D'Urville Martin
1939 - 1984D'Urville Martin (February 11, 1939 – May 28, 1984) was an American actor and director in both film and television. He appeared with regularity in numerous 1970s movies in the blaxploitation genre of films. Born in New York City, D'urville began his career in the mid 1960s, soon becoming a prominent recurring figure in the genre. Martin acted in several movies of the time, including Black Like Me and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Among his partners was the famous blaxploitation actor Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, playing his partner Toby in the Black Charley. Martin also directed films in his career, including Dolemite, starring Rudy Ray Moore. His career ended in 1984 with a heart attack at age 45 likely caused by his hard-partying lifestyle.
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Watermelon Man
Melvin Van Peebles
Godfrey Cambridge, Estelle Parsons
Jeff Gerber, a racist insurance agent and fitness freak, lives in a typical suburban neighborhood. But Jeff's bigoted world of taunting and harassing black people on and off the job is turned upside down when his skin inexplicably turns dark overnight. As Jeff tries to come to terms with this unexplained phenomenon that has befallen him, he soon becomes the victim himself, when all of his friends and neighbors suddenly shun and harass him.
Watermelon Man
Black Caesar
Larry Cohen
Fred Williamson, Gloria Hendry
Tommy Gibbs is a tough kid, raised in the ghetto, who aspires to be a kingpin criminal. As a young boy, his leg is broken by a bad cop on the take, during a payoff gone bad. Nursing his vengeance, he rises to power in Harlem, New York. Angry at the racist society around him, both criminal and straight, he sees the acquisition of power as the solution to his rage.
Black Caesar
Five on the Black Hand Side
Oscar Williams
Clarice Taylor, Leonard Jackson
Leonard Jackson plays a barber who is also the domineering head of a middle-class African American family. Jackson is forced to rethink his values when his previously docile wife (Clarice Taylor) joins their three children in rebelling against her husband's retrogressive behavior.
Five on the Black Hand Side
Hell Up In Harlem
Larry Cohen
Fred Williamson, Julius Harris
Tougher than Shaft and smoother than Superfly, this high-voltage sequel to Black Caesar explodes with enough action to incinerate New York City. Packed with machine-gun mayhem and riveting adventure, Hell Up in Harlem is nothing less than a modern-day tribute to the classic 30s gangster film. Fred Williamson is Tommy Gibbs, a fearless, bulletproof tough guy who blasts his way from the gutter to become the ultimate soul brother boss. Tommy steals a ledger with the name of every crooked cop and man in the city. Enlisting the aid of his father and an army of Harlem hoods, Gibbs goes from defense to offense, launching a deadly attack on his enemies that sets off a violent chain reaction from Harlem all the way to the Caribbean, climaxing in one of the hottest turf-war shoot-outs in Hollywood history.
Hell Up In Harlem
Dolemite
D'Urville Martin
Rudy Ray Moore, D'Urville Martin
Dolemite is a pimp who was set up by Willie Greene and the cops, who have planted drugs, stolen furs, and guns in his trunk and got him sentenced to 20 years in jail. One day, Queen B and a warden planned to get him out of Jail and get Willie Green and Mitchell busted for what they did to him.
Dolemite
Hammer
Bruce D. Clark
Fred Williamson, Vonetta McGee
Hotheaded laborer B.J. Hammer can't go long without ending up in a fight, and, after he comes out on top in a particularly impressive workplace scuffle, word of his brawling skills makes its way to Davis, a top boxing manager. Hammer is hired by Davis and begins a lucrative career in the ring, only to find out that his new employer wants him to throw a fight and take part in other illicit activities. Hammer reacts to this news violently, and the feud is on.
Hammer
