BLACK SHAMPOO (1976)
Label: VCI Entertainment
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 82 Minutes
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Greydon Clark
Cast: John Daniels, Tanya Boyd, Joseph Carlo
From the writer/director of the low-budget drive-in flick Satan's Cheerleaders (1977) comes the silly blaxploitation entry Black Shampoo (1978) starring muscular, black-hunk John Daniels (Mean Dog Blues) as loverman hair stylist Jonathan Knight. This babe-magnet runs a popular L.A. hair salon, and right from the start we see him sudsing up a blonde's hair as she begins to comment on the size of the package in his pants, right away you might get the notion that he's more renowned for his lovemaking than he is for his skills with a pair of scissors, and you're absolutely correct.
It sort of starts off a bit like a 70's porno movie, complete with a funky 'doin' it' score, but fear not scorners of porn, this is in fact not a dirty movie, it is however a low-budget slice of 70's exploitation, so the confusion is easy to forgive. The film is loaded with plenty of nude women who lust after the black hair stylist, but the film steers more towards cheap drive-in action when Mr. Jonathan's salon comes under threat from the local mob boss (Joe Ortiz) who wants his former lady Brenda (Tanya Boyd, Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks) back with him, and he's not too happy she working as Jonathan's receptionist. To that end he kidnaps her and ransacks the salon, angering the hair stylist who then goes after the mobsters with more grit and violence than you might be expecting from a salon owner!
The story and plotting here are paper thin, but the 70's action and violence is still plenty of fun, with the stylist bedding a bevy of beauties and taking out mobsters with everything from pool sticks to chainsaws! One of the scene has the mobsters henchmen accosting one of Jonathan's poor hair stylist's rear, played by Skip E. Lowe (Cameron's Closet), with a hot hair curler! Director Greydon Clark made a handful of cheap exploitation films in the 70's, this is one of his early ones, and like many of those films it's cheap and fun, so don't come in expecting a lot and you will walk away with more than you bargained for, a scrappy 70's slice of blaxploitation with a novel protagonist and loads of goofy charm.
Audio/Video: Black Shampoo (1976) debuts on Blu-ray from VCI Entertainment advertised as being "remastered in 2K from the original 35mm negative", it generally looks pretty good, at times there's dome decent depth and clarity, grain looks good, but there are some rough patches where it's a bit gritty, but overall I was very pleased with this presentation.
Audio comes by way of an English PCM 2.0 track with optional English subtitles, sounding clean and well-balanced if a bit boxy around the edges, the score from Gerald Lee sounds good, at times sounding like porno 70's music, and other times falling in line with blaxploitation scores of the era, complete with a memorable self-referential theme song that will stick with you for quite a while, for better or worse.
Extras are plentiful, beginning with an audio commentary from the director who speaks about shooting this wacky film, touching on the cinematography from Dean Cundey (The Fog), plus we get phone interviews with both John Daniels and Tanya Boyd, plus text interviews from the Cashiers du Cinemart mag with Clark, Daniels and Boyd, plus a Greydon Clark text bio.
Finishing up the extras we get a behind-the-scenes gallery, plus a handful of trailers for the film, and additional trailers from the director and VCI, plus five-minutes of deleted scenes without the benefit of audio - the sound elements seem to have been lost.
The 2-disc DVD/Blu-ray combnbo arrives in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a one sided sleeve for artwork featuring the original movie poster illustration, both discs also feature the same key art. It's asmall quibble, and I know VCI are a small operation, but the design of this release is primate, looking a bit worse than most bootlegs I find at the swap meet, they should do themselves a favor and bring in a new graphic designer, many of their releases look cheap, if I saw this release on the shelf at a brick and mortar store and I wasn't familiar with the label I might assume it was a grey market/bootleg release
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary from Director Greydon Clark
- Greydon Clark Text Bio (3 min)
- Shades of Greydon: Greydon Clark Text Interview/Article with Cashiers du Cinemart (6 min)
- John Daniels 2005 Telephone Interview (32 min) HD
- I Hate The Hollywood Bag: John Daniels Text Interview/Article from Cashiers du Cinemart (10 min)
- Mr. Jonathan's Receptionist: Tanya Boyd Text Interview with/Article with Cashiers du Cinemart (5 min)
- Behind-the-Scenes Photo Gallery (4 min) HD
- Original Theatrical Trailer (2 min) HD
- Greydon Clark Trailers: Satan's Cheerleaders (1 min) HD, The Bad Bunch (1 min) HD
VCI Trailers: The Twilight Time People (2 min), Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (3 min)
- Deleted Scenes (5 min)
As with all the films I've seen from Greydon Clark this one is a cheap slice of genre fun, it's paper thin and preposterous, but that's also part of the fun of it. The Blu-ray looks and sounds good, plus ports over all the extras from the previous DVD from VCI, nothing new, but a nice upgrade, if you're a already a fan or just curious this release is worth looking into.
