June 19, 2025 • 57 mins
Producer and author Michael Stradford (Black to the Movies) and George Feltenstein of Warner Bros. join the podcast for a fun discussion of director Gordon Parks Jr.'s, THREE THE HARD WAY ('74), starring Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, and Jim Kelly in their first and only team-up for a film. We also talk about three other Blaxploitation classics of the 1970s: HITMAN ('72) starring Bernie Casey & Pam Grier, BLACK EYE ('74) starring Fred Williamson, Rosemary Forsyth, and Teresa Graves, and BLACK BELT JONES('74) starring Jim Kelly and Gloria Hendry. Our far-ranging discussion covers the missing footage that has been restored to THREE THE HARD WAY, and the impact these films had on popular culture.
All four films were recently remastered in HD by Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging and released by the Warner Archive for the first time on Blu-ray, featuring stunning picture and sound quality. They have never looked or sounded better.
Includes audio clips from the Trailers and episodes.
Purchase links:
THREE THE HARD WAY (1974) Blu-ray
BLACK BELT JONES (1974) Blu-ray
Author/producer Michael Stradford on Facebook
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Audio clip (00:01):
Jim Brown, fred Williamson, jim Kelly They've
done it before on their own.
This one's too big to handlealone.
(00:25):
You know, man, you come to town, I know there's gonna be
trouble.
Brown, williamson, kelly, thebig three Together.
For the first time they do ittheir way.
Three, the hard way, threecities and three of us.
(00:52):
You asked me to secure a placefor you in history.
History is watching, waitingfor your decision.
This is your moment, mr Feather,action explodes all over the
(01:14):
place when the big three joinforces to save their race.
What's happening?
Why?
Brown, williamson, kellyTogether for the first time?
(01:34):
These words, I say yeah,following the footsteps of free.
Who's to talk against an armyof men?
They don't let me breathe ahard way.
Tim Millard (01:54):
Hello and welcome to the Extras.
I'm Tim Millard, your host, andjoining me are my good friends
George Feltenstein of the WarnerArchive and our mutual great
friend and co-worker for so manyyears at Warner Home
Entertainment.
Author producer MichaelStradford.
Good to see you, Mike.
Michael Stradford (02:10):
Great to see you guys.
George Feltenstein (02:13):
Great to see you.
And Tim, as I often say withMichael, I would add the word
hero.
Right?
Tim Millard (02:21):
In this case especially, right George.
George Feltenstein (02:24):
Yeah.
Tim Millard (02:37):
In general, but also specifically this on.
It's usually just George and Italking about these, but that's
because, Mike, you're a realintegral part to this release
coming out.
Tell us a little bit about howthat all started.
Michael Stradford (02:53):
Well, the way it started, I guess, for me was
just being a fan of the WarnerArchive and the great work that
George did and, you know,getting to know him a bit, and
loving and appreciating thequality and the care that
obviously goes into all theWarner Archive titles, from the
way the packaging reflects theoriginal artwork to the really
(03:14):
crisp and beautiful remasterededitions of so many films that I
thought would never get thatkind of quality and care.
So to find out that Three theHard Way was up for a refresh,
so to speak, I got reallyexcited because I knew that,
aside from an early VHS release,the complete film hadn't been
(03:37):
released in a digital opticalformat, and so I mentioned to
George about one scene in themovie it's about four minutes
long where it's essentially theguys just driving around town in
their car Jim Brown, jim Kelly,fred Williamson.
There's really no dialogue, butvisually it's a really cool
scene to see and it kind of letsthe viewer catch his breath
(03:59):
because the preceding scene andthe succeeding scene are action
packed.
The preceding scene and thesucceeding scene are action
packed.
So I had mentioned it to Georgeand that's where I think I have
to share the hero title,because he put in the hard work
over a period of years to trackthat scene down and insert it
back into the movie.
(04:19):
So for the first time, peoplethat look at three the hard way
on a digital optical format willsee the complete theatrically
released movie, thanks to thedoggedness of George.
George Feltenstein (04:34):
Well, and the thing is that at the time
Michael made me aware of it, Ihad been involved with there was
a four film collection that wasaimed at mass merchants.
This is in, I would say, thelate two thousands, like maybe
2008, 2009.
(04:54):
And that was not part of thebusiness that I was ever really
involved in.
But my boss at the time said heneeded more of those four film
collections and I said, well,this would be something that I
think would sell really well atmass merchants, and it did.
But then Michael and I got toknow each other and he said you
(05:17):
know, the version that you haveis missing footage.
And I said, well, that thatseems very, very odd and I
traced it back.
The film had been remasteredpreviously, in 1995.
And, for whatever reason, theytook, I think, eight minutes out
(05:39):
of the film and what we neededto do is to go back to the
camera negative and make surethat we had the right footage
and that everything matched theway the film was supposed to be.
So this is the first timepeople are getting to see the
film as intended in basically 30years.
Tim Millard (06:00):
Yeah, I mean, that's a great story.
And, mike, how did you evenbecome kind of aware?
I guess we have to go all theway back to like, what did this
film mean to you, that you werethat aware of it, and how did
you know that this footage wasmissing?
Michael Stradford (06:15):
Well, you know, I mean I've just been a
big movie fan since I was a kidand I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio
, and every Sunday, almost afterchurch, I would take the bus
downtown and go to theHippodrome Theater, which was
the palace to show all theblaxploitation movies and
(06:35):
martial arts movies and all that, and so a lot of those films
just kind of stuck with me.
And while Three the Hard Way tome isn't a great film, the idea
that you had these threeleading men doing what they do
best in one film was justimpactful.
Like there are still scenes inEnter the Dragon that aren't in
(07:04):
the the that I saw when I firstsaw Enter the Dragon, that
haven't appeared anywhere sinceI first saw them.
They're still missing and thescenes are still crystal clear
to me.
So there are just some moviesthat leave an impression,
whether you realize it at thetime or not, and when you're
watching it again years lateryou're like well, wait a minute,
(07:25):
where's that scene, where'sthat scene at?
And this particular scene wasone of those.
Tim Millard (07:33):
Well, let's talk about the movie a little bit,
guys, because I just wanted toput it in the timeline of the
early 70s and what was going on?
Michael Stradford (07:45):
what was making these uh, black
exploitation or urban, you know,dramas uh, so popular yeah, and
for me growing up, uh, in the70s, seeing these films first
run, um, there was like a, ayoung black network of you know
kids that I went to school withand there were this.
(08:05):
There was this explosion we hadnever experienced before,
because prior to to shaft, Imean street back was more of, I
think, an art house movie,because Melvin Van Peebles has
such an abstract, bizarre style.
But shaft was a movie that waseasy for people to connect the
dots to.
Even some of the advertisingsaid hotter than Bond, cooler
(08:27):
than Bullet.
So it just kind of connectedthe dots that way.
We had never seen anything likethat where there's just this
explosion of black talentleading these movies, because at
that time the only actors thatreally starred in films, black
actors that starred in films,were Jim Brown and Sidney
(08:50):
Poitier.
And Jim Brown, like I said, I'mfrom Cleveland.
Jim Brown used to play for theBrowns, so he was like a god and
Sidney Poitier was like analien.
But when Shaft came out,richard Rountree looked like a
guy that I could see walkingaround in my neighborhood.
And then, as they continued tomake more movies, fred
(09:11):
Williamson did a lot of movies,jim Brown had already been
working.
Jim Kelly was drafting off ofthe Shine and the Dragon gave
him.
There was just a lot ofexcitement, and so whenever
these new movies would come out,you go to school the next day
everybody's talking about hey,did you see Black Caesar?
Did you see JD's Revenge?
Did you see Coffee?
(09:31):
Did you see whatever posterthat was painted by Mort
Kunstler, jim Brown, jim Kellyand Fred Williamson all together
?
It was like more than I couldhandle.
All my buddies at school wouldtalk about man.
(09:52):
Have you seen the trailer forThree to Hard Way?
Have you seen the poster forThree to Hard Way?
There was no entertainmenttonight at the time.
There was no entertainmentweekly.
There was no internet.
You just get your informationwhere and when you could.
So when the movie finallydropped, it was a really big
deal culturally, because to havethose three guys together at
(10:18):
essentially the peak of theirpowers was a really, really cool
and unique thing.
And, um, like I said, it's nota great movie, but it's a fun
movie and it just achieves this,uh, this level of entertainment
and it and it's got a level ofsophistication, uh, because they
(10:41):
did a great job of giving eachprimary character his own
personality and letting him justdo what he does best.
You know, jim Brown was themacho tough guy.
Fred Williamson was the smoothtrickster.
Jim Kelly was the martial artsguy.
They stayed in their lane andthey all excelled at what they
did.
They never looked better.
(11:02):
Jim Kelly was wearing thecoolest clothes in
Blaxploitation at that time andhe had the mustache and he had
the best afro going.
Fred Williamson was charmingwith the cigar hanging out his
mouth.
Jim Brown was a classic stoichero.
So you know, it's like he gaveyou everything you needed in
less than two hours.
Tim Millard (11:24):
Yeah, and we should talk about the director.
I mean Gordon Parks Jr.
I mean, did that play into ittoo?
I mean knowing that he was thedirector on this.
Michael Stradford (11:33):
For me at that point it didn't because I
didn't really have much of asense of filmmakers yet.
You know I clicked more withthe actors.
He clicked in that he was ajunior.
I did know Gordon Parks wasbecause of Shaft, because I love
Shaft, and so I devouredeverything about Shaft.
Parks Jr also did Superfly,which was a film that I loved.
(11:55):
So when I saw his name attachedto it, I'm sure on some level I
thought okay, well, this isgoing to be at the very least,
entertaining.
Tim Millard (12:04):
sure, on some level I thought okay, well, this is
going to be, at the very least,entertaining.
You know, right, I was.
I was just looking and becauseof that plane crash, you know,
his filmography is not very long.
So if you're a fan of ofdirectors, you know, and their
films, you know this.
Having having three the hardway come out is it's like great
for you as a collector uh,obviously, and to have it in the
(12:25):
HD.
Maybe, george, you could tellus a little bit about the actual
HD master and what you neededto do to make it look so good.
George Feltenstein (12:35):
Well, our preservation team scanned the 4K
camera negative and then themissing footage was cut out of
the negative.
I don't know if it was for areissue, you know, to go in
theaters and be under 90 minutes.
(12:55):
Well, we don't know why, but itwas cut out of the negative and
, uh, we found a secondgeneration element that was
complete, and that was how wewere able to put the scenes back
in the film, to be exact, tothe original theatrical release.
