70's Black Movies: Our List with Over 100 Films

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Black Belt Jones

Comedy, Action, Blaxploitation
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Black Belt Jones Trailer
Black Cast
Eric Laneuville, Gloria Hendry, Scatman Crothers, Alan Weeks, Jim Kelly
Release Date
January 29, 1974
Synopsis

Jones is a secret agent who has gone into semi-retirement, concentrating instead on teaching the martial arts to inner city youths. The karate school is run by a kindly old coot named Pops ,played by Scatman Crothers. His gambling debts, however, bring the local thug, Pinky, down on him. To make matters worse, Pinky is then hired by some white thugs who want to get a hold of the property Pops' school occupies so they can build a shopping mall. When things get heavy, Black Belt Jones leaps into action. Only he's not alone. Pops' daughter, Sidney, shows up to lend a hand, proving herself every bit as agile and powerful a martial artist as Jones.

Black Belt Jones

Take a Hard Ride

Action, Western, Blaxploitation
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Take a Hard Ride Trailer
Black Cast
Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, Jim Kelly
Release Date
October 29, 1975
Synopsis

After his cattle rancher boss dies, right-hand man Pike is given the job of returning $86,000 to some families who live across the border in Senora, Mexico. Honest Pike is joined on the trip through the wilderness by a dishonest gambler named Tyree.

Take a Hard Ride

Let's Do It Again

Comedy, Crime, Blaxploitation
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Let's Do It Again Trailer
Black Cast
Bill Cosby, Calvin Lockhart, Jimmie Walker, John Amos, Ossie Davis, Sidney Poitier
Release Date
October 11, 1975
Synopsis

Clyde Williams and Billy Foster are a couple of blue-collar workers in Atlanta who have promised to raise funds for their fraternal order, the Brothers and Sisters of Shaka. However, their method for raising the money involves travelling to New Orleans and rigging a boxing match.

Let's Do It Again

Mahogany

Drama, Romance, Blaxploitation
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Mahogany Trailer
Black Cast
Beah Richards, Berry Gordy, Billy Dee Williams, Diana Ross
Release Date
October 08, 1975
Synopsis

Tracy, an aspiring designer from the slums of Chicago puts herself through fashion school in the hopes of becoming one of the world's top designers. Her ambition leads her to Rome spurring a choice between the man she loves or her newfound success.

Mahogany

Boss Nigger

Action, Crime, Western, Blaxploitation
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Boss Nigger Trailer
Black Cast
D'Urville Martin, Fred Williamson
Written By Black
Fred Williamson
Release Date
August 17, 1975
Synopsis

Two black bounty hunters ride into a small town out West in pursuit of an outlaw. They discover that the town has no sheriff, and soon take over that position, much against the will of the mostly white townsfolk.

Boss Nigger

Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold

Drama, Action, Adventure, Blaxploitation
Black Cast
Tamara Dobson, Albert Popwell
Release Date
July 11, 1975
Synopsis

When fellow operatives (and childhood friends) Matthew Johnson and Melvin Johnson disappear during an undercover mission in Hong Kong, Cleopatra Jones travels there to find them. With the help of local detective Mi Ling, Cleopatra discovers that her friends' disappearance has to do with The Dragon Lady, a much-feared blonde "lipstick lesbian" who runs a Macao casino and controls a major chunk of the local drug trade.

Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold

Bucktown

Action, Blaxploitation
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Bucktown Trailer
Black Cast
Bernie Hamilton, Carl Weathers, Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, Thalmus Rasulala, Tierre Turner, Tony King
Release Date
July 02, 1975
Synopsis

Duke Johnson visits a small Southern town, intent on burying his brother. After the funeral, he learns that he must stay for 60 days, for the estate to be processed. A few locals convince Duke to reopen his late brother's nightclub, and soon the local redneck policemen are intimidating Duke with threats of violence. Duke refuses to pay the bribes they demand, so then he and his lady friend Aretha are threatened and attacked by the crooked cops. Rather than take them on himself, Duke calls on his old pal Roy. Roy brings a few buddies to Bucktown, and they bring justice to the small town. With the redneck cops out of the way, Duke lets his guard down. Then the situation gets out of hand again. Finally, Duke must settle the score himself.

Bucktown

Cooley High

Comedy, Drama
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Cooley High Trailer
Black Cast
Garrett Morris, Glynn Turman, Michael Schultz
Release Date
June 25, 1975
Synopsis

In the mid-1960s, a group of high school friends who live on the Near North Side of Chicago enjoy life to the fullest...parties, hanging out, meeting new friends. Then life changes for two of the guys when they meet a pair of career criminals and get falsely arrested in connection with stealing a Cadillac. We follow their lives through the end of high school and the dramatic end to their school.

