The Extras
The Extras
Three the Hard Way: Blaxploitation in HD
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
The Extras Facebook page
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Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog Group
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Jim Brown, fred Williamson, jim Kelly They've done it before on their own. This one's too big to handle alone. You know, man, you come to town, I know there's gonna be trouble. Brown, williamson, kelly, the big three Together. For the first time they do it their way. Three, the hard way, three cities and three of us.
Audio clip:You asked me to secure a place for you in history. History is watching, waiting for your decision.
Audio clip:This is your moment, mr Feather, action explodes all over the place when the big three join forces to save their race. What's happening? Why? Brown, williamson, kelly Together for the first time? These words, I say yeah, following the footsteps of free. Who's to talk against an army of men? They don't let me breathe a hard way.
Tim Millard:Hello and welcome to the Extras. I'm Tim Millard, your host, and joining me are my good friends George Feltenstein of the Warner Archive and our mutual great friend and co-worker for so many years at Warner Home Entertainment. Author producer Michael Stradford. Good to see you, Mike.
Michael Stradford:Great to see you guys.
George Feltenstein:Great to see you. And Tim, as I often say with Michael, I would add the word hero. Right?
Tim Millard:In this case especially, right George.
George Feltenstein:Yeah.
Tim Millard:In general, but also specifically this on. It's usually just George and I talking about these, but that's because, Mike, you're a real integral part to this release coming out. Tell us a little bit about how that all started.
Michael Stradford:Well, the way it started, I guess, for me was just being a fan of the Warner Archive and the great work that George did and, you know, getting to know him a bit, and loving and appreciating the quality and the care that obviously goes into all the Warner Archive titles, from the way the packaging reflects the original artwork to the really crisp and beautiful remastered editions of so many films that I thought would never get that kind of quality and care.
Michael Stradford:So to find out that Three the Hard Way was up for a refresh, so to speak, I got really excited because I knew that, aside from an early VHS release, the complete film hadn't been released in a digital optical format, and so I mentioned to George about one scene in the movie it's about four minutes long where it's essentially the guys just driving around town in their car Jim Brown, jim Kelly, fred Williamson. There's really no dialogue, but visually it's a really cool scene to see and it kind of lets the viewer catch his breath because the preceding scene and the succeeding scene are action packed. The preceding scene and the succeeding scene are action packed. So I had mentioned it to George and 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 track that scene down and insert it back into the movie. So for the first time, people that look at three the hard way on a digital optical format will see the complete theatrically released movie, thanks to the doggedness of George.
George Feltenstein:Well, and the thing is that at the time Michael made me aware of it, I had been involved with there was a four film collection that was aimed at mass merchants.
George Feltenstein:This is in, I would say, the late two thousands, like maybe 2008, 2009. And that was not part of the business that I was ever really involved in. But my boss at the time said he needed more of those four film collections and I said, well, this would be something that I think would sell really well at mass merchants, and it did. But then Michael and I got to know each other and he said you know, the version that you have is missing footage. And I said, well, that that seems very, very odd and I traced it back. The film had been remastered previously, in 1995. And, for whatever reason, they took, I think, eight minutes out of the film and what we needed to do is to go back to the camera negative and make sure that we had the right footage and that everything matched the way the film was supposed to be. So this is the first time people are getting to see the film as intended in basically 30 years.
Tim Millard:Yeah, I mean, that's a great story. And, mike, how did you even become kind of aware? I guess we have to go all the way back to like, what did this film mean to you, that you were that aware of it, and how did you know that this footage was missing?
Michael Stradford:Well, you know, I mean I've just been a big movie fan since I was a kid and I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and every Sunday, almost after church, I would take the bus downtown and go to the Hippodrome Theater, which was the palace to show all the blaxploitation movies and 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 to me isn't a great film, the idea that you had these three leading men doing what they do best in one film was just impactful. Like there are still scenes in Enter the Dragon that aren't in the the that I saw when I first saw Enter the Dragon, that haven't appeared anywhere since I first saw them. They're still missing and the scenes are still crystal clear to me. So there are just some movies that leave an impression, whether you realize it at the time or not, and when you're watching it again years later you're like well, wait a minute, where's that scene, where's that scene at? And this particular scene was one of those.
Tim Millard:Well, let's talk about the movie a little bit, guys, because I just wanted to put it in the timeline of the early 70s and what was going on?
