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

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Hot Potato

Action, Blaxploitation
Black Cast
Jim Kelly
Release Date
April 09, 1976
Synopsis

Martial-arts expert tries to rescue an ambassador's daughter who was kidnapped in Thailand.

Hot Potato

Black Shampoo

Comedy, Drama, Action, Crime, Blaxploitation
Watch The Trailer:
Black Shampoo Trailer
Black Cast
Tanya Boyd
Release Date
March 05, 1976
Synopsis

A black hairdresser's sexual escapades with married customers lead to a confrontation with a jealous mobster.

Black Shampoo
Release Date
January 25, 1976
Synopsis

Set in northern Nigeria towards the end of the 19th century, Shaihu Umar begins with a discussion between Islamic students and their renowned teacher, the wise man Shaihu Umar. Asked about his origins, Umar begins to tell his story: he comes from a modest background and is separated from his mother after his father dies and his stepfather is banished. His subsequent trials and tribulations are marked by slavery, and he is put to any number of tests until he finally becomes the adopted son of his Arabic master Abdulkarim. He attends Quranic school and is made an imam upon reaching adulthood. Following a particular dream, he resolves to search for his mother.

Shaihu Umar

Emma Mae

Comedy, Drama, Romance
Watch The Trailer:
Emma Mae Trailer
Black Cast
Jamaa Fanaka
Release Date
January 01, 1976
Synopsis

A naive young girl from the South moves in with her relatives in a Los Angeles ghetto. At first she is made fun of, but eventually she is accepted and plots to rob a bank to raise bail money for her new boyfriend, who is a jailed drug dealer.

Emma Mae

Friday Foster

Action, Thriller, Blaxploitation
Watch The Trailer:
Friday Foster Trailer
Black Cast
Carl Weathers, Eartha Kitt, Godfrey Cambridge, Julius Harris, Pam Grier, Scatman Crothers, Ted Lange, Thalmus Rasulala, Yaphet Kotto
Release Date
December 25, 1975
Synopsis

Friday Foster, an ex-model magazine photographer, goes to Los Angeles International airport to photograph the arrival of Blake Tarr, the richest black man in America. Three men attempt to assassinate Tarr. Foster photographs the melee and is plunged into a web of conspiracy involving the murder of her childhood friend, a US senator, and a shadowy plan called "Black Widow".

Friday Foster

Adiós Amigo

Comedy, Action, Western
Black Cast
Fred Williamson, Richard Pryor, Thalmus Rasulala
Release Date
December 25, 1975
Synopsis

Two incompetent Western outlaws engineer several failed crimes, including a botched stagecoach holdup. Fred Williamson, a tough-guy perennial in blaxploitation movies, does a rare comedy turn as a blundering patsy to Richard Pryor's slick con man.

Adiós Amigo

Lady Cocoa

Drama, Romance, Crime
Black Cast
Lola Falana
Release Date
December 01, 1975
Synopsis

Foxy Lady Cocoa is out to take down her mobster boyfriend.

Lady Cocoa

Death Dimension

Action, Adventure, Science Fiction, Thriller, Blaxploitation
Black Cast
Bob Minor, Jim Kelly
Release Date
July 01, 1978
Synopsis

The Pig has a plan to eradicate some people with a freeze bomb that instantly freezes people to death. It is up to Detective Ash to stop him and protect the woman with the secret to the ice bomb embedded in a microdot under the skin of her forehead.

Death Dimension
Black Cast
Cicely Tyson, Erin Blunt, Glynn Turman, Harold Sylvester, Helen Martin, Kevin Hooks, Larry B. Scott, Paul Winfield
Release Date
February 03, 1978
Synopsis

Faced with the harsh reality of growing up in the ghetto, 13-year old Benjie (Larry B. Scott) turns to heroin to escape. After Benjie hits rock bottom, his mother (Cicely Tyson) and her boyfriend (Paul Winfield) must sacrifice to help him overcome his dependency. Directed by Ralph Nelson, this heartwarming drama tackles the battle of a troubled youth, his struggles with addiction, and the impact felt by those around him.

A Hero Ain't Nothin But a Sandwich
Watch The Trailer:
Which Way Is Up? Trailer
Black Cast
Lonette McKee, Margaret Avery, Marilyn Coleman, Michael Schultz, Richard Pryor
Release Date
November 04, 1977
Synopsis

Richard Pryor plays three roles - a beleaguered, sex-starved farm worker named Leroy Jones; the farm worker's randy old father Rufus; and the hypocritical town preacher Rev. Lenox Thomas - and Pryor has never been so outrageously funny. The lives and love lives of these three men cross and crisscross as Leroy tries to get his life back on track.

Which Way Is Up?

