BLACK SHAMPOO: BLAXPLOITATION MESS

I’m a fan of director Greydon Clark. I was able to see him a few years back and the Cinema Wasteland convention. I’d heard the name before but it wasn’t until after seeing him and hearing him talk about several of his films that I realized the movies of his that I’d seen. None of them would qualify as amazing movies but they were fun films anyway. So as a fan of Blaxploitation films and Clark when I heard that BLACK SHAMPOO was coming out on blu-ray I was looking forward to it. My hopes were not met.

The movie revolves around Mr. Jonathan (John Daniels), the owner of a hair salon on Sunset Strip who’s incredibly successful. In part that’s because he and his staff are the best hairdressers around. But it also is due to the fact that Mr. Jonathan not only takes care of his customer’s hair but some of their “other needs” as well. Yes, the man is an all-out stud. As a matter of fact before we get to the real story here he takes care of 5 different women.

But his new receptionist Brenda (Tanya Boyd) has a problem. Her past catches up to her when the goons who work for her previous boss Mr. Wilson come to the salon while Mr. Jonathan is out. They rough up the two stereotypical gay hairdressers and tell Brenda to come with them. Rather than go she tells them she’ll call later.

When Mr. Jonathan comes back to the shop he’s not pleased with what transpired. When Brenda says she plans to leave, he instead tells her they’re going out to dinner. We move from there to a montage of dinner set to soft sung music that ends up in a self-propelled peddle paddleboat ride (huh ?). While they’re gone the mobsters return and trash the salon.

Returning home Mr. Jonathan and Brenda do what one would expect. They are upset at the carnage, bypass it and go jump in bed together for another round of sexual situations. The next morning Brenda is gone and the staff are cleaning. Mr. Jonathan goes looking for her in his Mercedes convertible. I mean, because it should be easy to find someone who doesn’t want to be found by driving around town, right?  When he gets back the goons are there again and take him to see Mr. Wilson.

Brenda appears to be happy and content. In reality she has returned to the mobster because she doesn’t want trouble for anyone else. Mr. Jonathan leaves and heads to his cabin retreat in the woods so he can shoot pool there (again I say huh?). It isn’t long before Brenda gets hold of Wilson’s book with information that can jail him and heads to find Mr. Jonathan. Followed by the bad guys a fight is destined and Mr. J comes through, chainsaw and all.

Where to begin? First off the story is ridiculous and unbelievable. The acting is atrocious from everyone involved. The camera work is faded and washed out which stunned me when you see it was done by the amazing Dean Cundey. At least he has the excuse that the film was low budget, he took over after the first day of shooting and this was one of his earliest films. Perhaps that’s an excuse for Clark as well since this was only his second film.

Perhaps the one good thing that can be said about the film is that it doesn’t use the usual type of lead character that we’ve had in the past for Blaxploitation films. He isn’t a pimp or a drug dealer but the successful owner of a business. That being said the Blaxploitation film had already begun to lose favor with viewers by the time this film came out and it may have contributed to the death of the genre. It truly is a bad movie. Those who love it often cite it as one of those movies that’s so bad it’s good. I didn’t find that to be the case.

One more thing to note that many others have discussed as well. The first part of this movie almost takes it out of the Blaxploitation genre and places it in the sexploitation genre instead. There is plenty of skin on display here and plenty of sex to go with it. One sequence even involves two teenage girls stripping and taking care of Mr. Jonathan before mom comes out and takes over. That seems to be going a bit overboard even for films in the genre. So be aware of that going in if you think this is worth your time. I can’t honestly say I’d recommend it though.
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