Michael Stradford:what was making these uh, black exploitation or urban, you know, dramas uh, so popular yeah, and for me growing up, uh, in the 70s, seeing these films first run, um, there was like a, a young black network of you know kids that I went to school with and there were this. There was this explosion we had never experienced before, because prior to to shaft, I mean 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 was easy for people to connect the dots to. Even some of the advertising said hotter than Bond, cooler than Bullet. So it just kind of connected the dots that way. We had never seen anything like that where there's just this explosion of black talent leading these movies, because at that time the only actors that really starred in films, black actors that starred in films, were Jim Brown and Sidney Poitier. And Jim Brown, like I said, I'm from Cleveland. Jim Brown used to play for the Browns, so he was like a god and Sidney Poitier was like an alien. But when Shaft came out, richard Rountree looked like a guy that I could see walking around in my neighborhood. And then, as they continued to make more movies, fred Williamson did a lot of movies, jim Brown had already been working. Jim Kelly was drafting off of the Shine and the Dragon gave him.
Michael Stradford:There was just a lot of excitement, 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? Did you see whatever poster that was painted by Mort Kunstler, jim Brown, jim Kelly and Fred Williamson all together? It was like more than I could handle. All my buddies at school would talk about man. Have you seen the trailer for Three to Hard Way? Have you seen the poster for Three to Hard Way? There was no entertainment tonight at the time. There was no entertainment weekly. There was no internet. You just get your information where and when you could.
Michael Stradford:So when the movie finally dropped, it was a really big deal culturally, because to have those three guys together at essentially the peak of their powers was a really, really cool and unique thing. And, um, like I said, it's not a 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 of sophistication, uh, because they did a great job of giving each primary character his own personality and letting him just do what he does best. You know, jim Brown was the macho tough guy. Fred Williamson was the smooth trickster. Jim Kelly was the martial arts guy. They stayed in their lane and they all excelled at what they did. They never looked better. Jim Kelly was wearing the coolest clothes in Blaxploitation at that time and he had the mustache and he had the best afro going. Fred Williamson was charming with the cigar hanging out his mouth. Jim Brown was a classic stoic hero. So you know, it's like he gave you everything you needed in less than two hours.
Tim Millard:Yeah, and we should talk about the director. I mean Gordon Parks Jr. I mean, did that play into it too? I mean knowing that he was the director on this.
Michael Stradford:For me at that point it didn't because I didn't really have much of a sense of filmmakers yet. You know I clicked more with the actors. He clicked in that he was a junior. I did know Gordon Parks was because of Shaft, because I love Shaft, and so I devoured everything about Shaft. Parks Jr also did Superfly, which was a film that I loved. So when I saw his name attached to it, I'm sure on some level I thought okay, well, this is going to be at the very least, entertaining.
Tim Millard: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 because of that plane crash, you know, his filmography is not very long. So if you're a fan of of directors, you know, and their films, you know this. Having having three the hard way come out is it's like great for you as a collector uh, obviously, and to have it in the HD. Maybe, george, you could tell us a little bit about the actual HD master and what you needed to do to make it look so good.
George Feltenstein:Well, our preservation team scanned the 4K camera negative and then the missing footage was cut out of the negative. I don't know if it was for a reissue, you know, to go in theaters and be under 90 minutes. Well, we don't know why, but it was cut out of the negative and, uh, we found a second generation element that was complete, and that was how we were able to put the scenes back in the film, to be exact, to the original theatrical release.
Tim Millard:Yeah, I mean, it looks great and there's some great music in this as well, isn't there?
George Feltenstein:Oh, there's tremendous music throughout the film. Michael, would you agree?
Michael Stradford:Yeah, absolutely it's not generally regarded as one of the classic soundtracks because there were quite a few during that time, but it's a really solid album. I mean the impressions have a number of great songs on it. They both fit the film but also stand on their own as really good examples of 70s R&B.
Tim Millard:Yeah, and to me, because this came out in 74 and it has the music. It's got Gordon Parks Jr, it's got this you know the three stars in it. It feels like it's a culmination of stuff that had been building, and you've released some of the other ones that were in years prior. It feels like it was culminating to this, like, all right, there's been enough individual films, let's get the three biggest stars. We can get out there together on this one and then throw in the music.
