Sweet Jesus, Preacherman (1973)

Director: Henning Schellerup

Writers: John Cerullo, M. Stuart Madden, Abbey Leitch

Composer: Horace Tapscott

Starring: Roger E. Mosley, William Smith, Michael Pataki, Tom Johnigarn, Joe Tornatore, Damu King, Marla Gibbs, Sam Laws, Phil Hoover, Paul Silliman, Chuck Lyles, Norman Fields, Della Thomas

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Amen, Brother!

Plot: A Black hit man poses as a Baptist preacher in a ghetto church. He decides to take over the local rackets.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

Roger E. Mosley is great as the Preacherman.  His best moment is when he's delivering his first sermon and he goes from a horribly dry read from his notes to going off the cuff and unloading all of the charisma and passion he's got in a great sequence.  He nailed it.  And I loved that the camera slowly moved up the middle of the aisle toward the pulpit as he's struggling and near the end it pulls back, from where it began. 

It's pretty much a given that if you've got the great Williams Smith, he's going to be the villain, ESPECIALLY in a Blaxploitation flick.

 

He's fun but he doesn't have much to do and his scenes are mostly confined to that office and the back seat of a car.  Still, I'll take any William Smith over no William Smith any day.

SWEET!!! It didn't further the plot but it sure helped the film to have some groovy dancing!

I have no idea what the budget was but it had to be be fairly low.  It's not so much that the budget hurt the film, it didn't actually.  It's the amateurish film making that hurts it (or helps, depending on how much fun you want out of it).  For example...

What a difference a day makes, huh?  There are other things, too, like the items on a desk changing places from scene to scene.  Personally, shit like this made it more fun but then I watched it with a bunch of friends.  That helps.  Ooh, I almost forgot.  Marla (the maid from THE JEFFERSONS) Gibbs is in it.  She freshened up the picture. This is almost good enough for me to say I'll watch it again but there are far too many Blaxploitation pictures I haven't seen yet that I'll need to until I get back around to this one.  It's definitely worth seeking out, though. I dug it.