Review of Across 110th Street

Introduction

This gritty early `70`s movie successfully marries all the best ingredients of so-called `blaxploitation` cinema (cool black cast, foxy chicks, extrovert pimps and dealers, and a mutha-funker of a soundtrack) with a healthy slice of Mafioso. And it`s a marriage that works.

From the outset, this movie displays a sophistication rarely seen in Black cinema of the period with a sassy script, tight direction (action-movie veteran Barry Shear) and exciting cinematography, with a camera that is constantly on the move. There`s an authentic feel to the movie with sequences shot on the streets of Harlem in a style that often feels like gritty documentary.

The cast is pretty hot too. Anthony Quinn plays a cop of the old school - a weird mix of melancholy and insensitive brutality who has hit 55, and the bottle, at the tail end of a career going nowhere. A younger and more idealistic black detective (Yaphet Kotto) looks like he`ll be taking over key policing responsibilities in the Harlem hood, though it becomes clear that the two cops need each other. (This is literally the case on a couple of occasions when they save each other`s lives).

Anthony Franciosa plays a cruelly smug Italian mobster who`s been tasked with tracking down the mob-money, stolen from under their noses by a couple of black punks with a machine-gun. (Paul Benjamin, best known for his role as `English` in `Escape from Alcatraz`, is the leader and Antonio Fargas appears as their bungling getaway driver in a role that must surely have created the template for his role as Huggy Bear in `Starsky and Hutch`).

The inimitable Richard Ward plays a raspy voiced Harlem crime kingpin (there`s a surprise…he played the same role in just about every `70`s cop show too) who appears to be a `servant` to the mob, but who clearly has his own game plan too.
The music score by Bobby Womack and J.J. Johnson is first class and the title song was later adopted (and adapted) by Quentin Tarantino for the opening for his equally superb tribute to the genre `Jackie Brown`. Elsewhere, the period music works a treat and adds the growing tension of the movie.

This is a violent film full of retribution, violence and despair - and it covers a lot of other thematic ground too. Racism and ageism are tackled intelligently though with little positivity. This is not a happy movie.


There are remarkably few women in this movie, other than the decorative hookers that surround Antonio Fargas`s character as he spends his spoils in a Harlem brothel. One of the three thieves does have a girlfriend, but her role is generally passive and is included here just to accentuate his aspirations for a better future and a way out of the depressing poverty trap that he finds himself in.

The action never lets up and is often violent, and the film concludes on a depressing note that seems to signal the end of an era.

Video

It`s nice that this has been issued in a wide-screen format, though the print appears to have suffered some real wear and tear. In truth this is never more noticeable than in the title sequence, which is constantly sparkling with scratches and blemishes. There`s a low-light, high-grain feel to the movie though I suspect that this was choice of stock and grading - a popular look for films of this era.

Audio

Apart from some wah-ing of the title track during the opening sequence (stretched magnetic tape prior to mastering? Or tension on the projector?), this is all in pretty good shape. The dialogue is clear and the soundtrack is real period magic.

Features

Nil. Nada. Nix. None. (The MGM approach as they plunder their back-catalogue…).

Conclusion

Who would have thought that marrying the best of blaxploitation with an Italian mobster movie would work so well? This film is sheer dynamite from the outset with all the right ingredients in all the right places. There are first class performances from Anthony Quinn as the brutal yet melancholy `old school cop`, and from Yaphet Kotto too as the more idealistic and reserved new kid on the block. Fans of the original `Starsky and Hutch` TV series will be thrilled to see Antonio Fargas (Huggy Bear) in an earlier role that must have been the blue-print for his later work, and the whole thing is wrapped up in an incredible period soundtrack from Bobby Womack and JJ Johnson. The film is occasionally disturbingly violent, but never gratuitously so. A really great movie!