Michael Stradford:By now it had found its groove of what the audience is going to want, what they're going to expect out of these urban dramas yeah, and you know, and I think one of the things that gets overlooked oftentimes with these films is there's so much behind the scenes talent, uh, that went on to have really significant careers, like the stunt coordinator for Three of the Hard Way was Hal Needham, who directed Smokey and the Bandit and Hooper and any number of films you know.
Michael Stradford:So there are a lot of these guys that were literally cutting their teeth on these films. So they were bringing a perspective of really commitment to trying to do a really good job. You know they they didn't look down on the, on the, on the genre, the way it seems some of the studios and critics tended to. So these guys brought their A games. So a number of these films had, you know, had really good production values, had great action, had great music, great costumes. You know it was. Had great action, had great music, great costumes. These people took the work seriously and the shows on screen.
Speaker 2:Watch out for Tackett the hitman. His brother was dead and Tackett wanted answers Fast. Tell me who killed him. He took on the Black Jungle single-handed and no one could stop him. The heavy dudes were running scared when Tackett came to even the score Once they turned him on.
Audio clip:they couldn't turn him off. Yeah, I know him, Mr Zito, Get him.
Speaker 2:You got the taste of blood. Huh animal, you ain't gonna never stop. Run, Uncle Remus, Run. They wanted him dead. But who could do the job on the hitman? Bernie Casey is tacking out to even the score. You'd better watch out for the Hitman from MGM.
Tim Millard:George, I also thought we could talk a little bit about some of the other films you've released in this genre in the last. It feels like the last year, I guess.
Michael Stradford:But, mike, what's your take on Hitman? Mike, you know Hitman is one of my favorites and I'm still not sure exactly why. But when I saw it I didn't know who Bernie Casey was. I didn't know anything about George George Armitage who directed it, but he also had a layer of sensitivity that Jim Brown usually didn't give you in his movies. So there were moments in the film 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 macho tough guy, even though he was that.
Michael Stradford:Um, this was one of pam greer's last films before she became pam greer. I think she was credited as pamela greer in this right and I found out later that it was based on uh, the novel Jack's return home, which also inspired get Carter, uh, which came out in 71. Hit man came out in 72 and hit man actually is closer to the book than get Carter was to the book. Um, but I found it to be a really satisfying film and I met Bernie Casey about 20 years ago and just fanboyed out on him and he he got a kick out of it because he said he loved it, he loved doing it.
Tim Millard:I was also looking at this and it's produced by Gene Corman, who I think is a brother of Roger Corman. Yes, so fans out there of of Corman and his films, you know, I think that's kind of an interesting thing. And, uh, I think they did a. He did a few films in this genre, um, and then, like you said, george, armitage worked with cormorant on quite a few uh films after that, so that's kind of an interesting little. I mean, when you see, you see these kind of like from looking back the big picture, you can see all the connections of people that are just so important to you know, modern filmmaking and filmmakers, like you know, tarantino and and where they got a lot of their inspiration, or especially for him, you know, but a lot of the 80s and 90s films too, um, and I really liked hitman. So I was curious to get your your feedback on that. That just came out I don't know, a month or so ago, george I believe that was an end of march title yeah, and I love.
Tim Millard:I mean I love the these films because you get that vibe right early 70s. You got the grain, you got the music, you got the style and you know these are not long movies so 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're over here and you're like what happened, but it keeps it entertaining and it happens so fast. Usually you don't, you don't really notice it until after the film is over.
Michael Stradford:But and you know, and it seems like there was a real spirit of collaboration generally I mean, I've had an opportunity to meet a number of these actors over the years, from Bernie Casey to Ron O'Neill to Max Julian were white and none of them were trying to approximate what the black experience was. So they would, you know, they would collaborate with you know, bernie Casey. And, hey, you know, we want to do this scene where you and Sam Laws are mourning the death of your brother. What would that be like? And so Bernie Casey told him well, you know, we probably sit in the kitchen and get drunk and then 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 wound up in the movie.
Tim Millard:So that, so that the, the, the collaboration and, I guess, the generosity between the filmmakers and the actors resulted in some of these moments that you say feel, feel like they're real, because they were open to, uh, getting input from people that have lived things that they possibly hadn't lived yeah, I think I read that that george armitage was saying he didn't really want to direct it because of that at first, but the studio, you know, just it ended up that it fell to him or the film maybe wasn't going to move forward, but that that collaboration had to happen for it to be authentic. Right, exactly, yeah, so. And then, of course, pamela Greer I mean she's, she's not in that movie a lot, but when she is, 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 guys as input on, because I love the fact that now you got four.
