Blaxploitation Movies - Greatest Ones
by raschalluc | created - 17 Sep 2017 | updated - 18 Sep 2017 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Trouble Man (1972)
R | 99 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A neighborhood "problem solver" is framed for murder by a couple of local crime bosses trying to get him out of the way.
Director: Ivan Dixon | Stars: Robert Hooks, Paul Winfield, Ralph Waite, William Smithers
Votes: 1,607
2. Dolemite (1975)
R | 90 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
After he is released from jail, a pimp takes on the criminals and corrupt police officers who framed him in the first place.
Director: D'Urville Martin | Stars: Rudy Ray Moore, D'Urville Martin, Jerry Jones, Lady Reed
Votes: 6,856 | Gross: $0.24M
3. Ganja & Hess (1973)
R | 112 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
After being stabbed with an ancient, germ-infested knife, a doctor's assistant finds himself with an insatiable desire for blood.
Director: Bill Gunn | Stars: Duane Jones, Marlene Clark, Bill Gunn, Sam L. Waymon
Votes: 2,602 | Gross: $0.02M
4. Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)
R | 97 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Two Harlem cops investigate a robbery, believing that a reverend has staged it in order to steal the money he's collected for a local fundraiser.
Director: Ossie Davis | Stars: Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques, Calvin Lockhart, Judy Pace
Votes: 2,691 | Gross: $4.39M
5. The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973)
PG | 102 min | Action, Drama, Crime
A black man plays 'uncle Tom' in order to gain access to CIA training, then uses that knowledge to plot a new American revolt.
Director: Ivan Dixon | Stars: Lawrence Cook, Janet League, Paula Kelly, J.A. Preston
Votes: 1,568 | Gross: $1.00M
6. Uptown Saturday Night (1974)
PG | 104 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
At Madame Zenobia's illegal nightclub, when Steve Jackson and Wardell Franklin get robbed of their wallets containing a winning lottery ticket, they set out to recover it.
Director: Sidney Poitier | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Harry Belafonte, Flip Wilson
Votes: 2,817 | Gross: $4.57M
7. Cooley High (1975)
PG | 107 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In 1964 on Chicago's Near-North Side, the lives of four carefree high school seniors and best friends, including an aspiring playwright and an all-city basketball champion, takes a tragic turn.
Director: Michael Schultz | Stars: Glynn Turman, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Garrett Morris, Cynthia Davis
Votes: 5,553
8. Three the Hard Way (1974)
R | 89 min | Action, Thriller
Blaxploitation film about three martial-arts specialists who prevent white supremacists from tainting the U.S. water supply with a toxin that's only harmful to black people.
Director: Gordon Parks Jr. | Stars: Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, Jim Kelly, Sheila Frazier
Votes: 1,756 | Gross: $1.28M
9. Black Caesar (1973)
R | 87 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Raised in Harlem, Tommy Gibbs becomes a successful mob boss but he clashes with the rival Mafia and his old enemy, dirty cop McKinney.
Director: Larry Cohen | Stars: Fred Williamson, Gloria Hendry, Art Lund, D'Urville Martin
Votes: 3,897
10. The Legend of Nigger Charley (1972)
PG | 98 min | Western
A slave kills a white man in self-defense and heads West towards freedom, pursued by a professional slave hunter.
Director: Martin Goldman | Stars: Fred Williamson, D'Urville Martin, Don Pedro Colley, Thomas Anderson
Votes: 501 | Gross: $1.95M
11. Penitentiary (1979)
R | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Sport
A hitchhiker named Martel Gordone gets in a fight with two bikers over a prostitute, and one of the bikers is killed. Gordone is arrested and sent to prison, where he joins the prison's ... See full summary »
Director: Jamaa Fanaka | Stars: Leon Isaac Kennedy, Wilbur 'Hi-Fi' White, Thomas M. Pollard, Hazel Spears
Votes: 1,236
12. Friday Foster (1975)
R | 90 min | Action
At Los Angeles airport, magazine photographer Friday Foster witnesses an assassination attempt against billionaire Blake Tarr and is drawn into a murky political conspiracy.
Director: Arthur Marks | Stars: Pam Grier, Yaphet Kotto, Godfrey Cambridge, Thalmus Rasulala
Votes: 2,549
13. That Man Bolt (1973)
R | 104 min | Action, Crime, Drama
To take a briefcase from Hong Kong to Mexico City, via Los Angeles, is it necessary to call on that man - Bolt? With the number of dangerous spies and gangsters who are after that briefcase, maybe Jefferson Bolt is not enough.
Directors: Henry Levin, David Lowell Rich | Stars: Fred Williamson, Byron Webster, Miko Mayama, Teresa Graves
Votes: 433
14. Bucktown (1975)
R | 94 min | Action, Crime, Drama
After being hassled by The Man in a southern town, a cool operator asks some violent friends for help. After all, if you can't trust another brother, who can you trust?
Director: Arthur Marks | Stars: Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, Thalmus Rasulala, Tony King
Votes: 1,600
15. Petey Wheatstraw (1977)
R | 100 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
After being murdered by his rivals, Petey Wheatstraw is resurrected, in exchange for marrying the devil's daughter, the world's ugliest woman.
