Darktown Strutters
Darktown Strutters is a 1975 blaxploitation musical comedy film from New World Pictures.[1] Despite having mixed reviews at the time it has gained cult status over the years with praise from film director Quentin Tarantino.[2] Tarantino called it "a ridiculous satire."[3]
Darktown Strutters | |
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![]() Film poster by John Solie | |
Directed by | William Witney |
Produced by | Gene Corman |
Written by | George Armitage |
Starring | Trina Parks |
Music by | Terry Bartlett of kwick/the newcomers |
Distributed by | New World Pictures |
Release date |
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Country | United States |
Language | English |
Cast
- Trina Parks as Syreena
- Edna Richardson as Carmen
- Bettye Sweet as Miranda
- Shirley Washington as Theda
- Roger E. Mosley as Mellow
- Christopher Joy as Wired
- Stan Shaw as Raunchy
- DeWayne Jessie as V.D.
- Norman Bartold as Commander Cross
- Dick Miller as Officer Hugo
- Milt Kogan as Officer Babel
- Gene Simms as Flash
- Sam Laws as Philo Raspberry
- Alvin Childress as Bo
- Zara Cully as Lorelai
Production
The film was written by George Armitage, who had worked with producer Gene Corman before.[4] Armitage:
I wrote Darktown Strutters in three days, and the script form is all one sentence, the entire script is one sentence. I just did it to have fun. I was going to direct it, but I had another script that I sold called Trophy, which was about two police departments who end up in a shooting war, and it was really a labor of love, so I asked Gene to excuse me to work on that, but it never got made, unfortunately. So Joe Viola came in to direct Darktown Strutters, but then he left the project and William Witney came in. And he was fantastic—I was an old Roy Rogers fan and he’d done so many of those... When it was done, Gene said: “You know, we could punch this up a little.” He had a screening after it was first made and was taking suggestions, and he’d invited Richard Pryor to come. And I remember about three-quarters of the way through I looked down in the aisle, and Richard was crawling out. He obviously didn’t care for the film, but was crawling up the aisle so nobody would see him, and he escaped. So he didn’t contribute much to the movie, other than giving them a reason to say: “Hm, maybe there’s some work to be done here?” Still, I enjoyed that movie, I thought Witney did a good job, and it’s a lot of fun.[5]
The film was produced by Gene Corman for a company in Tennessee which was unable to secure its release. Corman then sent it to his brother Roger who released it through New World Pictures. It was re-released in 1977 under the title Get Down and Boogie.[6]
See also
References
- Darktown Strutters at TCMDB
- http://moviemorlocks.com/2010/06/17/talking-with-trina-an-interview-with-trina-parks/
- Tarantino, Quentin (6 April 2020). "I Escaped from Devil's Island". The New Beverly Cinema.
- "Interview with George Armitage - Part One". Money Into Light.
- Nick Pinkerton, "Interview with George Armitage", Film Comment 28 April 2015
- Christopher T Koetting, Mind Warp!: The Fantastic True Story of Roger Corman's New World Pictures, Hemlock Books. 2009 p 89
External links
- Darktown Strutters on IMDb
- Darktown Strutters at AllMovie
- Darktown Strutters at Rotten Tomatoes
- Darktown Strutters at the TCM Movie Database
- Darktown Strutters at Trailers from Hell