FILM FRENZY

Jim Brown in Slaughter; Pam Grier in Coffy; Fred Williamson in Black Caesar (Photos: Shout! Studios & MGM)

By Matt Brunson

(This seasonal feature highlights some of the best box sets of 2025, ones to consider for gift-giving or, better yet, gift-keeping.)

BLAXPLOITATION CLASSICS VOL. 1 & VOL. 2 (1970-1975)

Format: 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

Studio / Distributor: Shout! Studios

The Scope: Twelve movies, six per volume

The Scoop: The Warner Archive Collection has been steadily releasing individual blaxploitation titles over the past few years, but here comes Shout! Studios, in partnership with MGM, serving up a dozen genre flicks housed in two box sets. Blaxploitation Classics Vol. 1 (released May 20) and Blaxploitation Classics Vol. 2 (released August 19) represent the best one-two punch of the year on the home-entertainment front, offering several of the finest releases in this often marginalized field and featuring such genre superstars as Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, and the one and only Pam Grier. And the marquee talents aren’t the only familiar faces on view — check out the supporting rosters on these movies and many of the same names can be spotted more than once. Admittedly, a few of the collected works are on the weaker side, but overall, this dynamic duo of box sets provides plenty of bang-bang for the buck.

Here, in preferential order from the finest to the feeblest, are the included titles.

Across 110th Street (1972; Vol. 1). Directed by Barry Shear. Anthony Quinn, Yaphet Kotto, Anthony Franciosa, Paul Benjamin, Antonio Fargas, Paul Harris, Gloria Hendry. Crooks dressed as cops steal the Mob’s money, which leads to them being pursued by both the gangsters and a pair of intrepid police officers, one white (Quinn) and one black (Kotto). Put aside some overcooked elements (characters frequently start yelling for no reason) and what remains is a fast-moving and frequently suspenseful thriller with a trenchant look at race relations and strong performances from its two leads as well as Benjamin as the most violent of the thieves.

Coffy (1973; Vol. 1). Directed by Jack Hill. Pam Grier, Booker Bradshaw, Robert DoQui, Sid Haig. A nurse seeks revenge on the drug dealers responsible for her younger sister’s heroin addiction. Hill and Grier had already worked on a pair of women-in-prison exploitation pictures when they reunited for what immediately became a blaxploitation classic and made Grier the genre’s top female star. Extremely violent yet also extremely stylish, it provides the same sort of cathartic release that would be employed in the following year’s Charles Bronson hit Death Wish.

Foxy Brown (1974; Vol. 2). Directed by Jack Hill. Pam Grier, Antonio Fargas, Sid Haig. After her boyfriend, a government agent, is murdered, the title character gets involved with the prostitution ring responsible for his death. Even with the critical reevaluation given to blaxploitation flicks in recent decades, Foxy Brown is still viewed as a lesser entry, certainly not on par with Coffy. Yet I dug it and find the pair to be of comparable quality. The villains somehow manage to be even sleazier than the Coffy baddies (perhaps inevitable since two of them are lecherous hayseeds straight out of Deliverance), and there’s a touching subplot involving a wife and mother (Juanita Brown) who’s not allowed to leave the stable of hookers.

Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970; Vol. 2). Directed by Ossie Davis. Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques, Calvin Lockhart, Red Foxx, Cleavon Little. Detectives Gravedigger Jones (Cambridge) and Coffin Ed Johnson (St. Jacques) hope to recover thousands in stolen donations while simultaneously attempting to prove that a charismatic reverend (Lockhart) is a phony. This adaption of Chester Himes’ novel was one of the most financially successful of all blaxploitation flicks, with a standout performance from Cambridge and a scene-stealing turn by Foxx, one which is credited for helping him land the starring role on TV’s Sanford and Son (amusingly, someone even calls his character here “you old fool,” predating Aunt Esther). Cotton Comes to Harlem was followed in 1972 by the sequel Come Back, Charleston Blue (not included in either of these sets; maybe a Vol. 3?).

