''Willie Dynamite'' is a 1973 American
blaxploitation film directed by
Gilbert Moses and starring
Roscoe Orman
Roscoe Hunter Orman (born June 11, 1944) is an American actor, writer, artist and child advocate, best known for playing Gordon Robinson, one of the central human characters on ''Sesame Street''.
Early life and career
While a student at New Y ...
,
Diana Sands
Diana Patricia Sands (August 22, 1934September 21, 1973) was an American actress, perhaps most known for her portrayal of Beneatha Younger, the sister of Sidney Poitier's character, Walter, in the original stage and film versions of Lorraine Han ...
,
Thalmus Rasulala
Thalmus Rasulala (born Jack Crowder; November 15, 1939October 9, 1991) was an American actor with a long career in theater, television, and films. Noted for starring roles in blaxploitation films, he was also an original cast member of ABC's soa ...
, Joyce Walker, and was released by
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
. The eponymous Willie Dynamite is a pimp in New York City, who strives to be number one in the city. As he is trying to do so, a social worker named Cora, is trying to change his ways - as well as those of the women who work for him - for the better. It was the first film produced by the Zanuck-Brown Company.
Plot
Willie Dynamite appears as the film's opening credits begin, with
Martha Reeves
Martha Rose Reeves (born July 18, 1941) is an American R&B and pop singer. She is the lead singer of the Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas which scored over a dozen hit singles, including " Come and Get These Memories", " Nowhere to R ...
singing the title song, 'Willie Dynamite.' Willie is driving his 'pimped-out' purple Cadillac on the streets of midtown Manhattan. The front license plate reading the first part of his nickname - 'Willie,' and the back license plate reading the second part - 'Dynamite.' Willie's destination is a midtown hotel, to collect payment from his women - who work the midtown hotels, attracting the many businessmen, conventioneers, who are looking for sex.
Willie's 'stable' of seven women are of all ethnicities, dressed in vibrant outfits. Their entrance into the Business International Association convention - by entering as an ensemble through the hotel's main doors in-sync with the title song's description of them - has all the men in the room ogling them. Many conventioneers - including even a pair of police officers - take the women to their hotel rooms. Pashen is the newest hooker working for Willie, and she is last in line to hand in her payments. Willie gets mad at her for producing less than expected. Willie compares his business with those of a production line: "Seven girls out there. Every ten minutes, one comes off the production line, like that. This is a business, baby, a production line, and just like GM, Ford, Chrysler, Willie's comin' through." Willie tells of his dreams of being the number one, top-pimp in New York City.
Bell, currently the number one pimp, holds a 'pimp council,' and tells the gathered pimps of the police cracking down on prostitution activities across the city. Bell makes a business proposal, wherein each pimp will get his own area to run, instead of the pimps competing for territory. Everyone agrees, except Willie. He argues the idea would hurt his business. Willie says his women are akin to 'animals of the jungle,' having the need to 'roam free,' and 'conquer all that can be controlled.'
Soon after the meeting ends, Willie learns Pashen has been arrested. Cora is a social worker, who tries to get the prostitutes in jail, to get out of the business, and turn their lives around. Cora meets Pashen, and tries to educate her on the dangers of being a prostitute. Cora encourages Pashen to change her life, and, as she's so young and pretty, to become a model and get paid for it. Being naïve, Pashen dismisses the idea, believing she can make more money as a hooker for Willie. Willie comes to post bail and gets Pashen out of jail. While Willie is out of his apartment, Cora makes an unexpected visit, and tells the women they are being ripped off by Willie. They ponder what Cora said as she leaves the apartment. When Willie comes back, he learns Pashen has been arrested again and the other women are reluctant to work. Willie threatens them if they decide to not work.
Cora visits the jail and tries again to persuade Pashen to get out of prostitution. Pashen still insists prostitution - and being part of Willie's 'stable' - is okay, as she's making a lot of money, and she likes the men's attention while working, because she feels like someone 'important,' wanted & beautiful. Cora tells Pashen that she, too, was once a prostitute, on the streets. Cora sneaks into Willie's apartment to find records of Willie's bank accounts, which could provide evidence of his illegal activity, but, the materials she takes would not be able to stand up in court. After this second arrest, Pashen finally decides to take Cora's advice about pursuing modeling, and does a photo-shoot for which she gets paid. She tries to tell Willie she wants out, but, he tells her of his dreams and hopes for her (and for himself), which she's not able to refuse.
Willie goes to the hotel convention, and finds his territory has been invaded and his lead hooker, Honey, has been killed after a territorial battle. Willie's life is spiraling downward, as he finds all his bank accounts have been frozen, and he's under investigation by the
Internal Revenue Service. Two detectives chase Willie through New York. Willie's seven hookers are arrested after the hotel fight, but Willie can't post bail, and the women are sent to the women's detention center for holding. While in the detention center, Pashen's face gets cut, and she's traumatized by her loss of beauty.
When Willie returns home, he is met by Bell and his men, who tells Willie to quit the business, and a fight ensues. Later, Willie is caught by the same two detectives, for possession of drugs. They have to free Willie, as the evidence obtained was done so without a warrant. In the end, Willie thinks back on past events, and after hearing news of his mother's dying, leaves his car - and by inference, pimping - for good. The film ends with Willie walking happily down the streets.
Cast
*
Roscoe Orman
Roscoe Hunter Orman (born June 11, 1944) is an American actor, writer, artist and child advocate, best known for playing Gordon Robinson, one of the central human characters on ''Sesame Street''.
