Trailer—Black Heat

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source: Black Heat

Black Heat

It's another cheap programmer for Al Adamson as a couple of cops go after an international dope ring. With a post-Motown chick-a-boom soundtrack being run out of a hotel where the women guests are recruited for criminal activities, some of it is shot in Vegas for that gritty-but-luxurious feel that people felt appealed to the 1970s, and some in a pink-walled pool hall. This seems to have been so discouraging that after appearing in it, Russ Tamblyn didn't show up in another movie for six years. He had been in some awful dreck over the years -- he has an Oscar nomination for PEYTON PLACE -- but some things discourage a man.

Black Heat is available under many titles, as are most films made by the late exploitation director Al Adamson. Also like many Adamson films, there are no major name stars, only a few washed up names and a few never-quite-made-it names. The story features a black cop in Vegas (Timothy Brown) out to nail bad guys. That's it. The plot is as thin as an average TV cop show from the same period. It's interesting to see Russ Tamblyn playing a really gritty, despicable character. It's hard to believe he's the same guy who played Riff back in the film version of "West Side Story". There's a couple of OK action scenes but the film is pretty tame by today's standards. At least it has a distinctive 70s feel to it. Brown is OK in the lead but didn't have much of a movie career.