedy film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as drama or gangster film, but als ...

and is also the name of its principal character, played by

Rudy Ray Moore Rudolph Frank Moore (March 17, 1927October 19, 2008), known as Rudy Ray Moore, was an American comedian, singer, actor, and film producer.stand-up comedian Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage and delivers humorous and satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical acts. These performances are typically composed of rehear ...

in the late 1960s, heard a rhymed toast about an urban hero named Dolemite from a regular at the record store where he worked, and decided to adopt the persona as an

alter ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I") means an alternate Self (psychology), self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original Personality psychology, personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other ...

in his act. The film focuses on a professional

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

pimp Procuring, pimping, or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term "pimp" ...

, and

nightclub A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...

owner. He serves a prison sentence after being framed by

dirty cops Police corruption is a form of police misconduct in which a law enforcement officer breaks their political contract and Abuse of power, abuses their power for personal gain. A corrupt officer may act alone or as part of a group. Corrupt acts in ...

, but he is released by the governor and tasked with dealing with his hometown's

illegal drug trade The illegal drug trade, drug trafficking, or narcotrafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of drug prohibition, prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibitionism, prohibit trade, exce ...

. He uses his prostitutes as a

private army A private army (or private military) is a military force under the command of a private person or organization, rather than a nation or state. History Private armies may form when landowners arm household retainers for the protection of self and ...

, since they are

kung fu Chinese martial arts, commonly referred to with umbrella terms Kung fu (term), kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (sport), wushu (), are Styles of Chinese martial arts, multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater Ch ...

-trained

martial artists Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; and the prese ...

Plot

Dolemite is a

, and nightclub owner who is serving twenty years in prison after being set up by a rival, Willie Green (

D'Urville Martin D'Urville Martin (February 11, 1939 – May 28, 1984) was an American actor in both film and television. He appeared in numerous 1970s movies in the blaxploitation genre. He also appeared in two unaired pilots of what would become ''All in the F ...

), and framed by detectives Mitchell and White, at the direction of the mayor (

Hy Pyke Hy Pyke (born Monty Pike, December 2, 1935 – October 26, 2006) was an American character actor. Biography Pyke was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of vaudevillian David Pike and his wife Pauline. Pyke majored in theatre at UCLA in th ...

). Released by the governor thanks to

lobbying Lobbying is a form of advocacy, which lawfully attempts to directly influence legislators or government officials, such as regulatory agency, regulatory agencies or judiciary. Lobbying involves direct, face-to-face contact and is carried out by va ...

by fellow pimp "Queen Bee" (Lady Reed), Dolemite is freed in order to discover the source of the out of control drug problem in the "Fourth Ward" of the city, and take revenge on the corruption that put him in prison. He rekindles his reputation on the streets while trying to get back his "Total Experience" club from the hands of Willie Green. He enlists the help of Queen Bee, a

Black nationalist Black nationalism is a nationalist movement which seeks representation for Black people as a distinct national identity, especially in racialized, colonial and postcolonial societies. Its earliest proponents saw it as a way to advocate for ...

preacher hoarding guns for a revolution, and his own stable of

-trained

prostitutes Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-p ...

to settle the various scores, while an undercover FBI agent (Jerry Jones) lurks in the shadows, following the proceedings and supporting Dolemite's quest.

Cast

Rudy Ray Moore Rudolph Frank Moore (March 17, 1927October 19, 2008), known as Rudy Ray Moore, was an American comedian, singer, actor, and film producer.D'Urville Martin D'Urville Martin (February 11, 1939 – May 28, 1984) was an American actor in both film and television. He appeared in numerous 1970s movies in the blaxploitation genre. He also appeared in two unaired pilots of what would become ''All in the F ...

as Willie Green * West Gale as Reverend Gibbs * John Kerry as Detective Mitchell * Jerry Jones as Blakely *

as Mayor Daley * Vainus Rackstraw as "Creeper"

Production

Moore first developed the character of Dolemite in his stand-up comedy routines, and the character later appeared on Moore's 1970 debut album, ''Eat Out More Often'', which reached the top 25 on the ''Billboard'' 200. He released several more comedy albums using this persona. In 1975, Moore decided to create a film about Dolemite, paying for most of the production out of his own pocket, and using many of his friends and fellow comedians as cast and crew. The film was directed by

, who appears as the villain Willie Green.