Early life and career
While a student at New Y ...
as William Andrew "Willie Dynamite" Short, an ambitious pimp in New York City wanting to become the top, always shown with a vibrant sense of fashion
*
Diana Sands
Diana Patricia Sands (August 22, 1934September 21, 1973) was an American actress, perhaps most known for her portrayal of Beneatha Younger, the sister of Sidney Poitier's character, Walter, in the original stage and film versions of Lorraine Han ...
as Cora, a
social worker who was once a prostitute on the streets, trying to reform Willie Dynamite in his ways
*
Thalmus Rasulala
Thalmus Rasulala (born Jack Crowder; November 15, 1939October 9, 1991) was an American actor with a long career in theater, television, and films. Noted for starring roles in blaxploitation films, he was also an original cast member of ABC's soa ...
as Daniels, Cora's lover who is a district attorney, also fighting to put Willie Dynamite in jail
* Joyce Walker as Pashen, the newest prostitute of Willie, who strives to make good money after being rescued from Willie
*
Norma Donaldson as Honey, Willie's head hooker, whose job is to make sure the other hookers are working, and who dies after a fight with hookers from another pimp
*
Roger Robinson as Bell, the top pimp of New York, fighting with Willie and his hookers to maintain control of his top status
*
Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no governm ...
as Pointer, the black detective chasing Willie, an orthodox man
*
George Murdock
George Peter ("Pete") Murdock (May 11, 1897 – March 29, 1985), also known as G. P. Murdock, was an American anthropologist who was professor at Yale University and University of Pittsburgh. He is remembered for his empirical approach to ethn ...
as Celli, the
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
detective who would do anything for a shortcut and to get paid
Production
Willie Dynamite is always shown with a bright colored outfit, stereotypical outfit for the pimp. He is always wearing a hat that matches the rest of his outfit. He is first seen wearing a bright candy red suit with a white-striped red jacket and matching white-striped red hat. The second outfit that he is seen in is a clover green suit with a red scarf. With this, he is also wearing a large fur coat and hat. When he is detained by the police for the first time, he is wearing a white fur-striped brown lamb coat, which he loudly announces, "Brown coat? This is lamb! I paid over a grand for it!" after he is under suspicion for armed robbery for wearing a "brown coat." The next outfit he is dressed in is shiny and gold.
Blaxploitation theme
The film produces many of the qualities seen in blaxploitation films, popular in the 1970s.
[McCann, Bob. ''Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland &, 2010. Print.] Blaxploitation films would present a black character, usually shown in the ghetto, characterized by poverty, drugs, and violence. These black characters would be seen pitted against white characters of power, usually the police, as seen in this film.
In one scene, Willie is aggressively detained by the police while driving. The charge is suspicion of armed robbery, fitting a description of wearing a brown coat. Willie is shouting that he is unlawfully charged and that it's unconstitutional, while the police are laughing about the detainment. This is an example of blaxploitation where white police are committing corrupt acts against black people.
[Reid, Mark. Black Lenses, Black Voices: African American Film Now. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. Print.] Willie is later let go after the police lineup proves his innocence. As he exits the station, a police officer tells Willie that his car was parked, by the police from the detainment, in a tow-away zone. With trouble as it is, he then finds two detectives unlawfully searching his car without a warrant. They tell him a black female overdosed and believed it was Willie's fault. The black detective tells Willie he should care, "Yeah Willie, she's my sister. She's your sister too."
When the two detectives are chasing Willie Dynamite through New York City, the white detective is seen on a rooftop telling the black detective what to do. This is a reflection of the 1970s, where white men had higher power in society, as blacks were a minority. The two detectives represent the blaxploitation images in film, the black detective as a hard working man going by the books, and the white detective looking anywhere for a shortcut.
In another scene, the two detectives are talking to each other before their performance review on the police force. Celli, the white detective, reads the newspaper and tells Pointer that he may have to leave the force for his religion. Celli complains that Pointer is too orthodox in his ways, another example of white police looking for a shortcut to make money.
Inside the courtroom, when Willie is detained for possession, he announces that the police have obtained evidence without a warrant. This is a recurring example in blaxploitation films, where corrupt police use unorthodox ways to catch black criminals.
However, the film has an unusually low body count for a blaxploitation film: a mere two, and one of them is an elderly woman who succumbs to a heart attack. This might be cited as an example of the filmmakers' desire to position it as a more serious example of the genre, the idea being that life has more value than is generally displayed in such films. Additionally, the idea of a Black Muslim cop lecturing Willie about what he is doing to "our people" was another unique touch.
Release
''Willie Dynamite'' premiered at the
Woods Theatre
The Woods Theatre was a movie palace located at the corner of Randolph and Dearborn Streets in the Chicago Loop. It opened in 1918 and was a popular entertainment destination for decades. Originally a venue for live theater, it later converted to s ...
in Chicago on December 19, 1973
and grossed $54,585 in its first week. It was released in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
on January 24, 1974 and
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
on March 27, 1974.
[
]
Home media
The film was released on 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 kind ...
on January 11, 2005.
Soundtrack
Martha Reeves
Martha Rose Reeves (born July 18, 1941) is an American R&B and pop singer. She is the lead singer of the Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas which scored over a dozen hit singles, including " Come and Get These Memories", " Nowhere to R ...
sang the title song on the soundtrack album.
J. J. Johnson composed and produced the original soundtrack.
See also
* List of American films of 1973
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
* List of blaxploitation films
References
External links
*
*
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Willie Dynamite
1973 films
1973 crime drama films
American crime drama films
Blaxploitation films
Dynamite, Willie
Dynamite
Films about drugs
Films set in New York City
Films shot in Los Angeles
American independent films
Universal Pictures films
Films produced by Richard D. Zanuck
Films produced by David Brown
The Zanuck Company films
Films about prostitution in the United States
1970s English-language films
1970s American films