The Candy Tangerine Man (1975)

Director: Matt Cimber

Writer: Mike Angel

Composer: Smoke

Starring: John Daniels, Eli Haines, Tom Hankason, Marva Farmer, Richard Kennedy, George 'Buck' Flower, Meri McDonald, George Pelster, Marilyn Joi, Tallie Cochrane, Patrick Wright, Mike Angel

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Git Back JACK--Give him no JIVE...He is the BAAAD'EST Cat in '75

Plot: Sunset Boulevard is a lucrative place to work for the Black Baron, a pimp with a distinctive red and yellow Rolls Royce and plenty of girls on his books. He don't take no mess from his girls, his madam or his competitors and viciously defends his patch. First, he clobbers the Mob who attempt to move in on his patch. Second, he tracks down one of his girls who runs off with a suitcase full of his cash. Third, he disposes of two policemen. But by now he knows his pimping days are numbered, so after a final explosive gun battle he switches to being his alter ego, mild-mannered businessman Ron who lives out in the leafy suburbs with an unsuspecting wife and family.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

This minor Blaxploitation classic stands out in a couple of ways.  The protagonist, a pimp (The Baron played by Daniels), is being pushed out of the business by a rival and that person is a woman whom The Baron did wrong years earlier.  The other thing is that The Baron is leading a double life having a family in the suburbs and pretending to be a salesman for IBM.  From the start you can tell it's a low budget affair but the lack of money doesn't hurt the picture that much.  It's a slow go at times but that last twenty minutes makes up for a lot of it.  That last act moves faster than the rest of the movie and it's also where most of the action, comedy and drama plays out.  That much is a blast.  I just wish I had a better print than a lousy fullscreen VHS copy.  This would've been a lot more fun seeing it in a theater forty years ago.