Director: Cliff Roquemore | Stars: Rudy Ray Moore, Jimmy Lynch, Leroy Daniels, Ernest Mayhand
Votes: 1,554
16. Cleopatra Jones (1973)
PG | 89 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
During the 1970s, U.S. Special Agent Cleopatra Jones proves to be an invaluable asset to the local police forces in the war on drugs.
Director: Jack Starrett | Stars: Tamara Dobson, Bernie Casey, Brenda Sykes, Antonio Fargas
Votes: 3,538 | Gross: $2.98M
17. Five on the Black Hand Side (1973)
PG | 96 min | Comedy
In contrast to most of the violence-laden "blaxploitation" films of the period, this low-budget effort eschews exploitation for humanity and domestic drama. Leonard Jackson plays a barber ... See full summary »
Director: Oscar Williams | Stars: Godfrey Cambridge, Clarice Taylor, Leonard Jackson, Virginia Capers
Votes: 489 | Gross: $1.72M
18. Black Heat (1976)
R | 94 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Kicks Carter, a streetwise Las Vegs cop, is out to shut down an upscale hotel that is actually a front for a host of illegal activities. A gang headed by the scuzzy Ziggy is running ... See full summary »
Director: Al Adamson | Stars: Timothy Brown, Russ Tamblyn, Jana Bellan, Geoffrey Land
Votes: 268
19. Sweet Jesus, Preacherman (1973)
R | 99 min | Action, Drama
A Black hit man poses as a Baptist preacher in a ghetto church. He decides to take over the local rackets.
Director: Henning Schellerup | Stars: Roger E. Mosley, William Smith, Michael Pataki, Tom Johnigarn
Votes: 242 | Gross: $0.37M
20. Black Gunn (1972)
R | 96 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A black militant group robs a Mafia bookie joint and also steals the incriminating ledgers which, in turn, prompts retaliation from the mob.
Director: Robert Hartford-Davis | Stars: Jim Brown, Martin Landau, Brenda Sykes, Luciana Paluzzi
Votes: 875 | Gross: $1.10M
21. Hammer (1972)
R | 92 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A Los Angeles dock worker becomes a boxer but his crooked manager is involved in various rackets and he's working for the mob.
Director: Bruce D. Clark | Stars: Fred Williamson, Bernie Hamilton, Vonetta McGee, William Smith
Votes: 751
22. Slaughter (1972)
R | 92 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Slaughter, a former Green Beret, avenges the killing of loved ones by the Mob, and in so doing is coerced by the Feds into traveling to Mexico to finish off surviving mobsters.
Director: Jack Starrett | Stars: Jim Brown, Stella Stevens, Rip Torn, Cameron Mitchell
Votes: 1,314
23. Cool Breeze (1972)
R | 101 min | Crime, Drama
Thalmus is the leader for a group of criminals who gather in L.A. to rob a bank. Their goal is to find a new bank.
Director: Barry Pollack | Stars: Thalmus Rasulala, Judy Pace, Julian Christopher, Lincoln Kilpatrick
Votes: 415 | Gross: $1.18M
24. Coonskin (1974)
R | 100 min | Animation, Action, Comedy
Rabbit, a country-born trickster, takes over the organized crime racket in Harlem, facing opposition from the institutionalized racism of the Mafia and corrupt police.
Director: Ralph Bakshi | Stars: Barry White, Charles Gordone, Scatman Crothers, Philip Michael Thomas
Votes: 3,751
25. Black Samson (1974)
R | 88 min | Action, Drama
Noble nightclub owner Samson does his best to keep his neighborhood clean of crime and drugs. When vicious mobster Johnny Nappa tries to muscle in on Samson's territory, Samson takes a brave stand against Nappa and his flunkies.
Director: Charles Bail | Stars: Rockne Tarkington, William Smith, Connie Strickland, Carol Speed
Votes: 630 | Gross: $0.09M
26. The Black Gestapo (1975)
R | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
General Ahmed has started an inner-city People's Army to try and relieve the misery of the citizens of Watts. When the locals are put under increasing pressure by Mafia thugs, Ahmed's ... See full summary »
Director: Lee Frost | Stars: Rod Perry, Charles Robinson, Phil Hoover, Edward Cross
Votes: 1,340
27. Black Shampoo (1976)
R | 85 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A promiscuous heterosexual black hairstylist and businessman has sex with his white female customers, but when he begins a relationship with his black secretary, her white mobster ex-boyfriend resorts to violent measures to get her back.
Director: Greydon Clark | Stars: John Daniels, Tanya Boyd, Joseph Carlo, Skip E. Lowe
Votes: 979
28. Hell Up in Harlem (1973)
R | 94 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A gangster in Harlem must rescue his ex-wife, who has been kidnapped by the Mafia.
Director: Larry Cohen | Stars: Fred Williamson, Julius Harris, Gloria Hendry, Margaret Avery
Votes: 1,760 | Gross: $1.45M
29. Shaft in Africa (1973)
R | 112 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
Private investigator John Shaft is recruited to go undercover to break up a modern slavery ring where young Africans are lured to Paris to do chain-gang work.
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: Richard Roundtree, Frank Finlay, Vonetta McGee, Neda Arneric
Votes: 3,219 | Gross: $3.18M
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