Mean Johnny Barrows

Fred Williamson plays a Vietnam vet trying to stay out of trouble and live a clean life in LA, who gets mixed up in a war between rival mafia families. A really cheap blaxploitation flick with a surprisingly decent cast (Elliot Gould, Roddy MacDowall) but crummy action: Williamson's kung fu is a joke and the gun violence is brief. The flick seems to be trying to get by on a funky soundtrack and a tough brother in a suit alone...Black Dynamite was spoofing exactly this kind of shit.

Unemployed Vietnam vet film for the first 2/3. For the most part the characters didn't seem to notice he's black, or it wasn't an issue even with the cops or with mobsters. OTOH the color-blindness was refreshing when it came to characters who were sympathetic to him. Nice twist at the end. Too bad Jenny Sherman wasn't in more films. Nice Elliot Gould cameo. Lazy action scenes. Fav scene: double-wielding shotguns blasting away at guys opening the van door while Williamson's in a white suit.