Tim Millard (13:15):
Yeah, I mean, it looks great and there's some
great music in this as well,isn't there?
George Feltenstein (13:21):
Oh, there's tremendous music throughout the
film.
Michael, would you agree?
Michael Stradford (13:26):
Yeah, absolutely it's not generally
regarded as one of the classicsoundtracks because there were
quite a few during that time,but it's a really solid album.
I mean the impressions have anumber of great songs on it.
They both fit the film but alsostand on their own as really
good examples of 70s R&B.
Tim Millard (13:46):
Yeah, and to me, because this came out in 74 and
it has the music.
It's got Gordon Parks Jr, it'sgot this you know the three
stars in it.
It feels like it's aculmination of stuff that had
been building, and you'vereleased some of the other ones
that were in years prior.
It feels like it wasculminating to this, like, all
(14:07):
right, there's been enoughindividual films, let's get the
three biggest stars.
We can get out there togetheron this one and then throw in
the music.
Michael Stradford (14:18):
By now it had found its groove of what the
audience is going to want, whatthey're going to expect out of
these urban dramas yeah, and youknow, and I think one of the
things that gets overlookedoftentimes with these films is
there's so much behind thescenes talent, uh, that went on
(14:40):
to have really significantcareers, like the stunt
coordinator for Three of theHard Way was Hal Needham, who
directed Smokey and the Banditand Hooper and any number of
films you know.
So there are a lot of these guysthat were literally cutting
their teeth on these films.
So they were bringing aperspective of really commitment
(15:04):
to trying to do a really goodjob.
You know they they didn't lookdown on the, on the, on the
genre, the way it seems some ofthe studios and critics tended
to.
So these guys brought their Agames.
So a number of these films had,you know, had really good
production values, had greataction, had great music, great
costumes.
You know it was.
(15:24):
Had great action, had greatmusic, great costumes.
These people took the workseriously and the shows on
screen.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Watch out for Tackett the hitman.
His brother was dead andTackett wanted answers Fast.
Tell me who killed him.
He took on the Black Junglesingle-handed and no one could
(15:54):
stop him.
The heavy dudes were runningscared when Tackett came to even
the score Once they turned himon.
Audio clip (16:13):
they couldn't turn him off.
Yeah, I know him, Mr Zito, Gethim.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
You got the taste of blood.
Huh animal, you ain't gonnanever stop.
Run, Uncle Remus, Run.
They wanted him dead.
But who could do the job on thehitman?
Bernie Casey is tacking out toeven the score.
You'd better watch out for theHitman from MGM.
Tim Millard (16:46):
George, I also thought we could talk a little
bit about some of the otherfilms you've released in this
genre in the last.
It feels like the last year, Iguess.
Michael Stradford (17:02):
But, mike, what's your take on Hitman?
Mike, you know Hitman is one ofmy favorites and I'm still not
sure exactly why.
But when I saw it I didn't knowwho Bernie Casey was.
I didn't know anything aboutGeorge George Armitage who
directed it, but he also had alayer of sensitivity that Jim
Brown usually didn't give you inhis movies.
(17:43):
So there were moments in thefilm where you know when he's
trying to connect with his niece, where you really feel like
he's going through something.
So he wasn't the standard machotough guy, even though he was
that.
Um, this was one of pam greer'slast films before she became pam
greer.
I think she was credited aspamela greer in this right and I
(18:08):
found out later that it wasbased on uh, the novel Jack's
return home, which also inspiredget Carter, uh, which came out
in 71.
Hit man came out in 72 and hitman actually is closer to the
book than get Carter was to thebook.
(18:28):
Um, but I found it to be areally satisfying film and I met
Bernie Casey about 20 years agoand just fanboyed out on him
and he he got a kick out of itbecause he said he loved it, he
loved doing it.
Tim Millard (18:45):
I was also looking at this and it's produced by
Gene Corman, who I think is abrother of Roger Corman.
Yes, so fans out there of ofCorman and his films, you know,
I think that's kind of aninteresting thing.
And, uh, I think they did a.
He did a few films in thisgenre, um, and then, like you
(19:05):
said, george, armitage workedwith cormorant on quite a few uh
films after that, so that'skind of an interesting little.
I mean, when you see, you seethese kind of like from looking
back the big picture, you cansee all the connections of
people that are just soimportant to you know, modern
filmmaking and filmmakers, likeyou know, tarantino and and
where they got a lot of theirinspiration, or especially for
(19:28):
him, you know, but a lot of the80s and 90s films too, um, and I
really liked hitman.
So I was curious to get youryour feedback on that.
That just came out I don't know, a month or so ago, george I
believe that was an end of marchtitle yeah, and I love.
I mean I love the these filmsbecause you get that vibe right
(19:48):
early 70s.
You got the grain, you got themusic, you got the style and you
know these are not long moviesso they keep the pace moving.
You know they keep it moving,they're going and there's a few
jumps and they you know you'reover here and you're like what
happened, but it keeps itentertaining and it happens so
fast.
Usually you don't, you don'treally notice it until after the
(20:10):
film is over.
Michael Stradford (20:11):
But and you know, and it seems like there
was a real spirit ofcollaboration generally I mean,
I've had an opportunity to meeta number of these actors over
the years, from Bernie Casey toRon O'Neill to Max Julian were
(20:31):
white and none of them weretrying to approximate what the
black experience was.
So they would, you know, theywould collaborate with you know,
bernie Casey.
And, hey, you know, we want todo this scene where you and Sam
Laws are mourning the death ofyour brother.
(20:53):
What would that be like?
And so Bernie Casey told himwell, you know, we probably sit
in the kitchen and get drunk andthen drive around and just
essentially cry the blues.
And the director said, okay,let's, let's see what that is.
And that's, that's what woundup in the movie.
Tim Millard (21:09):
So that, so that the, the, the collaboration and,
I guess, the generosity betweenthe filmmakers and the actors
resulted in some of thesemoments that you say feel, feel
like they're real, because theywere open to, uh, getting input
from people that have livedthings that they possibly hadn't
(21:30):
lived yeah, I think I read thatthat george armitage was saying
he didn't really want to directit because of that at first,
but the studio, you know, justit ended up that it fell to him
or the film maybe wasn't goingto move forward, but that that
collaboration had to happen forit to be authentic.
Right, exactly, yeah, so.
(21:52):
And then, of course, pamelaGreer I mean she's, she's not in
that movie a lot, but when sheis, you, you you take notice.
That was good.
There was a couple more, george, that you've released recently
too that I want to get you guysas input on, because I love the
fact that now you got four.
George Feltenstein (22:13):
One I would like to get Michael's take on is
black guy with Fred Williamson,because I think that's a really
good neo-noir.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
None of this seems to impress you very much.
So party and all Well, I justhave to contend myself with the
basics, like living and eatingand perhaps stealing things that
don't belong to you.
I am prepared to offer you$50,000 for the former contents
of this cane stone.
No more questions asked$50,000?
(22:48):
.
Oh, that's a lot of petty cash.
What a shabby ex-cop you bet itis.
Now, do we have a deal?
Do I have to answer you rightaway, immediately?
Oh well, in that case I think Ican make a better deal.
I pass.
Audio clip (23:10):
Give us your gun, stone, don't move or I'll have
to kill you.
Take his gun, yeah.
Michael Stradford (23:34):
I feel like Black Eye was unfairly
shoehorned in the blaxploitationgenre when it really wasn't a
blaxploitation film.
You know, fred Williamson wasthe black male lead but I mean,
this is the Rockford Filesbefore the Rockford Files,
exactly.
And to me this stands as hisbest performance because he goes
(23:58):
totally against what you knowof Fred Williamson.
The charm is still there buthe's a down on his luck guy.
He's, you know, he's rumpled,he can't keep the girl, he's
always a step behind but he'sdogged and he just continues to
try to, you know, try to do theright thing.
(24:18):
But he, you know, he's prettymuch a sad sack and the movie to
me is a great snapshot of LAduring the time.
It's a great snapshot ofPrivate Eye, you know.
To me it sits with the LongGoodbye and it sits with Gene
Hagman's Night Moves.
(24:38):
I mean, to me they're all of apiece of both LA and the
particular detective genreduring that period.
George Feltenstein (24:50):
I mean that's 1974.
I mean it just, it captures itperfectly 74.
Michael Stradford (24:57):
I mean it just, it captures it perfectly.
Yeah.
Yeah, I was just going to sayand they shot the whole thing on
like location, so you're reallygetting the flavor of the city
the entire time.
I mean, I just think it's areally, it's a really good film
that deserves that deserves areappraisal.
Tim Millard (25:14):
Yeah, I love that part that you just mentioned the
fact, fact that you get so muchLA and Venice in particular,
that chase scene, that car chasescene in Venice, that they did
probably without permits.
But it's so authentic and if youknow that area and you walk
those canals and everything,it's really fun to see that you
know now it's all expensivehouses and everything it's it's.
(25:34):
It's really fun to see that youknow now it's all expensive
houses and everything right, butyou get to see a little bit
more of the nitty-gritty ofvenice back in the day, before
it became so posh and high-techand wealthy, um, so that that's
a great one.
I really enjoyed black eye too.
I thought that was good, and,and that one was an actual
(25:55):
Warner Brothers release,absolutely, yeah, yes.
And then the other one I wantedto talk about unless you had
something else to say about that, black Eye.
Michael Stradford (26:05):
I'm just going to say I would love to
know how they talked FredWilliamson into doing that movie
at that point in time, becauseit's so contrary to everything
else he had done to that pointin time that point in time
because it's so contrary toeverything else he had done to
that point in time and it seemedlike he was on this specific
trajectory to be this particularkind of uh of action hero, and
this totally went against thegrain and I think he's the
(26:28):
better for it my suspicion hasalways been that he wanted to do
something that wasn't cookiecutter to everything else he had
been doing.
George Feltenstein (26:40):
He was a very talented actor is
thankfully he's still with us.
Very you know, uh had a hugefan base and I think he wanted
to say hey, I don't want to bedoing the same thing.
You know, let me make my ownlike, let me be the Humphrey
Bogart of the mid-70s.
Give me solid drama that I cansink my teeth into.
(27:05):
That isn't just like everythingelse I've been doing.
And the studio believed in himand the result is a very good
film.
And the reason why we've beenputting so much emphasis on
these films is they have notgotten the opportunity to be
seen properly, if you've seenthem at all.
You're looking at 30,35-year-old video masters that
(27:28):
are not up to snuff, and thefact that we've been able to
remaster them go back to thenegatives.
It's like a whole newexperience.
Michael Stradford (27:39):
Yeah, and to have a director like jack arnold
you know the guy that didcreature from the black moon and
it came from outer space andincredible shrinking man.
