The Black Godfather (1974) is a movie that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows JJ, a rising drug dealer who can't stand what drugs are doing to his neighborhood. He decides he wants to change how he, and everyone else, do business his neighborhood and get crack off the streets. His business partners don't agree with his epiphany leading to a battle in the streets.

This movie is written and directed by John Evans (Speeding up Time) and stars Rod Perry (The Black Gestapo), Don Chastain (C. C. And Company), Tony Burton (Assault on Precinct 13) and John Alderman (Cleopatra Jones).

This movie had a classic blaxploitation storyline but all the charm that comes with this genre - a great soundtrack, fun attire and style, entertaining dialogue and characters that are easy to root for. There are some worthwhile nudity and sex scenes and the film does a great job of making the main character relatable despite his decisions and actions. The action is very average and the ending is as you'd expect.

Overall, this is an average addition to the blaxploitation genre that I would score a 5/10 and recommend seeing once.

After a burglary in Harlem goes bad and his best friend is killed a wounded "J.J." (Rod Perry) is rescued by a man named "Nate Williams" (Jimmy Witherspoon) who is also known as "the Black Godfather" due to the fact that he owns the numbers racket there. After treating his wounds Nate decides to mentor J.J. because he recognizes something special in him. Sometime later J.J. becomes quite influential in both gambling and prostitution--but not in drugs which is controlled by an Italian mobster named "Tony Burton" (Don Chastain). Having seen the devastation within the black community caused by heroin J.J. decides to team up with some black militants led by a man named "Diablo" (Damu King) to make it more difficult for Tony to do business in this part of the city. Unfortunately, Tony has no intention of abandoning such a lucrative market and war soon breaks out. At any rate, rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was a fairly decent "blaxploitation" picture. Admittedly, some of the scenes were rather slow and it could have used a bit more action here and there but otherwise it turned out okay. Accordingly, I rate it as about average.

The Black Godfather is boring. It has all the typical elements: the Black mobster who wants to protect the community from the evil white mobster, the corrupt white policeman, the mandatory sex scene between hero and love interest, etc. Unfortunately this movie suffers from a clunky script. The name may be intriguing but this movie is not.