Cooley High

Mandingo

Drama, Romance, Action, History, Blaxploitation
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Mandingo Trailer
Black Cast
Brenda Sykes, Ji-Tu Cumbuka, Ken Norton, Richard Ward
Release Date
June 06, 1975
Synopsis

A slave owner in the 1840s trains one of his slaves to be a bare-knuckle fighter.

Mandingo

The Candy Tangerine Man

Drama, Action, Blaxploitation
Black Cast
Marilyn Joi
Release Date
May 01, 1975
Synopsis

Sunset Boulevard is a lucrative place to work for the Black Baron, a pimp with a distinctive red and yellow Rolls Royce and plenty of girls on his books. He don't take no mess from his girls, his madam or his competitors and viciously defends his patch. First, he clobbers the Mob who attempt to move in on his patch. Second, he tracks down one of his girls who runs off with a suitcase full of his cash. Third, he disposes of two policemen. But by now he knows his pimping days are numbered, so after a final explosive gun battle he switches to being his alter ego, mild-mannered businessman Ron who lives out in the leafy suburbs with an unsuspecting wife and family.

The Candy Tangerine Man

Dolemite

Comedy, Action, Crime, Blaxploitation
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Dolemite Trailer
Release Date
April 26, 1975
Synopsis

Dolemite is a pimp who was set up by Willie Greene and the cops, who have planted drugs, stolen furs, and guns in his trunk and got him sentenced to 20 years in jail. One day, Queen B and a warden planned to get him out of Jail and get Willie Green and Mitchell busted for what they did to him.

Dolemite

Sheba, Baby

Drama, Action, Thriller, Blaxploitation
Black Cast
Austin Stoker, D'Urville Martin, Pam Grier
Release Date
March 26, 1975
Synopsis

Sheba, a Chicago private detective returns back home to Louisville, Kentucky, to help her father fight mobsters.

Sheba, Baby

Abby

Horror
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Abby Trailer
Black Cast
Austin Stoker, Carol Speed, Terry Carter, William Marshall
Release Date
December 25, 1974
Synopsis

When a minister's wife becomes posessed by Eshu, the Nigerian god of sexuality, an exorcist is called in to drive the evil spirit away.

Abby

Space Is the Place

Science Fiction
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Space Is the Place Trailer
Black Cast
Sun Ra, Raymond Johnson, Marshall Allen
Written By Black
Sun Ra
Release Date
November 01, 1974
Synopsis

Sun Ra and his Solar Myth Arkestra return to Earth after several years in space. Ra proclaims himself "the alter-destiny", meets with inner-city youths and battles with the devil himself to save the black race.

Space Is the Place

Brotherhood of Death

Drama, Action, Blaxploitation
Black Cast
Haskell V. Anderson III
Release Date
September 14, 1976
Synopsis

A group of Black soldiers are home from the war and head to a small Southern town. The town is dominated by a group of Klansmen who keep the Black majority from voting or being treated like human beings. However, these newcomers convince the local population to register to vote so they can take back power and achieve justice. When hundreds show up to register, the Klan responds with violence. Eventually, though, the Black community has little choice other than fight back and the film ends with a small war between these combat vets and the Klan.

Brotherhood of Death

J.D.'s Revenge

Horror, Thriller, Blaxploitation
Black Cast
Carl W. Crudup, Glynn Turman, Julian Christopher, Louis Gossett Jr., Stephanie Faulkner
Release Date
August 25, 1976
Synopsis

A college student is possessed by a 40's era gangster.

J.D.'s Revenge

Drum

Drama, Action, History, Thriller
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Drum Trailer
Black Cast
Brenda Sykes, Ken Norton, Pam Grier, Paula Kelly, Yaphet Kotto
Release Date
July 30, 1976
Synopsis

A mid-19th century mulatto slave is torn between his success as a pit-fighter and the injustices of white society.

Drum
Black Cast
Billy Dee Williams, DeWayne Jessie, James Earl Jones, Jophery C. Brown, Mabel King, Richard Pryor, Sam Laws, Stan Shaw, Ted Ross, Tony Burton
Release Date
July 16, 1976
Synopsis

Tired of the slave-like treatment of his team's owner, charismatic star Negro League pitcher Bingo Long takes to the road with his band of barnstormers through the small towns of the Midwest in the 1930's.

The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings

Black Heat

Drama, Action, Crime
Black Cast
Timothy Brown
Release Date
June 01, 1976
Synopsis

Kicks Carter is a streetwise policeman whose beat is Las Vegas. A crime gang is running guns, selling drugs, loan-sharking, and running a prostitution ring out of an upscale hotel in the city and Kicks is trying to put them out of business. But the interference of a woman reporter is making his job more difficult.

Black Heat

Countdown at Kusini

Drama, Blaxploitation
Release Date
April 16, 1976
Synopsis

An American musician working in Nigeria becomes involved with a patriot hunted by a mercenary in Africa.

Countdown at Kusini