George Feltenstein (27:48):
I wouldn't have thought of him for a genre
detective story, but he did agreat job with it so one of the
the high points in terms ofpromoting the movie is that you
know he is a very well-respecteddirector for many kinds of
films.
Michael Stradford (28:08):
You know, one of the things that I found
interesting that I had neverseen before or since in the
credits it's called a Jerry Busspresentation seen before, since
in the credits it's called ajerry bus presentation.
So I wonder if he financed itor if he co-produced it or what
that was.
But I was just kind ofsurprised to see that yeah, I
noticed that too.
Tim Millard (28:26):
I I was like oh, he had some connection to this, uh
, this film.
Audio clip (28:36):
Enter Jim Dragon Kelly.
He clobbers them up as BlackBelt Joe.
I lost three of my best men inthere.
Now I'm asking you as a favor.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
You're asking me to be the fourth.
Get a couple tanks and blast itdown.
Forget it, man.
I ain't going in there.
It's a fortress.
Well, fortress or no, it's toppriority, so am I.
It's suicide.
Audio clip (29:06):
Hey, get out, get out, get out, get out, get out,
get out, get out, get out, getout, get out, get up, get up,
get up and dust to dust Now.
Who killed my father?
Who's Pinky?
Speaker 2 (29:28):
What you want, little mama.
I ain't your mama.
Oh wow, man, she killed him,she brought pee.
What's wrong man?
Oh, black Belt, she is good man, she is bad Boy.
What are you talking about,sidney, she?
Michael Stradford (29:45):
went into the hip pocket.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
What she's a fighter like us man.
She is fast.
Ooh, she's bad.
Now, what are you talking about, sidney?
She went into the hip pocket.
What she's a fighter like usman.
She is fast.
Ooh, she's fast.
Now, what are you doing?
No, no, you stay here till Iget back.
Do those dishes or something.
(30:14):
They're done.
Audio clip (30:21):
Black Belt Jones leads his private commandos into
the nerve center of a ganglandstronghold to crack a super
crime conspiracy.
Enter Jim Dragon Kelly.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
You don't mean these.
Audio clip (30:50):
What the hell is that?
That's son of a bastard.
What the hell is that?
What the hell is in my face.
Tim Millard (31:27):
This is the movie that breaks through to get your
take on.
I I know how much mike that youlove uh, um, into the dragon
and we talked about shaft andinto the dragon last year, uh,
so I want to get your input onblack belt jones, which also
came out in 1974, so that's apretty great year for these
films.
We're talking about um and, ofcourse, with jim kelly.
(31:51):
What's your take on that film?
Michael Stradford (31:58):
I'm smiling.
You know, jim Kelly occupies aninteresting space in pop
culture because he wasn't a goodactor.
He wasn't a good actor, he waspretty stiff on screen.
You know, he was a champion inreal life.
He was a champion, martialartist champion, middleweight
(32:19):
karate champion.
But he was pretty repetitive inthe stuff that he did and I
don't know if it was his idea orif it was his teams or the
filmmakers the filmmakers to say, okay, you're just going to be
the black bruce lee.
So he never really had anopportunity to evolve beyond
(32:41):
doing his bruce lee imitations.
That really didn't start untiluntil black belt jones, because
in enter the dragon, you know,he was doing his own thing.
He was actually more of aMuhammad Ali-esque figure than
he was subsequently.
So when I look at Black BeltJones, I mean I've never liked
the film but I liked him.
(33:02):
I just what he represented,just being this Black guy that
was good looking, that had anafro, that knew martial martial
arts.
We just didn't have that beforeand I just thought that was cool
and I was glad he existed andyou know, an end of the dragon
when he says you know I'll betoo good looking, I'll be, I'll
(33:24):
be too busy looking good, thatkind of cemented him with, with
the community, like all right,man, he's, he's down, he's with
it.
So Black Belt Jones is kind ofrough for me because he's a
little vapid, he's just not thatcompelling.
Gloria Hendry I thought wasgreat.
(33:45):
I thought she kind of stole themovie.
I agree, yeah, and you knowRobert Klaus, who also directed
Enter the Dragon Dragon and FredWeintraub who also produced
Enter the Dragon.
It's clearly shows what theymiss with Bruce Lee not being
there, because the martial artsstuff is, you know, isn't
(34:06):
particularly inventive.
Actually, one scene toward theend of the film, I think it's
like at the hour and 21 minutemark, where Jim Kelly is
fighting in this bubble bath carwash thing and he's doubled out
by a guy that looks like he's30 pounds lighter than Jim Kelly
(34:30):
with a big Jim Kelly wig on andthe transfer is so clean.
It's obvious now that you cansee that he's doubled out.
But the rest of the film is allis all, kelly.
It's a harmless movie.
It makes sense for it to existand be talked about when you
talk about these films becauseKelly, you know he, even with
(34:53):
his limitations, he had apersona that people responded to
and he signifies a particularpart of that genre in that era.
One of the interesting things tome is I think they were
shooting through the hard waywhen they needed to do press for
or publicity photos for BlackBelt Jones.
(35:16):
So there are a lot of photos ofhim on the Warner Brothers lot
shirtless and these blue doubleknit pants.
He's got his three the hard waymustache, which he didn't have
at all in Black Belt Jones, butit was during that period.
So in a way it kind of helpsset up through the hard way
because that look was a was adifferent look for him.
Way, it kind of helped set upthrough the hard way because
that look was a was a differentlook for him.
(35:36):
Um, and then there was the theI guess loosely defined sequel
hot potato, which made blackbelt jones look like enter the
dragon.
Uh, and the score wasn't bad.
Dennis Coffey did the score.
(35:57):
Dennis Coffey had the numberone hit with Scorpio a couple
years before.
So I mean it's an interestingcurio but it's not a go-to for
me.
You know, it's not a go-to forme, although I do have outside
of my home office I have aforeign poster of Black Belt
Jones, which is a beautifulposter.
(36:17):
A poster looks as good asalmost anything that's in the
movie and to me that's one ofthe great things about the
Blaxploitation era in general.
If the movies weren't good ninetimes out of 10, you can count
on the posters being great.
I mean, there were some of thegreat artwork for the genre.
(36:44):
It was rare to have a badposter with a good or bad movie.
Most of those posters wereclassics were classics.
Tim Millard (36:56):
Well, I just enjoyed the fact, george, that
you were able to bring these outin this last year, because I
think there's a lot of peoplewho maybe saw them a long time
ago or in a really bad transfer,and now you can see them.
They look great, and if youcollect films of that era or
that genre, I mean these are allof that era, but they're all so
(37:16):
very kind of different fromeach other.
Really.
You got a Private Eye one, yougot a Hitman one, you got a
martial arts one, then you gotthe combo in Three, the Hard Way
.
So they're diverse, and yetthere's a connection there, of
course, as well.
Well, but I love it that theseare coming out for collectors
and also there seems to be areal resurgence, wouldn't you
(37:38):
say, mike, of young peopledigging these, uh, these old 70s
classics yeah, yeah, yeah, Imean, you know, I think, I think
it's it's a matter of exposure,you know, because the stuff
that's good is good.
Michael Stradford (37:52):
It's just that a lot of times people don't
know it exists.
So you know, like my stepsoncame upstairs one day and he saw
the Black Belt Jones posteroutside of my home office and
he's like, what is this?
And so I gave him the movie andhe freaked out, and then that
sent him down a deep rabbit holeand he got immersed in the
(38:14):
genre, you know.
Tim Millard (38:15):
So he thinks he knows more about it than I do
now well, it's so cool for youngpeople to discover these, uh,
these classic films, and thenthey become like the
knowledgeable one of their group.
Michael Stradford (38:29):
Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah george, that
four pack was uh, the dvd fourpack was.
The DVD four pack was was aBlack Belt Jones through the
hard way, black Samson and, ifyou remember, what I say I
potato.
Yeah, when that came out I saidwow, ok, somebody's, this is
(38:51):
before I came to Warner Brothers, okay, somebody's, this is
before I came to Warner Brothers.
I said somebody's reallycooking with gas, because not
many people would know thatBlack Samson made sense to go
with those other three Jim Kellymovies.
But the star of that film, thestar of Black Samson, was
originally supposed to have theJim Kelly role in End of the
(39:12):
Dragon and he fell out and sothey got Jim Kelly.
So then to have that four-discset that had the only movie that
that guy starred in as part ofessentially the Jim Kelly
collection, I thought was reallycool.
George Feltenstein (39:28):
But Black Samson is actually, I think, one
of the best films of the genre,mm-hmm.
Michael Stradford (39:36):
Yeah yeah, overlooked, overlooked, not
often talked about we may haveto do something about that.
George Feltenstein (39:43):
Yeah, yeah.
Tim Millard (39:45):
Maybe there's a good tease right there.
Now, which of these four filmsdo you think is probably the
least known?
George Feltenstein (39:52):
George, Of the four that we just that you
released now, yeah, I'd beinterested to see what michael
thinks, but, um, the one that Ithought was least known was
black belt jones and I wouldhave thought black eye I was
(40:14):
gonna say black eye, okay yeah,I would have thought black eye
um, black eyes is really good,so it'd be great if that's what
that is.
What is not known about it ishey, this is not like all the
other films, this is different,and I I hope that our release
(40:35):
helped to shine a light on thefact that this is fine
filmmaking, fine acting.
This is not just like all theothers.
You know, like when peopleclump these movies into one
little shoebox, checks boxes,many of them are really
(40:55):
exceptional films that reallygenerate timeless interest in
the genre and they need to berecognized individually and not
just by people who aren'tenlightened to their differences
and the filmmakers who areworking on them.
(41:16):
They need to be looked at justthe way you would look at late
1940s film noir, early 1950sfilm noir or Warner gangster
movies.
I mean, they run the gamut.
Some are like one way and someare the other, and there's
different talents.
It should not be shoeboxed.
That's why we want to give eachfilm its own pedestal for that
(41:41):
particular month, so that peoplewill focus on it.
And I think there's greatpleasures to be had in all these
films and that's why we're soproud to bring them out, and
with the quality they deserve.
Michael Stradford (41:54):
Yeah, I mean I I never thought that I'd get
to see so many of these filmslook so good.
I mean it's, it's, it's.
It's a real joy for me becauseyou get to a point where, like
when that four pack came out,I'm like, okay, well, it's on
DVD, great, because I thoughtthat was as good as it could get
(42:15):
.
And then to see that there'sanother layer, another level
that you could get to, whereit's a real market improvement,
is very special and, george, youare to be thanked and commended
Seriously.
