1973’s Enter the Dragon was an atom bomb of cool dropped on an American public that was looking for somewhere, anywhere, to be other than the early 70’s in America. Bruce Lee’s ferocity mixed with a cool Oriental chic and a plot ripped straight from James Bond seemed to light the way to a new era of martial arts cinema backed by big-time Hollywood budgets.
Then, just as suddenly as it appeared, the meteor that was Bruce Lee was snuffed out and an industry that was revving up to produce a movement of films looked around for answers.
Filmmakers on both sides of the Pacific tried to capture the magic of Lee in any way they could: clones, co-stars, unofficial sequels.
Almost everyone who had been even tangentially involved with the production of Enter the Dragon or one of Bruce Lee’s Hong Kong films was sized up for their potential as the next big action star.
Black Belt Jones (1974) is one of the most logical results of this mad scramble.
In Enter the Dragon producers had hedged their bets on a Chinese lead by pairing him with a white actor and judo practitioner, John Saxon and an African-American actor and karate champion Jim Kelly. Kelly’s fight scenes were probably the most impressive of those in the film that did not feature Bruce Lee so he was re-teamed with director Robert Clouse for Black Belt Jones.
The film plays it very safe: Kelly is recruited by the cops to go after the Mafia as they move in on a land grab in what plays like a scaled down version of Lee being recruited to go after Han, but being that he’s got no time for The Man, he turns them down. Fate has other ideas for him and when his mentor (Scatman Crothers) and his karate dojo come under fire from the Mob, Black Belt Jones hops on the case to take down the Mob and look good doing it. He’s partnered up with Sydney (Gloria Hendry of Live and Let Die), the daughter of Crothers’ Pop and who knows a little about kicking, punching, and shooting in her own right.
Wisely, the film does not try to replicate the feel of Enter the Dragon which derived from Lee’s eastern philosophical impulses and coiled intensity.
This film is keyed in a lower register: Kelly is kind of a natural with comedy scenes and he affects almost the manner of an African-American Roger Moore, in that he’s just too cool for school and nothing can get under his skin. Many of the Hollywood studios’ attempts to capitalize on the Black cine of the 1970’s don’t have a lot of meat on the bone, but Kelly’s combination of graceful karate and easy charm gets us rooting for this one to stick the landing.
Unfortunately, he’s got the wrong director.
Robert Clouse made a career on the back of Enter the Dragon.
As a result of its success he was given this film, the “official” Bruceploitation film Game of Death, Jackie Chan’s first American-shot feature The Big Brawl, Cynthia Rothrock’s first American film China O’Brien and others. This is a deep irony in cinematic history because Clouse never quite learned how to film martial arts (Lee, who had just come off his first directorial effort, had done much to stage his own fight scenes in Enter the Dragon) and this film is easily his most bland work in the genre.
Every fight seems to commit the cardinal sin of just having bad guys stand around and wait for Jim Kelly to get around to kicking them.
You can see where they had conceptually good ideas for fight scenes: the train scene, the fight in the bubbles, but nothing save the film’s introduction, where a group of stuntmen take some hellacious bumps off of car windshields, really feels like Jim Kelly is being let off the leash and featured in a way that shows off what he was actually capable of. Gloria Hendry actually fares better because her fights are shot to maximize her sex appeal and the high kicks mask how loose the choreography is.
Still, even within those limitations of time and skill– Black Belt Jones works.
It’s a light, fast, fun comedy with some cool characters and good work from a lot of Black character actors that is brimming with positivity and energy.
This is a Saturday afternoon classic to watch with Dad, as long as you know you’re not getting Bruce or Jackie quality in the fights.
Extra includes theatrical trailer.
Recommended.
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