Friday Foster (1975; Vol. 2). Directed by Arthur Marks. Pam Grier, Yaphet Kotto, Godfrey Cambridge, Thalmus Rasulala, Eartha Kitt, Scatman Crothers, Paul Benjamin, Julius Harris, Carl Weathers, Tierre Turner. A magazine photographer gets involved in an attempted assassination when she snaps some shots of the assailants. Compare Grier’s work in this adaptation of a newspaper comic strip with some of her earlier performances and it’s clear to see that she matured as an actress. She’s particularly loose and playful here, and she’s nicely paired with Kotto as a private eye who has trouble keeping up with her. The story’s good, too, with some twists and turns that deepen the intrigue.

Truck Turner (1974; Vol. 1). Directed by Jonathan Kaplan. Isaac Hayes, Yaphet Kotto, Nichelle Nichols, Paul Harris, Scatman Crothers. A former football player makes his living as a Los Angeles bounty hunter. This one has a good sense of humor about it, and it features a particularly eclectic cast, including Nichols, Star Trek’s Uhura, as a madam in charge of a house of prostitutes, a rising Stan Shaw as a pimp, John Carpenter regular Chares Cyphers as an obnoxious drunk, and Roger Corman regular Dick Miller as a bail bondsman.

Bucktown (1975; Vol. 2). Directed by Arthur Marks. Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, Thalmus Rasulala, Carl Weathers, Tierre Turner. Returning to his podunk Georgia hometown for his brother’s funeral, Duke Johnson (Williamson) finds racism around every corner; he summons his friends to clean up the town and then is shocked to learn they’re no less corrupt than those they’re replacing. The mid-movie plot twist is what keeps this one interesting, although Grier is wasted as Duke’s girlfriend.

Black Caesar (1973; Vol. 1). Directed by Larry Cohen. Fred Williamson, Gloria Hendry, Julius Harris, D’Urville Martin. A young kid named Tommy Gibbs grows up to become the “Godfather of Harlem.” I’ve always found Williamson to be the most charismatic of all blaxploitation stars, and he’s able to sell this fairly entertaining yarn about a black Don Corleone. Interesting trivia fact: This was written as a vehicle for Sammy Davis Jr.!

Slaughter (1972; Vol. 2). Directed by Jack Starrett. Jim Brown, Stella Stevens, Rip Torn, Cameron Mitchell, Marlene Clark, Don Gordon. A former Green Beret travels to South America to kill those responsible for the car-bomb deaths of his parents. This routine programmer is the movie which least feels like a blaxploitation flick. There are only two black characters (those played by Brown and Clark), the action takes place in a foreign land, Slaughter’s love interest and partner are played by white actors (Stevens and Gordon respectively), and, outside of the frequent use of the N word, there is no sociopolitical content (either subtly or on the surface). In other words, cast the leading role with, say, Lee Marvin or Steve McQueen and nothing would fundamentally be any different.

Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off (1973; Vol. 2). Directed by Gordon Douglas. Jim Brown, Ed McMahon, Don Stroud, Brock Peters, Gloria Hendry. This time, Slaughter tangles with a hired assassin (Stroud) taking orders from a Mob boss (McMahon!). This one’s more of the same — an adequate time filler that doesn’t stand out for any reason but also doesn’t stoop to insult the intelligence.

Sheba, Baby (1975; Vol. 1). Directed by William Girdler. Pam Grier, Austin Stoker, D’Urville Martin. A private detective returns to her Kentucky hometown to stop hoodlums from harassing her pop, the owner of an insurance company. This is easily the weakest of the Grier titles in these sets — the star is up to the demands of the role, but the material is weak.

Hell Up in Harlem (1973; Vol. 1). Directed by Larry Cohen. Fred Williamson, Gloria Hendry, Julius Harris, D’Urville Martin, Margaret Avery. Tommy Gibbs again seeks to rule Harlem by intimidating — and murdering — the competition. This sequel to Black Caesar is a distasteful affair, with a more shallow treatment of its main character and particularly mean-spirited actions toward everyone else.

Extras: The two-part, feature-length documentary The Blaxploitation Films of A.I.P.; audio commentaries on several titles, including Cohen on Black Caesar and Hell Up in Harlem and Hill on Coffy and Foxy Brown; interviews with Grier, Williamson, and Haig; and theatrical trailers for all 12 features.

Retail Price: Volume One: $84.49; Volume Two: $99.49. Both volumes are available at these prices via the Shout! Studios store at https://gruv.com/collections/shout-factory.