George Feltenstein (42:29):
I was grateful to be able to convince
the management of that era Ithink it was around 2008 to go
for that four film pack and theyweren't aware of these films.
They I had to explain to themwhy they were important and why
I thought they would sell reallywell and that four pack
(42:51):
absolutely blew the roof off theplace in terms of sales.
And that was again the.
It was the kind of beginning ofthe end of the, you know
physical disc at its highest,when it was a six billion dollar
a year industry.
It was still the time where youcould go into mass merchants
(43:13):
and buy films like that and thiswas also priced very, very
reasonably and it has continuedto be popular.
Michael Stradford (43:25):
It's still available.
Yeah, I mean I've got a numberof friends that were excited
when Hitman came out on DVD justregular DVD.
When Melinda came out on dvdjust regular dvd.
When melinda came out on justdvd.
And you know one of my buddiesin new york, I sent him a copy
of hitman on blu-ray, I boughtit and sent it to him.
I didn't tell him I was gettingit and he called me.
He freaked out, he couldn'tbelieve it.
(43:46):
It existed in that format, youknow well, it didn't until
recently that that's the greatnews.
But.
Tim Millard (43:53):
I was thinking about these films and that era
of filmmaking and I would say ithas an outsized impact on
popular culture.
Oh, without question.
Yeah, or in different things,they don't necessarily know, but
these are the films that had alot of influence in culture
(44:18):
today and it's worth checkingout.
I mean, I encourage people ifyou're interested, check out
these films because they lookgreat.
They're much more accessiblenow because they look and sound
so good and they're entertaining.
George Feltenstein (44:30):
Yeah, that's the thing.
They're not pretentious,they're not trying to be
something other thanentertaining.
Yeah, you can make a greatcraft.
Tim Millard (44:41):
Yeah, you can poke holes in them if you want yeah
but I would say that just on theuh which one is it?
That it was all shot in venice,just that, uh, that scene alone
, the car chase alone, is worthworth price of admission in my
book because it's so good, uh,but seeing each of these stars
too in their own movies, um, andthen just their development,
(45:04):
and then kind of I love theculmination here with, with
three, the hard way of ofbringing the stars together.
You know, we, we see Hollywooddo it all the time.
George Feltenstein (45:13):
Right, but that was like that was a big
deal when it happened.
Michael Stradford (45:18):
Yeah.
George Feltenstein (45:18):
You mean all three of them were together in
one movie.
Yeah, yeah.
So it was a big deal and Ithink it's a big deal now and
I'm so grateful that because itwas pushing really really hard,
we've got to find that footagebecause it was pushing really
really hard.
We've got to find that footageand to get the camera negative
scanned at 4K.
Our film elements on the AlliedArtist movies are sometimes
(45:43):
problematic and once we wereable to find the missing footage
and know that we could get goodquality out of it, you're
watching the whole movie and youdon't suddenly see a dip in
quality.
Right, it has a nice,consistent look to it.
Warner Brothers Motion PictureImaging did a wonderful job, as
(46:05):
they always do, and I've gottena lot of posts on social media
and people being thrilledbecause people are starting to
get their discs in the last weekor two and, uh, it's exciting
yeah, yeah uh, there are severalfacebook pages that focus on
blaxploitation films, um, thatare pretty active.
Michael Stradford (46:28):
They have active communities and when
words started percolating thatthrough the heart way, way might
be coming out in Blu-ray, therewas a lot of excitement.
It's a lot of excitement.
And then, once the I guess thepress release came out and there
was a picture of the Blu-raycover, which signified that it
was real, there was realexcitement.
(46:49):
And then people started postingwhen they got their copies they
were posting pictures holdingthe Blu-ray and all that.
So it's cool because a lot ofthese people, when I check the
communities, a lot of thesepeople are young.
They weren't around when thesemovies originally came out, but
they have an opportunity to seethese films in the best possible
(47:15):
quality is a great way for themto be introduced to a lot of
these movies.
So now there's you know, there'sa lot of interest in Melinda.
There's a lot of interest inMelinda.
There's people that have boughtThree the Hard Way also have
bought a number of other WarnerBrothers Blu-rays from the genre
(47:36):
.
So the expectation has beenI've seen, well, warner Brothers
put out Melinda on DVD.
Maybe they'll put it out onBlu-ray, because they put Hitman
out on DVD and it's on Blu-ray,so at least there's a chance,
whereas before that wasn't evena possibility.
Now, you know, it's at leastwithin the realm of possibility
that it could happen, andthere's a lot of excitement for
(47:59):
that and probably other filmstoo.
George Feltenstein (48:03):
Fingers crossed for more.
Tim Millard (48:09):
Well, mike, it's great to get you on.
I love your perspective onthese, and just your.
You know you've written a book.
Tell us about the book a littlebit.
You're not just talking off thecuff.
You've got a book called whatBlack to the Movies.
Tell us about it.
Michael Stradford (48:24):
Yes, black, to the Movies and Other Pop
Culture Musings.
So it's essentially it was aproject I did, a school project
that I did where I reviewedmovies that were special to me
from my birth up until, I think,2019.
So from 1959 to 2019.
(48:46):
And so it covers all types ofgenres.
But what I tried to do was talkabout seeing these movies and
how they impacted me as a youngblack kid from Cleveland.
You know, and one of the thingsthat I've always appreciated
about the movies is there reallyis no barrier to entry unless
(49:07):
you place it on yourself.
So you know, I was able to seea lot of different kinds of
movies coming up and, as aresult, I love all kinds of
movies.
So, um, uh, the name I justthought was was kind of a fun
name to kind of talk to what thewhat the book was trying to get
across.
But you know, I review a lot ofblaxploitation films, but I
(49:31):
also review remains of the dayand um the guns of A lot of
Blaxploitation films.
But I also review Remains ofthe Day and the Guns of Navarone
and Last of the Mohicans and,you know, the Godfather just
Thief.
It just varies and the cover ofthe book was originally the
poster art for Hellop in Harlemand the illustrator, robert
(49:56):
Tannenbaum, lives here inSouthern California and I
reached out to him and he gaveme permission to use his cover
art as a cover of my book.
And then I got the originalshaft font and used that font
for the title of the book.
So I think it looks like it'sover your shoulder back there it
is.
Tim Millard (50:11):
It is.
I'm a proud owner, you signedit for me and I love it.
It's like bite size, right,because your reviews are easy.
You, you know they're notoverly long, they're accessible
and I love your take on thesefilms.
But not only, not only have youwritten reviews of the movies.
I mean, you've worked for manyof the studios here in hollywood
(50:31):
.
Your music uh radio worked inmusic and radio stations, right,
you've been in theentertainment industry a long
time A long time, yeah, sincethe early 80s.
And Mike, I know you've workedand have a love for pulp and
you've got a number of projectsgoing on books and things.
I just got the Fargo Hell onWheels holding it up here for
(50:56):
the YouTube crowd graphic novel.
Just started going through thatand joined it.
It's a beautiful hardcover,great project.
I was glad to be a part of thatKickstarter.
But tell us about a few of thethings you got going.
Michael Stradford (51:11):
Okay, well, I appreciate the support.
I started last year.
I started my own littlepublishing company called Gizmo
Press, and so we focusprincipally on graphic novels
and the book that you just heldup, fargo Hell on Wheels.
It was our first release.
Fargo is a character that wasbased on Lee Marvin's character
(51:33):
from the Professionals, theRichard Brooks film from 1966.
And it spawned a series of 23novels in the 70s and I acquired
the rights to those novels, forgraphic to do graphic novels.
And Howard Chaykin, who's anincredible writer and artist, is
a good friend of mine, and sohe wrote and adapted and
(51:57):
illustrated the first Fargo bookand it was successful as well
received.
We're getting great reviews,people seem to be really happy
about it and I'm really happywith how the book turned out.
We also did a book called SteveHolland the torn shirt sessions
.
It's about Steve Holland, whowas the model for the Doc Savage
(52:17):
paperbacks from the 60s thatwere painted by James Bama and
Bob Larkin A lot of referencephotos and original paintings.
And then the most recentproject is a book on comic book
artist Dennis Cowan.
We just finished it.
It's called Graphic Samurai theArt of Dennis Cowan.
(52:37):
We did a Kickstarter campaignon that it just finished
printing in China.
I got an email that they'refinishing packaging today, so
those books will be shipped outby the end of the week.
And we've got a couple otherthings that are you know that
we'll work on that are up oursleeve.
So you know, we're a smallcompany and I'm just trying to
(52:58):
do projects that I'm interestedin, that I can be passionate
about and hopefully, uh, there'san audience that shares some of
those same interests, but it's,you know, it's a lot of fun
yeah, and I'll put the links inthe show notes here so that
those that want to follow you,your Facebook page and Gizmo
(53:18):
Press can get more informationon what you're working on and
those releases as well.
Tim Millard (53:23):
And, of course, george, we're going to have
links to all of the films thatwe talked about today.
Absolutely, but I mean, ifyou're a fan of these films, I
think you'll be a fan of a lotof the work that you're doing.
Mike, the, you know the graphicnovels and the pulp stuff and
everything.
Michael Stradford (53:45):
So they're kind of all.
You know a lot of collectorslike the same kind of area.
Yeah, and I post withregularity on Facebook and
Instagram movie reviews and bookreviews.
You know just stuff that I likethat I think people there's a
lot of friends will ask me hey,should I go see Sinners?
You know what did you think ofthe Last of Us?
Blah, blah, blah.
So it's fun to just post myperspective and generally, if I
(54:09):
don't like something, I don'twrite about it.
I usually prefer to just writeabout things that I see some
value in, although once in awhile you see something that's
so egregious you want to do apublic service and just tell
people to stay away, but notthat often.
Tim Millard (54:26):
Well, it's good to see you.
I mean, we had a lot of yearstogether, the three of us, and
it wasn't the hard way.
It was a fun way back then forthe three of us and it wasn't
the hard way.
George Feltenstein (54:35):
It was a fun way back then for the three of
us, absolutely yeah, lots ofgood stuff.
Tim Millard (54:38):
That was the heyday of physical media and
everything.
So it's good to all get on andtalk about these terrific films
and film history.
I love it, Love it.
So thanks guys.
George Feltenstein (54:52):
Thank you.
Thank you, tim and Michael.
It's great seeing you.
Michael Stradford (54:56):
Great to see you, George.
Tim Millard (55:01):
Just an update.
Since we recorded this, theWarner Archive has announced
that Melinda from 1972 will bereleasing July 29th.
So we talked about it in thispodcast and it has since been
announced.