George Feltenstein: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:None of this seems to impress you very much. So party and all Well, I just have to contend myself with the basics, like living and eating and 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?.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a lot of petty cash. What a shabby ex-cop you bet it is. Now, do we have a deal? Do I have to answer you right away, immediately? Oh well, in that case I think I can make a better deal. I pass.
Audio clip:Give us your gun, stone, don't move or I'll have to kill you. Take his gun, yeah.
Michael Stradford:I feel like Black Eye was unfairly shoehorned in the blaxploitation genre when it really wasn't a blaxploitation film. You know, fred Williamson was the black male lead but I mean, this is the Rockford Files before the Rockford Files, exactly. And to me this stands as his best performance because he goes totally against what you know of Fred Williamson. The charm is still there but he'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's dogged and he just continues to try to, you know, try to do the right thing. But he, you know, he's pretty much a sad sack and the movie to me is a great snapshot of LA during the time. It's a great snapshot of Private Eye, you know. To me it sits with the Long Goodbye and it sits with Gene Hagman's Night Moves. I mean, to me they're all of a piece of both LA and the particular detective genre during that period.
George Feltenstein:I mean that's 1974. I mean it just, it captures it perfectly 74.
Michael Stradford:I mean it just, it captures it perfectly. Yeah. Yeah, I was just going to say and they shot the whole thing on like location, so you're really getting the flavor of the city the entire time. I mean, I just think it's a really, it's a really good film that deserves that deserves a reappraisal.
Tim Millard:Yeah, I love that part that you just mentioned the fact, fact that you get so much LA and Venice in particular, that chase scene, that car chase scene in Venice, that they did probably without permits.
Tim Millard:But it's so authentic and if you know that area and you walk those canals and everything, it's really fun to see that you know now it's all expensive houses and everything it's it's. It's really fun to see that you know now it's all expensive houses and everything right, but you get to see a little bit more of the nitty-gritty of venice back in the day, before it became so posh and high-tech and 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 Warner Brothers release, absolutely, yeah, yes. And then the other one I wanted to talk about unless you had something else to say about that, black Eye.
Michael Stradford:I'm just going to say I would love to know how they talked Fred Williamson into doing that movie at that point in time, because it's so contrary to everything else he had done to that point in time that point in time because it's so contrary to everything else he had done to that point in time and it seemed like he was on this specific trajectory to be this particular kind of uh of action hero, and this totally went against the grain and I think he's the better for it my suspicion has always been that he wanted to do something that wasn't cookie cutter to everything else he had been doing.
George Feltenstein:He was a very talented actor is thankfully he's still with us. Very you know, uh had a huge fan base and I think he wanted to say hey, I don't want to be doing the same thing. You know, let me make my own like, let me be the Humphrey Bogart of the mid-70s. Give me solid drama that I can sink my teeth into. That isn't just like everything else I've been doing. And the studio believed in him and the result is a very good film. And the reason why we've been putting so much emphasis on these films is they have not gotten the opportunity to be seen properly, if you've seen them at all. You're looking at 30, 35-year-old video masters that are not up to snuff, and the fact that we've been able to remaster them go back to the negatives. It's like a whole new experience.
Michael Stradford:Yeah, and to have a director like jack arnold you know the guy that did creature from the black moon and it came from outer space and incredible shrinking man.
George Feltenstein:I wouldn't have thought of him for a genre detective story, but he did a great job with it so one of the the high points in terms of promoting the movie is that you know he is a very well-respected director for many kinds of films.
Michael Stradford:You know, one of the things that I found interesting that I had never seen before or since in the credits it's called a Jerry Buss presentation seen before, since in the credits it's called a jerry bus presentation. So I wonder if he financed it or if he co-produced it or what that was. But I was just kind of surprised to see that yeah, I noticed that too.
Tim Millard:I I was like oh, he had some connection to this, uh, this film.
Audio clip:Enter Jim Dragon Kelly. He clobbers them up as Black Belt Joe. I lost three of my best men in there. Now I'm asking you as a favor.
