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Across 110th Street

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Across 110th Street
Theatrical Poster
Directed byBarry Shear
Written byNovel:
Wally Ferris
Screenplay:
Luther Davis
Produced byAnthony Quinn
Fouad Said
Barry Shear
StarringAnthony Quinn
Yaphet Kotto
Tony Franciosa
Music byBobby Womack, J. J. Johnson
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release dates
December 19, 1972
Running time
102 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Across 110th Street is a 1972 American crime-drama film, starring Anthony Quinn, Yaphet Kotto, and Tony Franciosa, and directed by Barry Shear. Commonly associated with the blaxploitation genre at the time, it has received considerable critical praise from writer Greil Marcus and others for being a film that surpassed the limitations of that genre.[1]

Plot

This film is set in Harlem, of which 110th Street is an informal boundary line.

Kotto plays a by-the-book black police lieutenant who has to work with a crude, racist and streetwise Italian-American captain, played by Quinn. They are after three black robbers who slaughtered five men—three Blacks and two Italians—in a raid on a Mob-owned Harlem policy bank that netted $300,000. The getaway driver is played by Antonio Fargas. Franciosa plays a Mafia lieutenant who, with his henchmen, goes after the hoods. Paul Benjamin plays the troubled but good-hearted Jim Harris, which is the last of the surviving hoods; he makes his choice in the emotional climax.

In one of many violent scenes, Franciosa finds Fargas' character and brutalizes him in a Harlem whorehouse.

Background

The movie was filmed on location in Harlem. The film is also notable as being the first feature film to use a self-blimped camera (the Arriflex 35BL) for sync sound; the much-reduced size of the camera allowed the production to not only use more hand-held shots and smaller locations than normal, but also record usable sound at the same time - an endeavor not previously possible under those circumstances.

Cast

Soundtrack

Untitled

The film's critically-praised title song, by Bobby Womack, was a #19 hit on the Billboard Top Black Singles chart in 1973, and was later featured in Quentin Tarantino's 1997 blaxploitation homage Jackie Brown. It is also heard in Ridley Scott's 2007 American Gangster,[2] and as a background song for the video game True Crime: New York City.

  1. "Across 110th Street" (performed by Bobby Womack and Peace) (US #56, R&B #19)
  2. "Harlem Clavinette" (performed by J.J.Johnson and his Orchestra)
  3. "If You Don't Want My Love" (performed by Bobby Womack and Peace)
  4. "Hang On In There" (performed by J.J.Johnson and his Orchestra)
  5. "Quicksand" (performed by Bobby Womack and Peace)
  6. "Harlem Love Theme" (performed by J.J.Johnson and his Orchestra)
  7. "Across 110th Street (instrumental)" (performed by J.J.Johnson and his Orchestra)
  8. "Do It Right" (performed by Bobby Womack and Peace)
  9. "Hang On In There" (performed by Bobby Womack and Peace)
  10. "If You Don't Want My Love" (performed J.J.Johnson and his Orchestra)
  11. "Across 110th Street - Part II" (performed by Bobby Womack and Peace)

See also

References

  1. ^ Pop Matters web site.
  2. ^ American Gangster at IMDb.
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