So that's good news again forfans of these films, as there
will be another classic 70surban drama coming to you July
(55:25):
29th.
If you haven't yet subscribedor aren't following the show,
appreciate it if you would dothat, or if this is your first
time listening and you thought,hey, this might be worthwhile.
We talk a lot about classicfilm, and classic films are, you
know, films that are justbefore the 2000s, and we even
talk about some after the 2000s.
But we also talk a lot aboutclassic animation as well.
(55:48):
For those of you who enjoy that, anything that's great we talk
about and the Warner Archivereleases.
Until next time you've beenlistening to Tim Millard, stay
slightly obsessed.
Jim Brown, fred Williamson, jim Kelly They've
done it before on their own.
This one's too big to handlealone.
(00:25):
You know, man, you come to town, I know there's gonna be
trouble.
Brown, williamson, kelly, thebig three Together.
For the first time they do ittheir way.
Three, the hard way, threecities and three of us.
(00:52):
You asked me to secure a placefor you in history.
History is watching, waitingfor your decision.
This is your moment, mr Feather,action explodes all over the
(01:14):
place when the big three joinforces to save their race.
What's happening?
Why?
Brown, williamson, kellyTogether for the first time?
(01:34):
These words, I say yeah,following the footsteps of free.
Who's to talk against an armyof men?
They don't let me breathe ahard way.
Tim Millard (01:54):
Hello and welcome to the Extras.
I'm Tim Millard, your host, andjoining me are my good friends
George Feltenstein of the WarnerArchive and our mutual great
friend and co-worker for so manyyears at Warner Home
Entertainment.
Author producer MichaelStradford.
Good to see you, Mike.
Michael Stradford (02:10):
Great to see you guys.
George Feltenstein (02:13):
Great to see you.
And Tim, as I often say withMichael, I would add the word
hero.
Right?
Tim Millard (02:21):
In this case especially, right George.
George Feltenstein (02:24):
Yeah.
Tim Millard (02:37):
In general, but also specifically this on.
It's usually just George and Italking about these, but that's
because, Mike, you're a realintegral part to this release
coming out.
Tell us a little bit about howthat all started.
Michael Stradford (02:53):
Well, the way it started, I guess, for me was
just being a fan of the WarnerArchive and the great work that
George did and, you know,getting to know him a bit, and
loving and appreciating thequality and the care that
obviously goes into all theWarner Archive titles, from the
way the packaging reflects theoriginal artwork to the really
(03:14):
crisp and beautiful remasterededitions of so many films that I
thought would never get thatkind of quality and care.
So to find out that Three theHard Way was up for a refresh,
so to speak, I got reallyexcited because I knew that,
aside from an early VHS release,the complete film hadn't been
(03:37):
released in a digital opticalformat, and so I mentioned to
George about one scene in themovie it's about four minutes
long where it's essentially theguys just driving around town in
their car Jim Brown, jim Kelly,fred Williamson.
There's really no dialogue, butvisually it's a really cool
scene to see and it kind of letsthe viewer catch his breath
(03:59):
because the preceding scene andthe succeeding scene are action
packed.
The preceding scene and thesucceeding scene are action
packed.
So I had mentioned it to Georgeand that's where I think I have
to share the hero title,because he put in the hard work
over a period of years to trackthat scene down and insert it
back into the movie.
(04:19):
So for the first time, peoplethat look at three the hard way
on a digital optical format willsee the complete theatrically
released movie, thanks to thedoggedness of George.
George Feltenstein (04:34):
Well, and the thing is that at the time
Michael made me aware of it, Ihad been involved with there was
a four film collection that wasaimed at mass merchants.
This is in, I would say, thelate two thousands, like maybe
2008, 2009.
(04:54):
And that was not part of thebusiness that I was ever really
involved in.
But my boss at the time said heneeded more of those four film
collections and I said, well,this would be something that I
think would sell really well atmass merchants, and it did.
But then Michael and I got toknow each other and he said you
(05:17):
know, the version that you haveis missing footage.
And I said, well, that thatseems very, very odd and I
traced it back.
The film had been remasteredpreviously, in 1995.
And, for whatever reason, theytook, I think, eight minutes out
(05:39):
of the film and what we neededto do is to go back to the
camera negative and make surethat we had the right footage
and that everything matched theway the film was supposed to be.
So this is the first timepeople are getting to see the
film as intended in basically 30years.
Tim Millard (06:00):
Yeah, I mean, that's a great story.
And, mike, how did you evenbecome kind of aware?
I guess we have to go all theway back to like, what did this
film mean to you, that you werethat aware of it, and how did
you know that this footage wasmissing?
Michael Stradford (06:15):
Well, you know, I mean I've just been a
big movie fan since I was a kidand I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio
, and every Sunday, almost afterchurch, I would take the bus
downtown and go to theHippodrome Theater, which was
the palace to show all theblaxploitation movies and
(06:35):
martial arts movies and all that, and so a lot of those films
just kind of stuck with me.
And while Three the Hard Way tome isn't a great film, the idea
that you had these threeleading men doing what they do
best in one film was justimpactful.
Like there are still scenes inEnter the Dragon that aren't in
(07:04):
the the that I saw when I firstsaw Enter the Dragon, that
haven't appeared anywhere sinceI first saw them.
They're still missing and thescenes are still crystal clear
to me.
So there are just some moviesthat leave an impression,
whether you realize it at thetime or not, and when you're
watching it again years lateryou're like well, wait a minute,
(07:25):
where's that scene, where'sthat scene at?
And this particular scene wasone of those.
Tim Millard (07:33):
Well, let's talk about the movie a little bit,
guys, because I just wanted toput it in the timeline of the
early 70s and what was going on?
Michael Stradford (07:45):
what was making these uh, black
exploitation or urban, you know,dramas uh, so popular yeah, and
for me growing up, uh, in the70s, seeing these films first
run, um, there was like a, ayoung black network of you know
kids that I went to school withand there were this.
(08:05):
There was this explosion we hadnever experienced before,
because prior to to shaft, Imean street back was more of, I
think, an art house movie,because Melvin Van Peebles has
such an abstract, bizarre style.
But shaft was a movie that waseasy for people to connect the
dots to.
Even some of the advertisingsaid hotter than Bond, cooler
(08:27):
than Bullet.
So it just kind of connectedthe dots that way.
We had never seen anything likethat where there's just this
explosion of black talentleading these movies, because at
that time the only actors thatreally starred in films, black
actors that starred in films,were Jim Brown and Sidney
(08:50):
Poitier.
And Jim Brown, like I said, I'mfrom Cleveland.
Jim Brown used to play for theBrowns, so he was like a god and
Sidney Poitier was like analien.
But when Shaft came out,richard Rountree looked like a
guy that I could see walkingaround in my neighborhood.
And then, as they continued tomake more movies, fred
(09:11):
Williamson did a lot of movies,jim Brown had already been
working.
Jim Kelly was drafting off ofthe Shine and the Dragon gave
him.
There was just a lot ofexcitement, and so whenever
these new movies would come out,you go to school the next day
everybody's talking about hey,did you see Black Caesar?
Did you see JD's Revenge?
Did you see Coffee?
(09:31):
Did you see whatever posterthat was painted by Mort
Kunstler, jim Brown, jim Kellyand Fred Williamson all together
?
It was like more than I couldhandle.
All my buddies at school wouldtalk about man.
(09:52):
Have you seen the trailer forThree to Hard Way?
Have you seen the poster forThree to Hard Way?
There was no entertainmenttonight at the time.
There was no entertainmentweekly.
There was no internet.
You just get your informationwhere and when you could.
So when the movie finallydropped, it was a really big
deal culturally, because to havethose three guys together at
(10:18):
essentially the peak of theirpowers was a really, really cool
and unique thing.
And, um, like I said, it's nota great movie, but it's a fun
movie and it just achieves this,uh, this level of entertainment
and it and it's got a level ofsophistication, uh, because they
(10:41):
did a great job of giving eachprimary character his own
personality and letting him justdo what he does best.
You know, jim Brown was themacho tough guy.
Fred Williamson was the smoothtrickster.
Jim Kelly was the martial artsguy.
They stayed in their lane andthey all excelled at what they
did.
They never looked better.
(11:02):
Jim Kelly was wearing thecoolest clothes in
Blaxploitation at that time andhe had the mustache and he had
the best afro going.
Fred Williamson was charmingwith the cigar hanging out his
mouth.
Jim Brown was a classic stoichero.
So you know, it's like he gaveyou everything you needed in
less than two hours.
Tim Millard (11:24):
Yeah, and we should talk about the director.
I mean Gordon Parks Jr.
I mean, did that play into ittoo?
I mean knowing that he was thedirector on this.
Michael Stradford (11:33):
For me at that point it didn't because I
didn't really have much of asense of filmmakers yet.
You know I clicked more withthe actors.
He clicked in that he was ajunior.
I did know Gordon Parks wasbecause of Shaft, because I love
Shaft, and so I devouredeverything about Shaft.
Parks Jr also did Superfly,which was a film that I loved.
(11:55):
So when I saw his name attachedto it, I'm sure on some level I
thought okay, well, this isgoing to be at the very least,
entertaining.
Tim Millard (12:04):
sure, on some level I thought okay, well, this is
going to be, at the very least,entertaining.
You know, right, I was.
I was just looking and becauseof that plane crash, you know,
his filmography is not very long.
So if you're a fan of ofdirectors, you know, and their
films, you know this.
Having having three the hardway come out is it's like great
for you as a collector uh,obviously, and to have it in the
(12:25):
HD.
Maybe, george, you could tellus a little bit about the actual
HD master and what you neededto do to make it look so good.
George Feltenstein (12:35):
Well, our preservation team scanned the 4K
camera negative and then themissing footage was cut out of
the negative.
I don't know if it was for areissue, you know, to go in
theaters and be under 90 minutes.
(12:55):
Well, we don't know why, but itwas cut out of the negative and
, uh, we found a secondgeneration element that was
complete, and that was how wewere able to put the scenes back
in the film, to be exact, tothe original theatrical release.
Tim Millard (13:15):
Yeah, I mean, it looks great and there's some
great music in this as well,isn't there?
George Feltenstein (13:21):
Oh, there's tremendous music throughout the
film.
Michael, would you agree?
Michael Stradford (13:26):
Yeah, absolutely it's not generally
regarded as one of the classicsoundtracks because there were
quite a few during that time,but it's a really solid album.
I mean the impressions have anumber of great songs on it.
They both fit the film but alsostand on their own as really
good examples of 70s R&B.
Tim Millard (13:46):
Yeah, and to me, because this came out in 74 and
it has the music.