Release

Critical reception

The film received middling reviews from film critics. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 57% based on 14 reviews, with an average score of 5/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film received a score of 67 based on 6 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Home media

''Dolemite'' was released on VHS in 1987 by Xenon Home Video (#X-006), 91 minutes ''Dolemite'' was released to

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

on September 13, 2005, by Xenon Pictures and also as part of a boxed set (''The Dolemite Collection'') on the same date. A widescreen,

high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *Blu-ray Disc, the universal optical High Definition disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tap ...

remastered version, from an original print of the film, was released on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

disc on April 26, 2016, by

Vinegar Syndrome Vinegar Syndrome is an American home video distribution company which specializes in "protecting and preserving genre films". The company was founded in 2012 in Bridgeport, Connecticut by Joe Rubin and Ryan Emerson, who created it to restore ...

. The prior VHS and DVD releases from the early-1990s were incorrectly transferred with an

open matte Open matte is a filming technique that involves matting out the top and bottom of the film frame in the movie projector (known as a ''soft matte'') for the widescreen theatrical release and then scanning the film without a matte (at Academy ...

, which revealed the

boom mic A boom operator (or First Assistant Sound) is a core role in the sound department of a film production, who works with the production sound mixer and utility sound technician. The principal responsibility of the boom operator is microphone placem ...

at the top of the frame frequently (with the correct matte in a theatrical presentation, this area would have been covered). Over the years, the appearance of the boom mic due to the oversight during the VHS and DVD transfer was the source of amusement by viewers, and in acknowledgement of this, the Blu-ray also features an open matte version as an alternate "boom mic" presentation.

Legacy

A sequel, ''

The Human Tornado ''The Human Tornado'' is a 1976 American blaxploitation film directed by Cliff Roquemore. The film is a sequel to ''Dolemite''. In the film, a sheriff's wife has an extramarital affair with Dolemite. Her husband orders one of his subordinates ...

'', was released in 1976. A second sequel, ''The Return of Dolemite'', was released in 2002 and was later re-titled ''The Dolemite Explosion'' for DVD release. A quasi-sequel, ''

Shaolin Dolemite ''Shaolin Dolemite'' is a 1999 direct-to-video film starring Rudy Ray Moore and in name, a sequel to ''Dolemite'' (1975). The film was created by re-dubbing footage filmed for the 1986 Taiwanese kung fu film ''Ren zhe da'' (known in English as '' ...

'', starring

Rudy Ray Moore Rudolph Frank Moore (March 17, 1927October 19, 2008), known as Rudy Ray Moore, was an American comedian, singer, actor, and film producer.Black Dynamite ''Black Dynamite'' is a 2009 American blaxploitation action comedy film starring Michael Jai White, Tommy Davidson, and Salli Richardson. The film was directed by Scott Sanders and co-written by White, Sanders, and Byron Minns, who also co-s ...

'' (2009) parodies ''Dolemite'' and other blaxploitation films. A biographical film about Moore and the making of ''Dolemite'', titled ''

Dolemite Is My Name ''Dolemite Is My Name'' is a 2019 American biographical comedy film directed by Craig Brewer and written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. The film stars Eddie Murphy as filmmaker Rudy Ray Moore, who is best known for having portrayed t ...

'' and starring

Eddie Murphy Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, and singer. He had his breakthrough as a standup comic before gaining stardom for his film roles; he is widely recognized as one of the greatest comedians of all time. H ...

as Rudy Ray Moore, was released theatrically and on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

in October 2019.

References

External links

* * *
2006 SuicideGirls interview with Rudy Ray Moore by Daniel Robert Epstein
{{Dolemite 1975 films 1975 action comedy films 1970s crime comedy films 1970s martial arts comedy films Blaxploitation films American action comedy films African-American films 1975 directorial debut films Dimension Pictures films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films Films about comedians Films about prostitution Films about the illegal drug trade Karate films English-language crime comedy films English-language action comedy films