Michael's Exploitation Film-O-Rama: The Black Gestapo (1975, Bryanston Distributors)

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Every so often, you hear of a film that makes you think, "There's no way in hell this got made!" So you then spend a considerable amount of time and effort to track it down, only to discover that what you read and what you expected bore little resemblance to what you actually received. I purposely set my expectations low when it comes to movies like this, especially ones set several decades ago. After all, what was borderline pornographic or offensive in the 1960's is practically de rigueur today.

That's where I was at when I read the entry for The Black Gestapo in my handy-dandy copy of The Psychotronic Video Guide. Referred to as "nasty" and "absurd" in Michael Weldon's description, I knew I had to see this one for myself. And, as it turns out, if you go looking hard enough and in the right places, (and by 'the right places', of course, I mean 'anywhere online that sells DVDs' because this one somehow never got a LaserDisc pressing), you too can own your own copy of The Black Gestapo (or Ghetto Warriors as it's titled on some home video releases) to experience for yourself. Yes, @janenightshade and @vincentnijman, even you. :D

It is as nutso as the title makes it sound. This is Blaxploitation crossed with Nazi-sploitation, and the results are... are... well, look, actions speak louder than words, so let's watch the absolutely NSFW trailer together, shall we?

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OK, go ahead and take a moment to return your eyebrows from the back of your head, and pick your jaw off the floor.

Yes, this movie actually exists. And that trailer is just scratching the surface.

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The Black Gestapo follows General Ahmed (Rod Perry), leader of the People's Army of Watts. Despite their beige military uniforms and stern bearing, the People's Army is an army in name only: they are dedicated to fighting the scourges of oppression within their own community, such as poverty, homelessness, and addiction. As General Ahmed puts it in an interview midway through the picture, they have secured a grant from the governor of California to institute their programs: "It's blacks helping blacks with white money."

Unfortunately, General Ahmed and his men have run up against an obstacle in Vincent, the local crime lord (director Lee Frost himself). Vincent and his thugs have a stranglehold on numbers games, drug distribution, and prostitution all over Watts. Ahmed isn't interested in a race war, but after Vincent's men sexually assault Angela, one of the women who work at the People's Army detox clinc, Ahmed's second-in-command Colonel Kojah (Charles Robinson) argues for the creation of a "security force" to protect their families and friends. Ahmed reluctantly agrees, and puts Kojah in charge of training and recruitment, telling him to only take half a dozen men for his militant arm of the People's Army.

Kojah takes to his new job with relish, and begins deliberately patrolling areas where Vincent's thugs are known to gather. In a show of force, he ambushes Vincent's various henchmen when they arrive to collect their ill-gotten monies. Beatings, shootings, vehicular manslaughter, and castration are all forms of payback on the menu in Kojah's book, and before long, Vincent's goons have lost control of their criminal operations.

All's well that ends well, right?

Well, not exactly. Kojah, drunk with the success of his initial forays into actual war, commandeers a new base of operations (director Frost's actual house in California) without Ahmed's knowledge. There, he trains dozens of new recruits into his own army. Only instead of protecting the people like Ahmed wanted, Kojah decides to simply take over the criminal operations Vincent and his men had been running. Before long, Kojah and his fellow officers are raking in cash hand-over-fist from the very shopkeepers and members of the community they were supposed to be protecting. Now it's up to General Ahmed to take up arms against his second-in-command before the community of Watts tears itself apart.

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The Black Gestapo is one of those 'have to see it to believe it' grindhouse-style sleaze-fests that have mostly been relegated to a bygone era. That's probably for the best, no doubt about it. There's nothing moral or uplifting here, though writer Ronald K. Goldman (who went on to write The Brotherhood of Death in 1976, about a group of Vietnam veterans who go after the KKK) manages to almost dip into some form of serious social commentary a couple of times. Rod Perry's General Ahmed is a genuinely decent person, trying his best to make his part of the world a better place. And there's no denying that Vincent's henchmen absolutely deserve the abuse heaped upon them by Kojah's more militant wing of the People's Army. But make no mistake, this is an exploitation movie through and through: violence, blood, and nudity abound. You watch this for the spectacle, not the story. The acting is decent, the fight scenes are honestly pretty well choreographed most of the time, and the soundtrack by Allan Alper is suitably funky at all times.

But, yeah, they made a movie about a group of black gangsters who dress up in faux Nazi regalia, throw out a stiff one-armed salute to repeated cries of "Vengeance!", and murder the absolute living shit out of a bunch of white gangsters. And I was suitably entertained for the whole 90 minutes. What more could anyone ask?

Four vengeful beatings out of five on the Zork-O-Meter!