It's got Gordon Parks Jr, it'sgot this you know the three
stars in it.
It feels like it's aculmination of stuff that had
been building, and you'vereleased some of the other ones
that were in years prior.
It feels like it wasculminating to this, like, all
(14:07):
right, there's been enoughindividual films, let's get the
three biggest stars.
We can get out there togetheron this one and then throw in
the music.
Michael Stradford (14:18):
By now it had found its groove of what the
audience is going to want, whatthey're going to expect out of
these urban dramas yeah, and youknow, and I think one of the
things that gets overlookedoftentimes with these films is
there's so much behind thescenes talent, uh, that went on
(14:40):
to have really significantcareers, like the stunt
coordinator for Three of theHard Way was Hal Needham, who
directed Smokey and the Banditand Hooper and any number of
films you know.
So there are a lot of these guysthat were literally cutting
their teeth on these films.
So they were bringing aperspective of really commitment
(15:04):
to trying to do a really goodjob.
You know they they didn't lookdown on the, on the, on the
genre, the way it seems some ofthe studios and critics tended
to.
So these guys brought their Agames.
So a number of these films had,you know, had really good
production values, had greataction, had great music, great
costumes.
You know it was.
(15:24):
Had great action, had greatmusic, great costumes.
These people took the workseriously and the shows on
screen.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Watch out for Tackett the hitman.
His brother was dead andTackett wanted answers Fast.
Tell me who killed him.
He took on the Black Junglesingle-handed and no one could
(15:54):
stop him.
The heavy dudes were runningscared when Tackett came to even
the score Once they turned himon.
Audio clip (16:13):
they couldn't turn him off.
Yeah, I know him, Mr Zito, Gethim.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
You got the taste of blood.
Huh animal, you ain't gonnanever stop.
Run, Uncle Remus, Run.
They wanted him dead.
But who could do the job on thehitman?
Bernie Casey is tacking out toeven the score.
You'd better watch out for theHitman from MGM.
Tim Millard (16:46):
George, I also thought we could talk a little
bit about some of the otherfilms you've released in this
genre in the last.
It feels like the last year, Iguess.
Michael Stradford (17:02):
But, mike, what's your take on Hitman?
Mike, you know Hitman is one ofmy favorites and I'm still not
sure exactly why.
But when I saw it I didn't knowwho Bernie Casey was.
I didn't know anything aboutGeorge George Armitage who
directed it, but he also had alayer of sensitivity that Jim
Brown usually didn't give you inhis movies.
(17:43):
So there were moments in thefilm where you know when he's
trying to connect with his niece, where you really feel like
he's going through something.
So he wasn't the standard machotough guy, even though he was
that.
Um, this was one of pam greer'slast films before she became pam
greer.
I think she was credited aspamela greer in this right and I
(18:08):
found out later that it wasbased on uh, the novel Jack's
return home, which also inspiredget Carter, uh, which came out
in 71.
Hit man came out in 72 and hitman actually is closer to the
book than get Carter was to thebook.
(18:28):
Um, but I found it to be areally satisfying film and I met
Bernie Casey about 20 years agoand just fanboyed out on him
and he he got a kick out of itbecause he said he loved it, he
loved doing it.
Tim Millard (18:45):
I was also looking at this and it's produced by
Gene Corman, who I think is abrother of Roger Corman.
Yes, so fans out there of ofCorman and his films, you know,
I think that's kind of aninteresting thing.
And, uh, I think they did a.
He did a few films in thisgenre, um, and then, like you
(19:05):
said, george, armitage workedwith cormorant on quite a few uh
films after that, so that'skind of an interesting little.
I mean, when you see, you seethese kind of like from looking
back the big picture, you cansee all the connections of
people that are just soimportant to you know, modern
filmmaking and filmmakers, likeyou know, tarantino and and
where they got a lot of theirinspiration, or especially for
(19:28):
him, you know, but a lot of the80s and 90s films too, um, and I
really liked hitman.
So I was curious to get youryour feedback on that.
That just came out I don't know, a month or so ago, george I
believe that was an end of marchtitle yeah, and I love.
I mean I love the these filmsbecause you get that vibe right
(19:48):
early 70s.
You got the grain, you got themusic, you got the style and you
know these are not long moviesso they keep the pace moving.
You know they keep it moving,they're going and there's a few
jumps and they you know you'reover here and you're like what
happened, but it keeps itentertaining and it happens so
fast.
Usually you don't, you don'treally notice it until after the
(20:10):
film is over.
Michael Stradford (20:11):
But and you know, and it seems like there
was a real spirit ofcollaboration generally I mean,
I've had an opportunity to meeta number of these actors over
the years, from Bernie Casey toRon O'Neill to Max Julian were
(20:31):
white and none of them weretrying to approximate what the
black experience was.
So they would, you know, theywould collaborate with you know,
bernie Casey.
And, hey, you know, we want todo this scene where you and Sam
Laws are mourning the death ofyour brother.
(20:53):
What would that be like?
And so Bernie Casey told himwell, you know, we probably sit
in the kitchen and get drunk andthen drive around and just
essentially cry the blues.
And the director said, okay,let's, let's see what that is.
And that's, that's what woundup in the movie.
Tim Millard (21:09):
So that, so that the, the, the collaboration and,
I guess, the generosity betweenthe filmmakers and the actors
resulted in some of thesemoments that you say feel, feel
like they're real, because theywere open to, uh, getting input
from people that have livedthings that they possibly hadn't
(21:30):
lived yeah, I think I read thatthat george armitage was saying
he didn't really want to directit because of that at first,
but the studio, you know, justit ended up that it fell to him
or the film maybe wasn't goingto move forward, but that that
collaboration had to happen forit to be authentic.
Right, exactly, yeah, so.
(21:52):
And then, of course, pamelaGreer I mean she's, she's not in
that movie a lot, but when sheis, you, you you take notice.
That was good.
There was a couple more, george, that you've released recently
too that I want to get you guysas input on, because I love the
fact that now you got four.
George Feltenstein (22:13):
One I would like to get Michael's take on is
black guy with Fred Williamson,because I think that's a really
good neo-noir.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
None of this seems to impress you very much.
So party and all Well, I justhave to contend myself with the
basics, like living and eatingand perhaps stealing things that
don't belong to you.
I am prepared to offer you$50,000 for the former contents
of this cane stone.
No more questions asked$50,000?
(22:48):
.
Oh, that's a lot of petty cash.
What a shabby ex-cop you bet itis.
Now, do we have a deal?
Do I have to answer you rightaway, immediately?
Oh well, in that case I think Ican make a better deal.
I pass.
Audio clip (23:10):
Give us your gun, stone, don't move or I'll have
to kill you.
Take his gun, yeah.
Michael Stradford (23:34):
I feel like Black Eye was unfairly
shoehorned in the blaxploitationgenre when it really wasn't a
blaxploitation film.
You know, fred Williamson wasthe black male lead but I mean,
this is the Rockford Filesbefore the Rockford Files,
exactly.
And to me this stands as hisbest performance because he goes
(23:58):
totally against what you knowof Fred Williamson.
The charm is still there buthe's a down on his luck guy.
He's, you know, he's rumpled,he can't keep the girl, he's
always a step behind but he'sdogged and he just continues to
try to, you know, try to do theright thing.
(24:18):
But he, you know, he's prettymuch a sad sack and the movie to
me is a great snapshot of LAduring the time.
It's a great snapshot ofPrivate Eye, you know.
To me it sits with the LongGoodbye and it sits with Gene
Hagman's Night Moves.
(24:38):
I mean, to me they're all of apiece of both LA and the
particular detective genreduring that period.
George Feltenstein (24:50):
I mean that's 1974.
I mean it just, it captures itperfectly 74.
Michael Stradford (24:57):
I mean it just, it captures it perfectly.
Yeah.
Yeah, I was just going to sayand they shot the whole thing on
like location, so you're reallygetting the flavor of the city
the entire time.
I mean, I just think it's areally, it's a really good film
that deserves that deserves areappraisal.
Tim Millard (25:14):
Yeah, I love that part that you just mentioned the
fact, fact that you get so muchLA and Venice in particular,
that chase scene, that car chasescene in Venice, that they did
probably without permits.
But it's so authentic and if youknow that area and you walk
those canals and everything,it's really fun to see that you
know now it's all expensivehouses and everything it's it's.
(25:34):
It's really fun to see that youknow now it's all expensive
houses and everything right, butyou get to see a little bit
more of the nitty-gritty ofvenice back in the day, before
it became so posh and high-techand wealthy, um, so that that's
a great one.
I really enjoyed black eye too.
I thought that was good, and,and that one was an actual
(25:55):
Warner Brothers release,absolutely, yeah, yes.
And then the other one I wantedto talk about unless you had
something else to say about that, black Eye.
Michael Stradford (26:05):
I'm just going to say I would love to
know how they talked FredWilliamson into doing that movie
at that point in time, becauseit's so contrary to everything
else he had done to that pointin time that point in time
because it's so contrary toeverything else he had done to
that point in time and it seemedlike he was on this specific
trajectory to be this particularkind of uh of action hero, and
this totally went against thegrain and I think he's the
(26:28):
better for it my suspicion hasalways been that he wanted to do
something that wasn't cookiecutter to everything else he had
been doing.
George Feltenstein (26:40):
He was a very talented actor is
thankfully he's still with us.
Very you know, uh had a hugefan base and I think he wanted
to say hey, I don't want to bedoing the same thing.
You know, let me make my ownlike, let me be the Humphrey
Bogart of the mid-70s.
Give me solid drama that I cansink my teeth into.
(27:05):
That isn't just like everythingelse I've been doing.
And the studio believed in himand the result is a very good
film.
And the reason why we've beenputting so much emphasis on
these films is they have notgotten the opportunity to be
seen properly, if you've seenthem at all.
You're looking at 30,35-year-old video masters that
(27:28):
are not up to snuff, and thefact that we've been able to
remaster them go back to thenegatives.
It's like a whole newexperience.
Michael Stradford (27:39):
Yeah, and to have a director like jack arnold
you know the guy that didcreature from the black moon and
it came from outer space andincredible shrinking man.
George Feltenstein (27:48):
I wouldn't have thought of him for a genre
detective story, but he did agreat job with it so one of the
the high points in terms ofpromoting the movie is that you
know he is a very well-respecteddirector for many kinds of
films.
Michael Stradford (28:08):
You know, one of the things that I found
interesting that I had neverseen before or since in the
credits it's called a Jerry Busspresentation seen before, since
in the credits it's called ajerry bus presentation.
So I wonder if he financed itor if he co-produced it or what
that was.
