Warner Bros. was behind Black Samson, which came out in 1974, but if you don’t pay attention, you might think it was produced by MGM as the opening scene is a close-up shot of a lion growling!
Black Samson was the best vehicle that tough, charismatic actor Rockne Tarkington ever had.
The former kids’ show star (Danger Island on The Banana Splits Hour beginning in 1968) plays Samson, a soft-spoken bar owner in a black neighborhood, who wears dashikis and caftans, keeps a pet lion in his bar, and carries a very big walking stick that doubles as a cudgel.
Soft-spoken, yes, but when the moment calls for it, he becomes a force of nature. He has a reputation for keeping his neighborhood clean from drugs.
Legend has it that Tarkington was originally going to play Williams, the ill-fated third member of “The Deadly Three” along with Bruce Lee and John Saxon in 1973’s Enter the Dragon. At 6’5” he would have towered over 5’ 8” Bruce. Ironically, the part ended up going to Jim Kelly, who had made his film debut in 1972’s Melinda (reviewed here recently), which featured Tarkington as one of the bad guys.
The plot of Black Samson is nowhere near as interesting as the character itself. Basically, it’s one wronged man versus a vicious, racist mobster. In this case the mobster is played by “Big” Bill Smith, co-star of TV’s Laredo a few years earlier and already a veteran of a bunch of motorcycle flicks by this point. Samson tops his 6’2” as well!
The music is a large part of the blaxploitation films and this one is no different. It comes from legendary New Orleans musician Allen Toussaint. There really isn’t that much of it, but what there is works fairly well, with some pretty funky drums keeping the beat. The remastered picture is crisp and as a result, looks fantastic.
Familiar character actor Titos Vandis is the older, wiser, mob leader, father to Smith’s character. He warns his son against trying to infiltrate Samson’s neighborhood but that doesn’t stop him.
Actress Carol Speed, best known for the “black exorcist” movie, Abby, made the same year, is the leading lady, and alternates throughout between cool and histrionic. Blonde Carol Strickland is cute but very bland as the gangster’s girl.
As ‘70s exploitation movies go, there’s not that much action here, or even violence. Some, sure, including a routine car chase and some uncomfortable violence against women, but in the end, the reason to watch Black Samson is purely for Rockne Tarkington.
He creates an imposing, likable, larger-than-life, black hero and his acting is considerably better than that of any of his co-stars, even the ever-smiling, sadistic Smith. It’s enough, but I found myself wishing every step of the way that this stylish hero had more chances to be heroic.
When we do get to the climax, it starts out in a darkened warehouse where everything is hard to see, and even the inevitable one on one fight between the hero and the bad guy seems somehow unsatisfactory.
You’ll find the dreaded “N” word in quite a lot of black-oriented movies, then and now, but it seems to be in this one more than most, so if you’re offended, be aware. That and the violence against women are about the only things offensive here, though.
If only Black Samson could have hooked up with Tamara Dobson’s statuesque Cleopatra Jones, or Richard Roundtree’s Shaft, or even Dolemite!
Maybe they could have all teamed up and fought Ron O’Neal’s drug-pushing Superfly! Instead, when you break it down, we get a great one-shot character, but in a by-the-book, pedestrian, Brothers vs. racist mobsters and that’s it.
Even the lion doesn’t really get anything to do after that opening roar.
Kind of enjoyable for the character…but I can’t really recommend it.
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