Petey Wheatstraw

Comedy, Action, Fantasy, Horror, Blaxploitation
Black Cast
Ebony Wright, Rudy Ray Moore, Steve Gallon, Sy Richardson
Release Date
November 01, 1977
Synopsis

Petey Wheatstraw (Rudy Ray Moore) is a candidate to become the devil's son-in-law. The storyline is a scaffolding on which Rudy Ray Moore's standup humor can be unfolded. Beginning life as the afterbirth to a watermelon, the young Wheatstraw becomes a martial artist, but is unable to best the evil comedy team of Leroy and Skillet, who also indulge in wholesale murder. Satan restores the comedians' victims to life, and charges Petey with the task of marrying his clock-stoppingly ugly daughter to giving him a grandchild. When Petey attempts to default on the deal, he is pursued by the devil's henchmen.

Petey Wheatstraw

A Piece of the Action

Comedy, Thriller
Watch The Trailer:
A Piece of the Action Trailer
Black Cast
Bill Cosby, Frances Foster, James Earl Jones, Ja'net DuBois, Sidney Poitier
Release Date
October 07, 1977
Synopsis

How does retired cop Joshua Burke (James Earl Jones) get two career criminals, Manny Durrell (Sidney Poitier) and Dave Anderson (Bill Cosby), to follow the straight and narrow? Con them into helping juvenile delinquents turn over a new leaf. But how? Burke has never been able to nail the duo, but he uses what he knows of their seedy past to blackmail them into volunteering.

A Piece of the Action

Black Fist

Drama, Action, Blaxploitation
Black Cast
Annazette Chase, Philip Michael Thomas, Richard Lawson
Release Date
August 31, 1977
Synopsis

To make money, a Los Angeles street-fighter goes to work for gangsters.

Black Fist

Greased Lightning

Comedy, Drama, Action
Black Cast
Bill Cobbs, Cleavon Little, Michael Schultz, Pam Grier, Richard Pryor, Richie Havens
Release Date
July 01, 1977
Synopsis

This film is based on the true life story of Wendell Scott, the first black stock car racing champion in America.

Greased Lightning

Abar, the First Black Superman

Action, Blaxploitation
Release Date
March 01, 1977
Synopsis

Upon moving into a bigoted neighborhood, the scientist father of a persecuted black family gives a superpower elixir to a tough bodyguard, who thus becomes a superpowered crimefighter.

Abar, the First Black Superman

Black Samurai

Romance, Action, Adventure, Crime, Blaxploitation
Black Cast
Marilyn Joi, Jim Kelly
Release Date
February 15, 1977
Synopsis

Robert Sand, agent of D.R.A.G.O.N. (Defense Reserve Agency Guardian Of Nations), is playing tennis on his vacation with a beautiful black girl, when his commanding officers ask him to save a Chinese girl who happens to be Sand's girlfriend, and the daughter of a top Eastern Ambassador. The ransom for the abduction was the secret for a terrific new weapon - the freeze bomb.

Black Samurai

The Monkey Hustle

Action, Blaxploitation
Watch The Trailer:
The Monkey Hustle Trailer
Black Cast
Randy Brooks, Rosalind Cash, Rudy Ray Moore, Thomas Carter, Yaphet Kotto
Release Date
December 24, 1976
Synopsis

A new highway threatens a Chicago neighborhood, so to protest the residents throw a block party.

The Monkey Hustle

Joshua

Drama, Thriller, Western
Watch The Trailer:
Joshua Trailer
Black Cast
Fred Williamson
Written By Black
Fred Williamson
Release Date
December 01, 1976
Synopsis

A black soldier returns from fighting for the Union in the Civil War only to find out that his mother has been murdered by a gang of white thugs. He becomes a bounty hunter, determined to track down and kill the men who killed his mother.

Joshua

Car Wash

Comedy
Watch The Trailer:
Car Wash Trailer
Black Cast
Antonio Fargas, Bill Duke, Franklyn Ajaye, Garrett Morris, Ivan Dixon, Michael Schultz, Richard Pryor
Release Date
October 22, 1976
Synopsis

This day-in-the-life cult comedy focuses on a group of friends working at Sully Boyar's Car Wash in the Los Angeles ghetto. The team meets dozens of eccentric customers -- including a smooth-talking preacher, a wacky cab driver and an ex-convict -- while cracking politically incorrect jokes to a constant soundtrack of disco and funk. Some of the workers find romance as the day moves along, but most are just happy to get through another shift.

Car Wash

The Human Tornado

Comedy, Action, Blaxploitation
Watch The Trailer:
The Human Tornado Trailer
Black Cast
Ernie Hudson, Lady Reed, Rudy Ray Moore
Release Date
October 02, 1976
Synopsis

Dolemite comes to the rescue of Queen Bee, whose Nightclub is threatened by the Mafia.

The Human Tornado