But I was just kind ofsurprised to see that yeah, I
noticed that too.
Tim Millard (28:26):
I I was like oh, he had some connection to this, uh
, this film.
Audio clip (28:36):
Enter Jim Dragon Kelly.
He clobbers them up as BlackBelt Joe.
I lost three of my best men inthere.
Now I'm asking you as a favor.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
You're asking me to be the fourth.
Get a couple tanks and blast itdown.
Forget it, man.
I ain't going in there.
It's a fortress.
Well, fortress or no, it's toppriority, so am I.
It's suicide.
Audio clip (29:06):
Hey, get out, get out, get out, get out, get out,
get out, get out, get out, getout, get out, get up, get up,
get up and dust to dust Now.
Who killed my father?
Who's Pinky?
Speaker 2 (29:28):
What you want, little mama.
I ain't your mama.
Oh wow, man, she killed him,she brought pee.
What's wrong man?
Oh, black Belt, she is good man, she is bad Boy.
What are you talking about,sidney, she?
Michael Stradford (29:45):
went into the hip pocket.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
What she's a fighter like us man.
She is fast.
Ooh, she's bad.
Now, what are you talking about, sidney?
She went into the hip pocket.
What she's a fighter like usman.
She is fast.
Ooh, she's fast.
Now, what are you doing?
No, no, you stay here till Iget back.
Do those dishes or something.
(30:14):
They're done.
Audio clip (30:21):
Black Belt Jones leads his private commandos into
the nerve center of a ganglandstronghold to crack a super
crime conspiracy.
Enter Jim Dragon Kelly.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
You don't mean these.
Audio clip (30:50):
What the hell is that?
That's son of a bastard.
What the hell is that?
What the hell is in my face.
Tim Millard (31:27):
This is the movie that breaks through to get your
take on.
I I know how much mike that youlove uh, um, into the dragon
and we talked about shaft andinto the dragon last year, uh,
so I want to get your input onblack belt jones, which also
came out in 1974, so that's apretty great year for these
films.
We're talking about um and, ofcourse, with jim kelly.
(31:51):
What's your take on that film?
Michael Stradford (31:58):
I'm smiling.
You know, jim Kelly occupies aninteresting space in pop
culture because he wasn't a goodactor.
He wasn't a good actor, he waspretty stiff on screen.
You know, he was a champion inreal life.
He was a champion, martialartist champion, middleweight
(32:19):
karate champion.
But he was pretty repetitive inthe stuff that he did and I
don't know if it was his idea orif it was his teams or the
filmmakers the filmmakers to say, okay, you're just going to be
the black bruce lee.
So he never really had anopportunity to evolve beyond
(32:41):
doing his bruce lee imitations.
That really didn't start untiluntil black belt jones, because
in enter the dragon, you know,he was doing his own thing.
He was actually more of aMuhammad Ali-esque figure than
he was subsequently.
So when I look at Black BeltJones, I mean I've never liked
the film but I liked him.
(33:02):
I just what he represented,just being this Black guy that
was good looking, that had anafro, that knew martial martial
arts.
We just didn't have that beforeand I just thought that was cool
and I was glad he existed andyou know, an end of the dragon
when he says you know I'll betoo good looking, I'll be, I'll
(33:24):
be too busy looking good, thatkind of cemented him with, with
the community, like all right,man, he's, he's down, he's with
it.
So Black Belt Jones is kind ofrough for me because he's a
little vapid, he's just not thatcompelling.
Gloria Hendry I thought wasgreat.
(33:45):
I thought she kind of stole themovie.
I agree, yeah, and you knowRobert Klaus, who also directed
Enter the Dragon Dragon and FredWeintraub who also produced
Enter the Dragon.
It's clearly shows what theymiss with Bruce Lee not being
there, because the martial artsstuff is, you know, isn't
(34:06):
particularly inventive.
Actually, one scene toward theend of the film, I think it's
like at the hour and 21 minutemark, where Jim Kelly is
fighting in this bubble bath carwash thing and he's doubled out
by a guy that looks like he's30 pounds lighter than Jim Kelly
(34:30):
with a big Jim Kelly wig on andthe transfer is so clean.
It's obvious now that you cansee that he's doubled out.
But the rest of the film is allis all, kelly.
It's a harmless movie.
It makes sense for it to existand be talked about when you
talk about these films becauseKelly, you know he, even with
(34:53):
his limitations, he had apersona that people responded to
and he signifies a particularpart of that genre in that era.
One of the interesting things tome is I think they were
shooting through the hard waywhen they needed to do press for
or publicity photos for BlackBelt Jones.
(35:16):
So there are a lot of photos ofhim on the Warner Brothers lot
shirtless and these blue doubleknit pants.
He's got his three the hard waymustache, which he didn't have
at all in Black Belt Jones, butit was during that period.
So in a way it kind of helpsset up through the hard way
because that look was a was adifferent look for him.
Way, it kind of helped set upthrough the hard way because
that look was a was a differentlook for him.
(35:36):
Um, and then there was the theI guess loosely defined sequel
hot potato, which made blackbelt jones look like enter the
dragon.
Uh, and the score wasn't bad.
Dennis Coffey did the score.
(35:57):
Dennis Coffey had the numberone hit with Scorpio a couple
years before.
So I mean it's an interestingcurio but it's not a go-to for
me.
You know, it's not a go-to forme, although I do have outside
of my home office I have aforeign poster of Black Belt
Jones, which is a beautifulposter.
(36:17):
A poster looks as good asalmost anything that's in the
movie and to me that's one ofthe great things about the
Blaxploitation era in general.
If the movies weren't good ninetimes out of 10, you can count
on the posters being great.
I mean, there were some of thegreat artwork for the genre.
(36:44):
It was rare to have a badposter with a good or bad movie.
Most of those posters wereclassics were classics.
Tim Millard (36:56):
Well, I just enjoyed the fact, george, that
you were able to bring these outin this last year, because I
think there's a lot of peoplewho maybe saw them a long time
ago or in a really bad transfer,and now you can see them.
They look great, and if youcollect films of that era or
that genre, I mean these are allof that era, but they're all so
(37:16):
very kind of different fromeach other.
Really.
You got a Private Eye one, yougot a Hitman one, you got a
martial arts one, then you gotthe combo in Three, the Hard Way
.
So they're diverse, and yetthere's a connection there, of
course, as well.
Well, but I love it that theseare coming out for collectors
and also there seems to be areal resurgence, wouldn't you
(37:38):
say, mike, of young peopledigging these, uh, these old 70s
classics yeah, yeah, yeah, Imean, you know, I think, I think
it's it's a matter of exposure,you know, because the stuff
that's good is good.
Michael Stradford (37:52):
It's just that a lot of times people don't
know it exists.
So you know, like my stepsoncame upstairs one day and he saw
the Black Belt Jones posteroutside of my home office and
he's like, what is this?
And so I gave him the movie andhe freaked out, and then that
sent him down a deep rabbit holeand he got immersed in the
(38:14):
genre, you know.
Tim Millard (38:15):
So he thinks he knows more about it than I do
now well, it's so cool for youngpeople to discover these, uh,
these classic films, and thenthey become like the
knowledgeable one of their group.
Michael Stradford (38:29):
Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah george, that
four pack was uh, the dvd fourpack was.
The DVD four pack was was aBlack Belt Jones through the
hard way, black Samson and, ifyou remember, what I say I
potato.
Yeah, when that came out I saidwow, ok, somebody's, this is
(38:51):
before I came to Warner Brothers, okay, somebody's, this is
before I came to Warner Brothers.
I said somebody's reallycooking with gas, because not
many people would know thatBlack Samson made sense to go
with those other three Jim Kellymovies.
But the star of that film, thestar of Black Samson, was
originally supposed to have theJim Kelly role in End of the
(39:12):
Dragon and he fell out and sothey got Jim Kelly.
So then to have that four-discset that had the only movie that
that guy starred in as part ofessentially the Jim Kelly
collection, I thought was reallycool.
George Feltenstein (39:28):
But Black Samson is actually, I think, one
of the best films of the genre,mm-hmm.
Michael Stradford (39:36):
Yeah yeah, overlooked, overlooked, not
often talked about we may haveto do something about that.
George Feltenstein (39:43):
Yeah, yeah.
Tim Millard (39:45):
Maybe there's a good tease right there.
Now, which of these four filmsdo you think is probably the
least known?
George Feltenstein (39:52):
George, Of the four that we just that you
released now, yeah, I'd beinterested to see what michael
thinks, but, um, the one that Ithought was least known was
black belt jones and I wouldhave thought black eye I was
(40:14):
gonna say black eye, okay yeah,I would have thought black eye
um, black eyes is really good,so it'd be great if that's what
that is.
What is not known about it ishey, this is not like all the
other films, this is different,and I I hope that our release
(40:35):
helped to shine a light on thefact that this is fine
filmmaking, fine acting.
This is not just like all theothers.
You know, like when peopleclump these movies into one
little shoebox, checks boxes,many of them are really
(40:55):
exceptional films that reallygenerate timeless interest in
the genre and they need to berecognized individually and not
just by people who aren'tenlightened to their differences
and the filmmakers who areworking on them.
(41:16):
They need to be looked at justthe way you would look at late
1940s film noir, early 1950sfilm noir or Warner gangster
movies.
I mean, they run the gamut.
Some are like one way and someare the other, and there's
different talents.
It should not be shoeboxed.
That's why we want to give eachfilm its own pedestal for that
(41:41):
particular month, so that peoplewill focus on it.
And I think there's greatpleasures to be had in all these
films and that's why we're soproud to bring them out, and
with the quality they deserve.
Michael Stradford (41:54):
Yeah, I mean I I never thought that I'd get
to see so many of these filmslook so good.
I mean it's, it's, it's.
It's a real joy for me becauseyou get to a point where, like
when that four pack came out,I'm like, okay, well, it's on
DVD, great, because I thoughtthat was as good as it could get
(42:15):
.
And then to see that there'sanother layer, another level
that you could get to, whereit's a real market improvement,
is very special and, george, youare to be thanked and commended
Seriously.
George Feltenstein (42:29):
I was grateful to be able to convince
the management of that era Ithink it was around 2008 to go
for that four film pack and theyweren't aware of these films.
They I had to explain to themwhy they were important and why
I thought they would sell reallywell and that four pack
(42:51):
absolutely blew the roof off theplace in terms of sales.
And that was again the.
It was the kind of beginning ofthe end of the, you know
physical disc at its highest,when it was a six billion dollar
a year industry.
It was still the time where youcould go into mass merchants
(43:13):
and buy films like that and thiswas also priced very, very
reasonably and it has continuedto be popular.