Speaker 2:You're asking me to be the fourth. Get a couple tanks and blast it down. Forget it, man. I ain't going in there. It's a fortress. Well, fortress or no, it's top priority, so am I. It's suicide.
Audio clip:Hey, get out, get out, get out, get out, get out, get out, get out, get out, get out, get out, get up, get up, get up and dust to dust Now. Who killed my father? Who's Pinky?
Speaker 2: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:went into the hip pocket.
Speaker 2: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 us man. She is fast. Ooh, she's fast. Now, what are you doing? No, no, you stay here till I get back. Do those dishes or something. They're done.
Audio clip:Black Belt Jones leads his private commandos into the nerve center of a gangland stronghold to crack a super crime conspiracy. Enter Jim Dragon Kelly.
Speaker 2:You don't mean these.
Audio clip:What the hell is that? That's son of a bastard. What the hell is that?
Audio clip:What the hell is in my face.
Tim Millard:This is the movie that breaks through to get your take on. I I know how much mike that you love uh, um, into the dragon and we talked about shaft and into the dragon last year, uh, so I want to get your input on black belt jones, which also came out in 1974, so that's a pretty great year for these films. We're talking about um and, of course, with jim kelly. What's your take on that film?
Michael Stradford:I'm smiling. You know, jim Kelly occupies an interesting space in pop culture because he wasn't a good actor. He wasn't a good actor, he was pretty stiff on screen. You know, he was a champion in real life. He was a champion, martial artist champion, middleweight karate champion. But he was pretty repetitive in the stuff that he did and I don't know if it was his idea or if 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 an opportunity to evolve beyond doing his bruce lee imitations. That really didn't start until until black belt jones, because in enter the dragon, you know, he was doing his own thing. He was actually more of a Muhammad Ali-esque figure than he was subsequently. So when I look at Black Belt Jones, I mean I've never liked the film but I liked him. I just what he represented, just being this Black guy that was good looking, that had an afro, that knew martial martial arts.
Michael Stradford:We just didn't have that before and I just thought that was cool and I was glad he existed and you know, an end of the dragon when he says you know I'll be too good looking, I'll be, I'll be too busy looking good, that kind 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 of rough for me because he's a little vapid, he's just not that compelling. Gloria Hendry I thought was great. I thought she kind of stole the movie. I agree, yeah, and you know Robert Klaus, who also directed Enter the Dragon Dragon and Fred Weintraub who also produced Enter the Dragon. It's clearly shows what they miss with Bruce Lee not being there, because the martial arts stuff is, you know, isn't particularly inventive. Actually, one scene toward the end of the film, I think it's like at the hour and 21 minute mark, where Jim Kelly is fighting in this bubble bath car wash thing and he's doubled out by a guy that looks like he's 30 pounds lighter than Jim Kelly with a big Jim Kelly wig on and the transfer is so clean. It's obvious now that you can see that he's doubled out. But the rest of the film is all is all, kelly. It's a harmless movie. It makes sense for it to exist and be talked about when you talk about these films because Kelly, you know he, even with his limitations, he had a persona that people responded to and he signifies a particular part of that genre in that era.
Michael Stradford:One of the interesting things to me is I think they were shooting through the hard way when they needed to do press for or publicity photos for Black Belt Jones. So there are a lot of photos of him on the Warner Brothers lot shirtless and these blue double knit pants. He's got his three the hard way mustache, which he didn't have at all in Black Belt Jones, but it was during that period. So in a way it kind of helps set up through the hard way because that look was a was a different look for him. Way, it kind of helped set up through the hard way because that look was a was a different look for him. Um, and then there was the the I guess loosely defined sequel hot potato, which made black belt jones look like enter the dragon.
Michael Stradford:Uh, and the score wasn't bad. Dennis Coffey did the score. Dennis Coffey had the number one hit with Scorpio a couple years before. So I mean it's an interesting curio but it's not a go-to for me. You know, it's not a go-to for me, although I do have outside of my home office I have a foreign poster of Black Belt Jones, which is a beautiful poster. A poster looks as good as almost anything that's in the movie and to me that's one of the great things about the Blaxploitation era in general. If the movies weren't good nine times out of 10, you can count on the posters being great. I mean, there were some of the great artwork for the genre. It was rare to have a bad poster with a good or bad movie. Most of those posters were classics were classics.
