Slaughter (1972)

Director: Jack Starrett

Starring: Jim Brown, Stella Stevens, Rip Torn, Cameron Mitchell, Don Gordon, Marlene Clark, Robert Phillips

More info: IMDb

Tagline: It's not only his name it's his business and sometimes--his pleasure!

Plot: Slaughter, a former Green Beret, avenges the killing of loved ones by the Mob, and in so doing is coerced by the Feds into traveling to Mexico to finish off surviving mobsters.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

#98 on Drive-In Delirium Volume 1 (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)

I don't get it. While I like Jim Brown for the most part, he's got very little acting chops and charisma. It's not like he was new at acting. By the time he made this picture he'd done a dozen movies over the previous 8 years, and at least half of them he was the lead. Anyway, as I was watching this one last night I was surprised at how little he does but still remains likable.


With these Blaxploitation action flicks you're probably not going to watch them for the acting but for the action, the music, the funky clothes and the sexy women. For the most part SLAUGHTER delivers that. Strangely, there's not an awful lot of action and most of it is in the last few minutes. Luchi De Jesus's score is pretty good as well as Billy Preston's theme song, there's not much in the way of crazy 70s clothes (they're there but they're not as standout-ish as most in the genre) and there's a minimum of sexy broads (just two)...but they both give us plenty to enjoy.


The first broad we meet is Kim (Marlene Clark). She pops in the film every once in a while, not really serving much of a purpose. Except for a little bit of nudity, there's very little reason to have the character. She should've played a larger role, but oh well.


Then there's Ann (Stella Stevens), Slaughter's main squeeze...


Yeah, she is! Slaughter gets to squeeze her twice.

WHAT THE? How did she get in here? YIKES!

You can't have a Blaxploitation flick without some sleazy villains. The main boss is Mario Felice (Norman Alfe) doing his best to look like Tony Bennett...


and then there's Dominic Hoffo (Rip Torn), the real threat of the picture. He's a slimeball with all the racial slurs and women abusing skills that are required. He's also got the most unruly hair of any Blaxploitation villain I've ever seen. Seriously, one second it'll be in place and the next...


What keeps SLAUGHTER from being a true classic is the lack of action and overall sense of fun. It's not a bad picture, it's just not exciting and it didn't have enough of it to take it all the way. With a title like SLAUGHTER, you'd better bring it all and not just a little.