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The Black Gestapo
[Alpha]
1975; color
Directed by Lee Frost
Starring: Rod Perry, Charles Robinson, Phil Hoover, Edward Cross, Angela Brent, Wes Bishop
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The Black Gestapo starts off as a story about a peace-loving, self-appointed "General" Ahmed who's in charge of a group called the People's Army. Interestingly, despite it's communistic name, they're funded by "the man" (specifically the state government) and, unlike the regular army, they spend their time setting up health clinics, detox centers and other positive kinds of programs in an effort to make their homeland - Watts, CA - a better place. Ahmed's biggest obstacle is the Mafia, who are ramping up their drug dealing, prostitution and numbers rackets at the obvious expense of the poor people of the community. As their tactics of leaning on the local citizenry in an ever more violent fashion increase, Ahmed's right hand man, "Colonel" Koljah (played by Charles Robinson, AKA Mack from '80s TV sitcom Night Court) pushes to start a small security detail to fight back against the Mob. Although Ahmed has his reservations he gives Koljah the green light, and that's when the trouble starts. Koljah, who's pretty much looking for an excuse to kick some white ass, almost immediately turns his security detail into a revenge-seeking paramilitary unit. But that's only the first step in his master plan. With a bold show of force, Koljah and his men (whose numbers are on the increase) essentially run the Mob out of town. Unfortunately for the citizens of Watts, that only means things begin to get even worse even faster. He takes over right where the Mafia left off as far as increasing drugs, prostitution and gambling in the hood, but makes things even tougher on the people by demanding more money than ever. Koljah somehow secures a multi-acre estate out in the hills, which he promptly turns into a military compound for training his ever-expanding army. He also renames himself a Swahili name that means power, takes on the rank of General, and gets himself a white girlfriend who's played by none other than sexploitation superstar Uschi Digard. (She has no dialogue in her three or four scenes but is topless most of the time.) Koljah becomes more and more power-mad and, as he addresses his men with raised fists and cries of vengeance (which are eventually overdubbed with chants of "seig heil!") the Ne(gr)o Nazi overtones are impossible to miss. Ahmed meanwhile has been blissfully unaware of all of this activity but, when a group of kids angry at the newly radicalized People's Army bomb the health clinic, he vows to get to the bottom of things fast. He seeks out Koljah at the compound, which earns him a bullet in the gut for his efforts. As soon as he recovers, he sets out to settle the score and restore the good name of the People's Army, by being a one-man wrecking crew. He slips into Koljah's camp, disguises himself as an officer of the new army and sends a couple dozen unsuspecting trainees out on a marathon endurance run to get them off-site. He then kills just about everyone else in the compound, leading up to a final underwater showdown with Koljah. I won't divulge who swims away and who floats to the surface dead, but the fact they didn't make a sequel should give you a pretty good idea how it all goes down. The Black Gestapo is one of the weirder blaxploitation flicks I've seen, particularly for the way it twists the community empowerment aspects of hippie politics and turns it into the roots of a new Black Mafia; and for that, it's one not to be missed.
—the Kommandant
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