Tim Millard:Well, I just enjoyed the fact, george, that you were able to bring these out in this last year, because I think there's a lot of people who maybe saw them a long time ago or in a really bad transfer, and now you can see them. They look great, and if you collect films of that era or that genre, I mean these are all of that era, but they're all so very kind of different from each other. Really. You got a Private Eye one, you got a Hitman one, you got a martial arts one, then you got the combo in Three, the Hard Way. So they're diverse, and yet there's a connection there, of course, as well. Well, but I love it that these are coming out for collectors and also there seems to be a real resurgence, wouldn't you say, mike, of young people digging these, uh, these old 70s classics yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, 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:It's just that a lot of times people don't know it exists. So you know, like my stepson came upstairs one day and he saw the Black Belt Jones poster outside of my home office and he's like, what is this? And so I gave him the movie and he freaked out, and then that sent him down a deep rabbit hole and he got immersed in the genre, you know.
Tim Millard:So he thinks he knows more about it than I do now well, it's so cool for young people to discover these, uh, these classic films, and then they become like the knowledgeable one of their group.
Michael Stradford:Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah george, that four pack was uh, the dvd four pack was. The DVD four pack was was a Black Belt Jones through the hard way, black Samson and, if you remember, what I say I potato.
Michael Stradford:Yeah, when that came out I said wow, ok, somebody's, this is before I came to Warner Brothers, okay, somebody's, this is before I came to Warner Brothers. I said somebody's really cooking with gas, because not many people would know that Black Samson made sense to go with those other three Jim Kelly movies. But the star of that film, the star of Black Samson, was originally supposed to have the Jim Kelly role in End of the Dragon and he fell out and so they got Jim Kelly. So then to have that four-disc set that had the only movie that that guy starred in as part of essentially the Jim Kelly collection, I thought was really cool.
George Feltenstein:But Black Samson is actually, I think, one of the best films of the genre, mm-hmm.
Michael Stradford:Yeah yeah, overlooked, overlooked, not often talked about we may have to do something about that.
George Feltenstein:Yeah, yeah.
Tim Millard:Maybe there's a good tease right there. Now, which of these four films do you think is probably the least known?
George Feltenstein:George, Of the four that we just that you released now, yeah, I'd be interested to see what michael thinks, but, um, the one that I thought was least known was black belt jones and I would have thought black eye I was 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.
George Feltenstein:What is not known about it is hey, this is not like all the other films, this is different, and I I hope that our release helped to shine a light on the fact that this is fine filmmaking, fine acting. This is not just like all the others. You know, like when people clump these movies into one little shoebox, checks boxes, many of them are really exceptional films that really generate timeless interest in the genre and they need to be recognized individually and not just by people who aren't enlightened to their differences and the filmmakers who are working on them.
George Feltenstein:They need to be looked at just the way you would look at late 1940s film noir, early 1950s film noir or Warner gangster movies. I mean, they run the gamut. Some are like one way and some are the other, and there's different talents. It should not be shoeboxed. That's why we want to give each film its own pedestal for that particular month, so that people will focus on it. And I think there's great pleasures to be had in all these films and that's why we're so proud to bring them out, and with the quality they deserve.
Michael Stradford:Yeah, I mean I I never thought that I'd get to see so many of these films look so good. I mean it's, it's, it's. It's a real joy for me because you get to a point where, like when that four pack came out, I'm like, okay, well, it's on DVD, great, because I thought that was as good as it could get. And then to see that there's another layer, another level that you could get to, where it's a real market improvement, is very special and, george, you are to be thanked and commended Seriously.
George Feltenstein:I was grateful to be able to convince the management of that era I think it was around 2008 to go for that four film pack and they weren't aware of these films. They I had to explain to them why they were important and why I thought they would sell really well and that four pack absolutely blew the roof off the place in terms of sales. And that was again the. It was the kind of beginning of the 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 you could go into mass merchants and buy films like that and this was also priced very, very reasonably and it has continued to be popular.
Michael Stradford:It's still available. Yeah, I mean I've got a number of friends that were excited when Hitman came out on DVD just regular DVD. When Melinda came out on dvd just regular dvd. When melinda came out on just dvd. And you know one of my buddies in new york, I sent him a copy of hitman on blu-ray, I bought it and sent it to him. I didn't tell him I was getting it and he called me. He freaked out, he couldn't believe it. It existed in that format, you know well, it didn't until recently that that's the great news.
