JIM BROWN, MARTIN LANDAU & BRUCE GLOVER IN 'BLACK GUNN'

Jim Brown in BLACK GUNN Year: 1972 Rating: ****

In 1972, two blaxploitation movies had similar plots: a group of black criminals successfully steal cash from a mafia money-counting outpost, followed by the inevitable thugs hunting them down... but in this case they only want Herbert Jefferson Jr. as Scott Gunn, younger brother of our titular hero in Jim Brown's rich  nightclub owner GUNN...

For the first half the smooth star's caught in-between a political pickle with the mafia against his hidden-away brother's militant black gang, including another ex-footballer Bernie Casey... 

Martin Landau in BLACK GUNN

And while the plot involving used car salesman Martin Landau covering tracks for a promotion gets complicated, the truly formidable antagonist is Bruce Glover as Landau's racist, wild-eyed henchman... 

Much like Anthony Franciosa in 110TH STREET, he ransacks random black neighborhoods with his own armed Italian goons... no longer Gunn's stomping grounds until this mafia-backed potboiler turns into a bonafide revenge flick after little brother's found and killed, so there's a rat out there, somewhere...

Martin Landau in BLACK GUNN

Which leads to a neo-noir/investigatory process of gathering suspect's last names, and, along with girlfriend Brenda Sykes and sidekick Timothy Brown while being shadowed by a black cop, Brown goes in and out of edgy scrapes...

Until an 11th hour genuine action sequence in what's more an intelligent thriller leading up, so, ironically, GUNN merely uses exploitative gunplay as icing on the cake.

Jim Brown in BLACK GUNN

Jim Brown in BLACK GUNN

Jim Brown and Herbert Jefferson Jr. in BLACK GUNN

Luciana Paluzzi in BLACK GUNN

Bruce Glover in BLACK GUNN

Sandra Giles in BLACK GUNN

Jim Brown in BLACK GUNN with Brenda Sykes

Jim Brown in BLACK GUNN with Bernie Casey

THE GODFATHER mobster Tony Giorgio in BLACK GUNN

Vida BLue in BLACK GUNN

Bruce Glover and Herbert Jefferson Jr (poster) in BLACK GUNN

Jim Brown in BLACK GUNN with Timothy Brown

Jim Brown in BLACK GUNN with Katherine Woodville

BLACK GUNN with Katherine Woodville

Jim Brown in BLACK GUNN with Katherine Woodville

Luciana Paluzzi in BLACK GUNN

Jim Brown in BLACK GUNN