Michael Stradford (43:25):
It's still available.
Yeah, I mean I've got a numberof friends that were excited
when Hitman came out on DVD justregular DVD.
When Melinda came out on dvdjust regular dvd.
When melinda came out on justdvd.
And you know one of my buddiesin new york, I sent him a copy
of hitman on blu-ray, I boughtit and sent it to him.
I didn't tell him I was gettingit and he called me.
He freaked out, he couldn'tbelieve it.
(43:46):
It existed in that format, youknow well, it didn't until
recently that that's the greatnews.
But.
Tim Millard (43:53):
I was thinking about these films and that era
of filmmaking and I would say ithas an outsized impact on
popular culture.
Oh, without question.
Yeah, or in different things,they don't necessarily know, but
these are the films that had alot of influence in culture
(44:18):
today and it's worth checkingout.
I mean, I encourage people ifyou're interested, check out
these films because they lookgreat.
They're much more accessiblenow because they look and sound
so good and they're entertaining.
George Feltenstein (44:30):
Yeah, that's the thing.
They're not pretentious,they're not trying to be
something other thanentertaining.
Yeah, you can make a greatcraft.
Tim Millard (44:41):
Yeah, you can poke holes in them if you want yeah
but I would say that just on theuh which one is it?
That it was all shot in venice,just that, uh, that scene alone
, the car chase alone, is worthworth price of admission in my
book because it's so good, uh,but seeing each of these stars
too in their own movies, um, andthen just their development,
(45:04):
and then kind of I love theculmination here with, with
three, the hard way of ofbringing the stars together.
You know, we, we see Hollywooddo it all the time.
George Feltenstein (45:13):
Right, but that was like that was a big
deal when it happened.
Michael Stradford (45:18):
Yeah.
George Feltenstein (45:18):
You mean all three of them were together in
one movie.
Yeah, yeah.
So it was a big deal and Ithink it's a big deal now and
I'm so grateful that because itwas pushing really really hard,
we've got to find that footagebecause it was pushing really
really hard.
We've got to find that footageand to get the camera negative
scanned at 4K.
Our film elements on the AlliedArtist movies are sometimes
(45:43):
problematic and once we wereable to find the missing footage
and know that we could get goodquality out of it, you're
watching the whole movie and youdon't suddenly see a dip in
quality.
Right, it has a nice,consistent look to it.
Warner Brothers Motion PictureImaging did a wonderful job, as
(46:05):
they always do, and I've gottena lot of posts on social media
and people being thrilledbecause people are starting to
get their discs in the last weekor two and, uh, it's exciting
yeah, yeah uh, there are severalfacebook pages that focus on
blaxploitation films, um, thatare pretty active.
Michael Stradford (46:28):
They have active communities and when
words started percolating thatthrough the heart way, way might
be coming out in Blu-ray, therewas a lot of excitement.
It's a lot of excitement.
And then, once the I guess thepress release came out and there
was a picture of the Blu-raycover, which signified that it
was real, there was realexcitement.
(46:49):
And then people started postingwhen they got their copies they
were posting pictures holdingthe Blu-ray and all that.
So it's cool because a lot ofthese people, when I check the
communities, a lot of thesepeople are young.
They weren't around when thesemovies originally came out, but
they have an opportunity to seethese films in the best possible
(47:15):
quality is a great way for themto be introduced to a lot of
these movies.
So now there's you know, there'sa lot of interest in Melinda.
There's a lot of interest inMelinda.
There's people that have boughtThree the Hard Way also have
bought a number of other WarnerBrothers Blu-rays from the genre
(47:36):
.
So the expectation has beenI've seen, well, warner Brothers
put out Melinda on DVD.
Maybe they'll put it out onBlu-ray, because they put Hitman
out on DVD and it's on Blu-ray,so at least there's a chance,
whereas before that wasn't evena possibility.
Now, you know, it's at leastwithin the realm of possibility
that it could happen, andthere's a lot of excitement for
(47:59):
that and probably other filmstoo.
George Feltenstein (48:03):
Fingers crossed for more.
Tim Millard (48:09):
Well, mike, it's great to get you on.
I love your perspective onthese, and just your.
You know you've written a book.
Tell us about the book a littlebit.
You're not just talking off thecuff.
You've got a book called whatBlack to the Movies.
Tell us about it.
Michael Stradford (48:24):
Yes, black, to the Movies and Other Pop
Culture Musings.
So it's essentially it was aproject I did, a school project
that I did where I reviewedmovies that were special to me
from my birth up until, I think,2019.
So from 1959 to 2019.
(48:46):
And so it covers all types ofgenres.
But what I tried to do was talkabout seeing these movies and
how they impacted me as a youngblack kid from Cleveland.
You know, and one of the thingsthat I've always appreciated
about the movies is there reallyis no barrier to entry unless
(49:07):
you place it on yourself.
So you know, I was able to seea lot of different kinds of
movies coming up and, as aresult, I love all kinds of
movies.
So, um, uh, the name I justthought was was kind of a fun
name to kind of talk to what thewhat the book was trying to get
across.
But you know, I review a lot ofblaxploitation films, but I
(49:31):
also review remains of the dayand um the guns of A lot of
Blaxploitation films.
But I also review Remains ofthe Day and the Guns of Navarone
and Last of the Mohicans and,you know, the Godfather just
Thief.
It just varies and the cover ofthe book was originally the
poster art for Hellop in Harlemand the illustrator, robert
(49:56):
Tannenbaum, lives here inSouthern California and I
reached out to him and he gaveme permission to use his cover
art as a cover of my book.
And then I got the originalshaft font and used that font
for the title of the book.
So I think it looks like it'sover your shoulder back there it
is.
Tim Millard (50:11):
It is.
I'm a proud owner, you signedit for me and I love it.
It's like bite size, right,because your reviews are easy.
You, you know they're notoverly long, they're accessible
and I love your take on thesefilms.
But not only, not only have youwritten reviews of the movies.
I mean, you've worked for manyof the studios here in hollywood
(50:31):
.
Your music uh radio worked inmusic and radio stations, right,
you've been in theentertainment industry a long
time A long time, yeah, sincethe early 80s.
And Mike, I know you've workedand have a love for pulp and
you've got a number of projectsgoing on books and things.
I just got the Fargo Hell onWheels holding it up here for
(50:56):
the YouTube crowd graphic novel.
Just started going through thatand joined it.
It's a beautiful hardcover,great project.
I was glad to be a part of thatKickstarter.
But tell us about a few of thethings you got going.
Michael Stradford (51:11):
Okay, well, I appreciate the support.
I started last year.
I started my own littlepublishing company called Gizmo
Press, and so we focusprincipally on graphic novels
and the book that you just heldup, fargo Hell on Wheels.
It was our first release.
Fargo is a character that wasbased on Lee Marvin's character
(51:33):
from the Professionals, theRichard Brooks film from 1966.
And it spawned a series of 23novels in the 70s and I acquired
the rights to those novels, forgraphic to do graphic novels.
And Howard Chaykin, who's anincredible writer and artist, is
a good friend of mine, and sohe wrote and adapted and
(51:57):
illustrated the first Fargo bookand it was successful as well
received.
We're getting great reviews,people seem to be really happy
about it and I'm really happywith how the book turned out.
We also did a book called SteveHolland the torn shirt sessions
.
It's about Steve Holland, whowas the model for the Doc Savage
(52:17):
paperbacks from the 60s thatwere painted by James Bama and
Bob Larkin A lot of referencephotos and original paintings.
And then the most recentproject is a book on comic book
artist Dennis Cowan.
We just finished it.
It's called Graphic Samurai theArt of Dennis Cowan.
(52:37):
We did a Kickstarter campaignon that it just finished
printing in China.
I got an email that they'refinishing packaging today, so
those books will be shipped outby the end of the week.
And we've got a couple otherthings that are you know that
we'll work on that are up oursleeve.
So you know, we're a smallcompany and I'm just trying to
(52:58):
do projects that I'm interestedin, that I can be passionate
about and hopefully, uh, there'san audience that shares some of
those same interests, but it's,you know, it's a lot of fun
yeah, and I'll put the links inthe show notes here so that
those that want to follow you,your Facebook page and Gizmo
(53:18):
Press can get more informationon what you're working on and
those releases as well.
Tim Millard (53:23):
And, of course, george, we're going to have
links to all of the films thatwe talked about today.
Absolutely, but I mean, ifyou're a fan of these films, I
think you'll be a fan of a lotof the work that you're doing.
Mike, the, you know the graphicnovels and the pulp stuff and
everything.
Michael Stradford (53:45):
So they're kind of all.
You know a lot of collectorslike the same kind of area.
Yeah, and I post withregularity on Facebook and
Instagram movie reviews and bookreviews.
You know just stuff that I likethat I think people there's a
lot of friends will ask me hey,should I go see Sinners?
You know what did you think ofthe Last of Us?
Blah, blah, blah.
So it's fun to just post myperspective and generally, if I
(54:09):
don't like something, I don'twrite about it.
I usually prefer to just writeabout things that I see some
value in, although once in awhile you see something that's
so egregious you want to do apublic service and just tell
people to stay away, but notthat often.
Tim Millard (54:26):
Well, it's good to see you.
I mean, we had a lot of yearstogether, the three of us, and
it wasn't the hard way.
It was a fun way back then forthe three of us and it wasn't
the hard way.
George Feltenstein (54:35):
It was a fun way back then for the three of
us, absolutely yeah, lots ofgood stuff.
Tim Millard (54:38):
That was the heyday of physical media and
everything.
So it's good to all get on andtalk about these terrific films
and film history.
I love it, Love it.
So thanks guys.
George Feltenstein (54:52):
Thank you.
Thank you, tim and Michael.
It's great seeing you.
Michael Stradford (54:56):
Great to see you, George.
Tim Millard (55:01):
Just an update.
Since we recorded this, theWarner Archive has announced
that Melinda from 1972 will bereleasing July 29th.
So we talked about it in thispodcast and it has since been
announced.
So that's good news again forfans of these films, as there
will be another classic 70surban drama coming to you July
(55:25):
29th.
If you haven't yet subscribedor aren't following the show,
appreciate it if you would dothat, or if this is your first
time listening and you thought,hey, this might be worthwhile.
We talk a lot about classicfilm, and classic films are, you
know, films that are justbefore the 2000s, and we even
talk about some after the 2000s.
But we also talk a lot aboutclassic animation as well.
(55:48):
For those of you who enjoy that, anything that's great we talk
about and the Warner Archivereleases.
Until next time you've beenlistening to Tim Millard, stay
slightly obsessed.
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