Michael Stradford:But.
Tim Millard:I was thinking about these films and that era of filmmaking and I would say it has 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 a lot of influence in culture today and it's worth checking out. I mean, I encourage people if you're interested, check out these films because they look great. They're much more accessible now because they look and sound so good and they're entertaining.
George Feltenstein:Yeah, that's the thing. They're not pretentious, they're not trying to be something other than entertaining. Yeah, you can make a great craft.
Tim Millard:Yeah, you can poke holes in them if you want yeah but I would say that just on the uh which one is it? That it was all shot in venice, just that, uh, that scene alone, the car chase alone, is worth worth price of admission in my book because it's so good, uh, but seeing each of these stars too in their own movies, um, and then just their development, and then kind of I love the culmination here with, with three, the hard way of of bringing the stars together. You know, we, we see Hollywood do it all the time.
George Feltenstein:Right, but that was like that was a big deal when it happened.
Michael Stradford:Yeah.
George Feltenstein:You mean all three of them were together in one movie. Yeah, yeah. So it was a big deal and I think it's a big deal now and I'm so grateful that because it was pushing really really hard, we've got to find that footage because it was pushing really really hard.
George Feltenstein:We've got to find that footage and to get the camera negative scanned at 4K. Our film elements on the Allied Artist movies are sometimes problematic and once we were able to find the missing footage and know that we could get good quality out of it, you're watching the whole movie and you don't suddenly see a dip in quality. Right, it has a nice, consistent look to it. Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging did a wonderful job, as they always do, and I've gotten a lot of posts on social media and people being thrilled because people are starting to get their discs in the last week or two and, uh, it's exciting yeah, yeah uh, there are several facebook pages that focus on blaxploitation films, um, that are pretty active.
Michael Stradford:They have active communities and when words started percolating that through the heart way, way might be coming out in Blu-ray, there was a lot of excitement. It's a lot of excitement. And then, once the I guess the press release came out and there was a picture of the Blu-ray cover, which signified that it was real, there was real excitement. And then people started posting when they got their copies they were posting pictures holding the Blu-ray and all that. So it's cool because a lot of these people, when I check the communities, a lot of these people are young. They weren't around when these movies originally came out, but they have an opportunity to see these films in the best possible quality is a great way for them to be introduced to a lot of these movies.
Michael Stradford:So now there's you know, there's a lot of interest in Melinda. There's a lot of interest in Melinda. There's people that have bought Three the Hard Way also have bought a number of other Warner Brothers Blu-rays from the genre. So the expectation has been I've seen, well, warner Brothers put out Melinda on DVD. Maybe they'll put it out on Blu-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 even a possibility. Now, you know, it's at least within the realm of possibility that it could happen, and there's a lot of excitement for that and probably other films too.
George Feltenstein:Fingers crossed for more.
Tim Millard:Well, mike, it's great to get you on. I love your perspective on these, and just your. You know you've written a book. Tell us about the book a little bit. You're not just talking off the cuff. You've got a book called what Black to the Movies. Tell us about it.
Michael Stradford:Yes, black, to the Movies and Other Pop Culture Musings. So it's essentially it was a project I did, a school project that I did where I reviewed movies that were special to me from my birth up until, I think, 2019. So from 1959 to 2019. And so it covers all types of genres. But what I tried to do was talk about seeing these movies and how they impacted me as a young black kid from Cleveland.
Michael Stradford:You know, and one of the things that I've always appreciated about the movies is there really is no barrier to entry unless you place it on yourself. So you know, I was able to see a lot of different kinds of movies coming up and, as a result, I love all kinds of movies. So, um, uh, the name I just thought was was kind of a fun name to kind of talk to what the what the book was trying to get across. But you know, I review a lot of blaxploitation films, but I also review remains of the day and um the guns of A lot of Blaxploitation films. But I also review Remains of the Day and the Guns of Navarone and Last of the Mohicans and, you know, the Godfather just Thief.
Michael Stradford:It just varies and the cover of the book was originally the poster art for Hellop in Harlem and the illustrator, robert Tannenbaum, lives here in Southern California and I reached out to him and he gave me permission to use his cover art as a cover of my book. And then I got the original shaft font and used that font for the title of the book.
Michael Stradford:So I think it looks like it's over your shoulder back there it is.
