Director: Larry Cohen
Stars: Fred Williamson
1973 USA
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At the beginning of his long and storied career as a director, the inimitable cult maestro Larry Cohen worked primarily in the crime genre, producing a trio of standout blaxploitation movies. The first – his debut – was Bone, swiftly followed by two films for American International Pictures that would firmly establish his reputation: Black Caesar and Hell Up in Harlem, in which Fred Williamson’s hardened gangster works his way to the top of the New York underworld.
In Black Caesar, we meet Tommy Gibbs (Williamson), a criminal scarred by a childhood encounter with a police officer. As an adult, he has become the leader of a crime syndicate based in Harlem. Determined to grow his criminal empire, he wages war on both the Italian mafia and the NYPD. Gibbs returns in Hell Up in Harlem, in which he attempts to eradicate drug dealers from the streets he grew up on, while battling the corrupt District Attorney who wants to keep them there.
Quintessential examples of 1970s exploitation cinema, Black Caesar and Hell Up in Harlem are bona fide cult classics – and launched Larry Cohen’s career in the director’s chair, setting him on the path to It’s Alive, Q – The Winged Serpent, The Stuff and The Ambulance. Eureka Classics is proud to present both films on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.
