Ron Lewis (John Daniels) is a mild-mannered suburban LA businessman who, unknown to his family, is also the “Black Baron,” a Hollywood pimp with a distinctive red and yellow Rolls Royce and plenty of girls on his books.
He battles Italian gangsters who attempt to move in on his turf and brutally pursues one of his girls who steals a suitcase full of his cash.
He finally disposes of two crooked cops (Richard Kennedy and George ‘Buck’ Flower) before eventually deciding to give up his illegal life and stay home with his wife (Marilyn Joi, billed here as Tracy King) and kids.
A favourite of both filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and his frequent cast member Samuel L Jackson, this imaginative blaxploitation movie is a violent, nasty film – with a man’s hand pushed into a waste disposal unit, and a hooker’s breasts cut off (offscreen) – but the intensely funky R&B score (from a band called Smoke), gaudy 70s threads and plenty of gratuitous female nudity make it a classic of the genre.
It’s probably not the best place to start for anyone new to blaxploitation, though.
John Daniels returned in Black Shampoo (1976) and Getting Over (1981).
The Black Baron/Ron Lewis
John Daniels
Maurice
Eli Haines
Dusty Compton
Tom Hankason
Bella
Marva Farmer
Dempsey
Richard Kennedy (as Edward Roem)
Gordon
George ‘Buck’ Flower (as CD La Fleuer)
Sugar
Meri McDonald
Woody
George Pelster
Clarisse
Marilyn Joi (as Tracy King)
Midge
Tallie Cochrane
Big Floyd
Pat Wright
Vincent Di Nunzio
Mikel Angel
Heather
Feng Lan Linn
Denise
Barbara Bourbon
Director
Matt Cimber