Tim Millard:It is. I'm a proud owner, you signed it for me and I love it. It's like bite size, right, because your reviews are easy. You, you know they're not overly long, they're accessible and I love your take on these films. But not only, not only have you written reviews of the movies. I mean, you've worked for many of the studios here in hollywood. Your music uh radio worked in music and radio stations, right, you've been in the entertainment industry a long time A long time, yeah, since the early 80s.
Tim Millard:And Mike, I know you've worked and have a love for pulp and you've got a number of projects going on books and things. I just got the Fargo Hell on Wheels holding it up here for the YouTube crowd graphic novel. Just started going through that and joined it. It's a beautiful hardcover, great project. I was glad to be a part of that Kickstarter. But tell us about a few of the things you got going.
Michael Stradford:Okay, well, I appreciate the support. I started last year. I started my own little publishing company called Gizmo Press, and so we focus principally on graphic novels and the book that you just held up, fargo Hell on Wheels. It was our first release. Fargo is a character that was based on Lee Marvin's character from the Professionals, the Richard Brooks film from 1966. And it spawned a series of 23 novels in the 70s and I acquired the rights to those novels, for graphic to do graphic novels.
Michael Stradford:And Howard Chaykin, who's an incredible writer and artist, is a good friend of mine, and so he wrote and adapted and illustrated the first Fargo book and it was successful as well received. We're getting great reviews, people seem to be really happy about it and I'm really happy with how the book turned out. We also did a book called Steve Holland the torn shirt sessions. It's about Steve Holland, who was the model for the Doc Savage paperbacks from the 60s that were painted by James Bama and Bob Larkin A lot of reference photos and original paintings. And then the most recent project is a book on comic book artist Dennis Cowan. We just finished it. It's called Graphic Samurai the Art of Dennis Cowan. We did a Kickstarter campaign on that it just finished printing in China. I got an email that they're finishing packaging today, so those books will be shipped out by the end of the week.
Michael Stradford:And we've got a couple other things that are you know that we'll work on that are up our sleeve. So you know, we're a small company and I'm just trying to do projects that I'm interested in, that I can be passionate about and hopefully, uh, there's an 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 in the show notes here so that those that want to follow you, your Facebook page and Gizmo Press can get more information on what you're working on and those releases as well.
Tim Millard:And, of course, george, we're going to have links to all of the films that we talked about today. Absolutely, but I mean, if you're a fan of these films, I think you'll be a fan of a lot of the work that you're doing. Mike, the, you know the graphic novels and the pulp stuff and everything.
Michael Stradford:So they're kind of all. You know a lot of collectors like the same kind of area. Yeah, and I post with regularity on Facebook and Instagram movie reviews and book reviews. You know just stuff that I like that I think people there's a lot of friends will ask me hey, should I go see Sinners? You know what did you think of the Last of Us? Blah, blah, blah. So it's fun to just post my perspective and generally, if I don't like something, I don't write about it. I usually prefer to just write about things that I see some value in, although once in a while you see something that's so egregious you want to do a public service and just tell people to stay away, but not that often.
Tim Millard:Well, it's good to see you. I mean, we had a lot of years together, the three of us, and it wasn't the hard way. It was a fun way back then for the three of us and it wasn't the hard way.
George Feltenstein:It was a fun way back then for the three of us, absolutely yeah, lots of good stuff.
Tim Millard:That was the heyday of physical media and everything. So it's good to all get on and talk about these terrific films and film history. I love it, Love it. So thanks guys.
George Feltenstein:Thank you. Thank you, tim and Michael. It's great seeing you.
Michael Stradford:Great to see you, George.
Tim Millard:Just an update. Since we recorded this, the Warner Archive has announced that Melinda from 1972 will be releasing July 29th. So we talked about it in this podcast and it has since been announced. So that's good news again for fans of these films, as there will be another classic 70s urban drama coming to you July 29th. If you haven't yet subscribed or aren't following the show, appreciate it if you would do that, or if this is your first time listening and you thought, hey, this might be worthwhile. We talk a lot about classic film, and classic films are, you know, films that are just before the 2000s, and we even talk about some after the 2000s. But we also talk a lot about classic animation as well. For those of you who enjoy that, anything that's great we talk about and the Warner Archive releases. Until next time you've been listening to Tim Millard, stay slightly obsessed.