''Mean Johnny Barrows'' is a 1976 American

crime drama film 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 Ca ...

starring Fred Williamson, who also directed the film;

Stuart Whitman Stuart Maxwell Whitman (February 1, 1928 – March 16, 2020) was an American actor, known for his lengthy career in film and television. Whitman was born in San Francisco and raised in New York until the age of 12, when his family relocated to ...

; Luther Adler; Jenny Sherman; and

Roddy McDowall Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (17 September 1928 – 4 October 1998) was a British actor, photographer and film director. He began his acting career as a child in England, and then in the United States, in ''How Green Was My Valley'' (1 ...

also star.

Plot

Johnny Barrows (played by Fred "The Hammer" Williamson) is dishonorably discharged from the army for punching out a fellow officer. Shipped back home to Spiddal, Johnny promptly gets mugged and hauled in by some racist cops for being drunk. Unable to secure gainful employment, Johnny finds himself on the soup line (with a cameo from Elliott Gould) and down on his luck. Walking into an Italian restaurant hoping for a handout, he's offered a job by Mafiosi Mario Racconi (Stuart Whitman) and his girlfriend Nancy (Jenny Sherman) but Johnny turns him down. It seems that he's not slipped so far as to start doing odd jobs for the Mob. Eventually, Johnny lands a job at a gas station cleaning toilets and scrubbing floors for the mean penny-pinching Richard (R.G. Armstrong), who receives a beating for ripping off Barrows. Meanwhile, a Mafia war starts brewing between the Racconi family and the Da Vincis (the family, not the painter). Seems the Da Vinci family wants to bring in all kinds of dope and start peddling it to black kids. The Racconis, being an upstanding Mob family, wants no part of that on their streets. And so it goes, with the Racconi family wiped out in a treacherous double-cross, with only Mario left standing. Nancy is kidnapped by the Da Vinci family and gets a message to Johnny claiming that she was made to do "terrible things". Brought to the brink by poverty, the Man constantly screwing him and his love for Nancy, Johnny agrees to become a hired killer for Mario to avenge the Racconis. And so the body count starts going up as Johnny in all his white-suited glory gets mean and starts killing his way through the Da Vinci family.

Cast

* Fred Williamson as Johnny Barrows *

as Tony Da Vince *

as Mario Racconi * Luther Adler as Don Racconi * Jenny Sherman as Nancy *

Elliott Gould Elliott Gould (; né Goldstein; born August 29, 1938) is an American actor. He began acting in Hollywood films during the 1960s. Elliott's breakthrough role was in the '' Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice'' (1969), for which he received a nomination ...

as Professor Theodore Rasputin Waterhouse * Anthony Caruso as Don Da Vince *

R.G. Armstrong Robert Golden Armstrong Jr. (April 7, 1917 – July 27, 2012) was an American character actor and playwright. A veteran performer who appeared in dozens of Westerns during his 40-year career, he may be best remembered for his work with director ...

as Richard * Mike Henry as Carlo Da Vince * Aaron Banks as Captain O'Malley * Robert Phillips as Ben *

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the hono ...

as Police Sergeant

Additional notes

The structure of the film was previously used a year before in the film '' The Farmer'' (which was shot in 1975 but released in 1977).

External links

* 1976 films 1976 crime drama films Films scored by David Raksin Films directed by Fred Williamson 1976 directorial debut films 1970s English-language films {{1970s-crime-drama-film-stub