1/14/08: The Black Gestapo (1975)It simplifies the book’s topic, but we’ve enjoyed (literally) finding copies of Jonah Goldberg’s
Liberal Fascism buried far from the display tables of mainstream retailers. That’s only helping his ranking on Amazon. Meanwhile,
The Black Gestapo is pretty much forgotten. That’s not too tragic. The film’s a fairly sordid blaxploitation entry, and mainly notable for having a fine parade of nude actresses. There’s also some politics, which manage to be both subtle and shrill.
The movie opens with Los Angeles’ whitest mobsters harassing a black guy who’s been hanging out at the liquor store while ignoring his debts. They break his television. Cut to a proud black man in a red beret and neatly pressed khakis. He’s talking to a modest crowd in a public park:
No one’s going to respect you if you don’t respect yourself. No one’s going to help you. You have to get it together by yourself—for yourself. Martin Luther King had a dream, and it was blasted into eternity with him. I offer you reality. You’ve got to stand tall and demand your rights. Nobody’s going to give you anything.The People’s Army was established through an agreement given by the white community. Blacks helping blacks with white money. Now you have turned your backs on your own police force. Dope pushers are selling junk to your kids, and you sit back doing nothing. Gambling operations are forced onto black storeowners, and you say nothing. If we are to be considered as equals—if we are to earn our true place in the community—we must band together now!We like this guy. His name is General Ahmed of that aforementioned People’s Army. He’s got a good rap, and that outfit’s totally stylin’. The only problem is his armband with the Black Power salute on it. That suggests a slippery slope.
So do the credits to
The Black Gestapo. The title finally comes up against footage of marching Nazi troops. There’s even Hitler prancing around to a funky anthem. Then we’re back in the ghetto of Watts, where the People’s Army Clinic is having trouble with a junkie about to overdose. “Okay,” says Ahmed, “get him to Martin Luther King Hospital.”
This gets Ahmed yelled at by Colonel Kojah, who thinks that going to a tax-funded hospital is betraying the cause. Ahmed explains that he can’t just let people die. His love interest is the nearby Nurse Marsha, but she’s not too supportive, either. “They’re still taking more than they’re giving,” she says.
We have no idea who “they” is, but that might mean the local community. Maybe she means the local drug dealers—also represented by the local white gangsters. Their main enforcer is a creep named Vito who sounds more like his name should be Lance. Anyway, those mobsters are awfully bold. Vito even molests Nurse Marsha near the People’s Army Food Store. He and his partner—both in white dress shoes—beat up a few soldiers who try to interfere.
Vito finally goes too far with Marsha. Ahmed agrees to let Kojah recruit six new soldiers to provide protection for the group. One castrated Vito later, Kojah and his followers start establishing themselves as Watts’ new pimps, bookies, and drug dealers. Also, Kojah wants to change the People’s Army uniform to “something distinctive.”
That turns out to be full Nazi regalia. We told you that armband was a slippery slope. So was any community giving money to something called the People’s Army. We see Kojah bringing in plenty of new recruits to a private “Officers Only” area where they lounge around with topless white women. They also do military drills on a tennis court while chanting about vengeance.
Where the hell is Ahmed during all this? Well, he’s having sex with that nurse. He finally gets the message after she kicks him out of bed in the middle of the night. She’s just gotten a phone call that the clinic was bombed by some angry Watts residents who are sick of the People’s Army and their criminal ways.
Ahmed finds himself being confronted by local news reporters. Try to suspend disbelief. In a further fantastic twist, the governor has stepped in to suspend the grant money for the People’s Army. Ahmed tells the media that he agrees with that decision.
Then he goes off to see Kojah, and learns that “General” was always an honorary title. The coup is already done. Kojah’s guys are at the point where “Sieg Heil” is now dubbed over their own chants during those drills. Here’s our favorite part, though. Kojah tells Ahmed that he’ll still allow the People’s Army to have enough money to run the clinic and feed the poor. Ahmed rejects the dirty money. He heads off to—well, to basically call in his few remaining good men to finish up the film in a way that you can see coming.
But let’s not skip over our favorite part of
The Black Gestapo. Ahmed rejects Kojah’s money, but it’s interesting that the offer was made. Kojah has good reason to want to keep the poor fed and the clinic running. The locals can spend their grocery money on dope and gambling, and those hookers aren’t going to be keeping the locals too healthy. Kojah’s vision depends on government programs. This is one Nazi who’s keeping the “z” in Zocialist.
That’s why we liked Ahmed from the start. Remember that opening speech where Ahmed was complaining about the waste of white money? “White money” means tax dollars, but don’t hold that against Ahmed. He’s just speaking the racist language of white liberals—as continued to this day by the likes of Nancy Pelosi.
You’d have a hard time making a distinction between Kojah’s men and the City Council of Atlanta, Georgia. In fact, Kojah reminds us of this old Communist we knew in Atlanta. The veteran black activist once bragged to us about how the cops knew not to enter certain city blocks of Atlanta in the ’70s. “We told them we policed our own,” he said.
We asked if that meant those city blocks got to practice capital punishment. He just winked. That “policing” probably winked at a lot of crime in those neighborhoods. The criminal market thrived, and the law-abiding citizens tried to survive on free clinics and free food.
The Black Gestapo might be more impressive than we thought. It was written and directed by veteran sleaze filmmaker Lee Frost—who also plays a mob boss. He could boast that
The Black Gestapo plays like it's based on a true story.
Make it your own: We like the picture quality of Diamond Entertainment’s double-feature
DVD of
The Black Gestapo and
The Black Six. It’s still kind of pricey for a generic public-domain packaging. Maybe you should try the cheapo
Black Vengeance Box, which includes
The Black Six and throws in
Black Fist and
Black Cobra II.
Lee Frost passed away in May of last year. Hopefully, he made it to the multiplex to see Quentin Tarantino thank him on the end credits for
Death Proof. You’re also supposed to mention that the actor who plays Kojah would go on to primetime fame as Judge Harry’s court clerk Mac on
Night Court.
