MCBASTARD'S MAUSOLEUM: UP TIGHT (1968) (Imprint Films Blu-ray Review)

UP TIGHT (1968)

aka Uptight

Imprint Collection #221

Label: Imprint Films

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: M

Duration: 104 Minutes 59 Seconds

Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)

Director: Jules Dassin

Cast: Raymond St. Jacques, Ruby Dee, Roscoe Lee Browne, Frank Silvera.

Director Jules Dassin’s Up Tight (1968), which started out as an updated remake of John Ford's The Informer re-imagined in ghetto Cleveland, is set just after the assassination of Martin Luther King, a time of racial turmoil and violence that plagued many large urban areas. Out main character is Tank Williams (Julian Mayfield, Our Virgin Island), an black unemployed steelworker involved with the a revolutionary black power outfit. On the night of a planned warehouse heist to secure guns and ammo for the cause Tank gets drunk while mourning the fallen MLK and is unable and unwilling to partake, leaving his pal Johnny Wells (Max Julien, The Mack) and Rick (Ji-Tu Cumbuka, Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde) to attempt the heist without him. Being a man short things gets complicated and the theft does not go off as planned, in the aftermath a white security guard is shot dead, and evidence left at the scene implicates Johnny involvement, with the cops putting out an APB for his arrest. Fugitive Johnny goes into hiding and Tank is increasingly torn up about letting Johnny down when he needed him. The revolutionary leader B.G. (Raymond St. Jacques, They Live) expels Tank from the movement, stating that he's an unreliable alcoholic and is no longer someone to be trusted. It's during this low point that gay black police-informer Clarence "Daisy" (Roscoe Lee Browne, The Liberation of L.B. Jones) attempts to coerce Tank into turning on Johnny, baiting him with the $1,000 reward. Tank doesn't take that bait at first, but later when he attempts to get back in the good graces of the movement B.G. tells Tank that it was Johnny himself who suggested they expel Tank. Now drunk, disillusioned and hurt, and in a moment of conflicted

weakness, Tank rats on his pal, telling the cops that Johnny plans to visit his mother (Juanita Moore, Abby) before hightailing it out of town. The cops surround the ghetto tenement where Johnny's mother's lives and as he attempts to escape is gunned down on a fire escape. Later when Tank is seen at the bar flush with cash and spending money he shouldn't have it draws the suspicion of the revolutionaries, which puts a target on his back. With a price in his head Tank is resigned to his fate and wanders the streets of Cleveland, visiting his on-again, off-again girlfriend Laurie (Ruby Dee, The Stand TV mini-series, who also co-wrote the film) on last time before ending up back at the area around the steel mill where he use to work, pursued by assassins sent to kill him by the black power radicals.

Uptight is tense and claustrophobic thriller, deftly directed and with some fantastically seedy set design and location shooting that captures the crumbling inner-city area of Cleveland with grim realness. Also notable, the scenes of MLK's funeral procession seen in the film were actually filmed for the movie by cinematographer Boris Kaufman (Baby Doll), offering a glimpse of the grief and outpouring of love for the fallen civil rights leader. The revolutionary group, which is never named but is clearly a Black Panthers-esque organization, eschew the peaceful teachings of the MLK in favor of violence, attempting to arm themselves in preparation for an all out race war. The flick also has a killer score from Booker T. Jones of Booker T. and the M.G.s that drives the action of the film. This was quite a politically charged film for a major studio (Paramount) to be behind, it makes you wonder if they knew what they had here, with some accounts indicating that the FBI was monitoring the cast and crew and during filming, and that some of the studio staff were informing on the the flick from within, so it's certainly a film with radical ideas that got some notice at the time. Its a fairly unflinching look at the Radical black power movement, made even more surprising by the studio backing, but not so surprising when you consider the formerly blacklisted director Jules Dassin's leftist pedigree.

Audio/Video: Up Tight (1968) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Imprint Film in 1080p HD framed in 1.78:1 widescreen sourced from a 2019 4K scan of the original negative. It's a very pleasing image with good depth and clarity, the source is in very fine shape with only a a stray vertical line or two to pull the eye away. The colors look organic with true-looking skin tones, a surreal mid-film sequence of Tank at an amusement park humoring a group of ignorant white folk and scene inside a bar offer bright, vivid colors, which stands in stark contrast to most of the film's gritty and earthy looking color scheme. