Black Samson (1974)

Director: Charles Bail

Starring: Rockne Tarkington, William Smith, Carol Speed, Connie Strickland, Michael Payne, Joe Tornatore, Tios Vandis, Napoleon Whiting

More info: IMDb

Tagline: One brother's war against the Man.

Plot: Noble nightclub owner Samson does his best to keep his neighborhood clean of crime and drugs. When vicious mobster Johnny Nappa tries to muscle in on Samson's territory, Samson takes a brave stand against Nappa and his flunkies.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Yeah.

#16 on 42nd Street Forever Vol. 2: The Deuce (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)

Man, Tarkington is one tall dude (6'5"). I always though Smith was massive at 6'2". Geez.


Tarkington does a great job in the titular role. He's stoic, powerful and he does the right thing. It's not often you see the heroes of Blaxploitation movies not on the wrong side of the law but this guy wants his neighborhood clean. No smack on his block.

BLACK SAMSON is much better than I had anticipated. It's shot well, there's some action, nudity, groovy tunes and the pacing is better than most. That's usually the one thing that brings down otherwise good movies but this movie didn't lose my interest even when it slowed down. Nice job.


Those pants...those fucking pants...Naturally my eyes were fixated on that lovely rack but they started to wander toward those graph paper pants. Wow. Sometimes I don't miss the '70s after all. William Smith did a shitload of bad guy roles and for good reason - he knew how to treat a lady...

There's no shortage on asshole bad guys in this one. With strong leads on both sides of the fence and all the ingredients for a good Blaxlploitation flick, BLACK SAMSON was a breath of fresh air in a genre with so many movies that wind up being mixed bags.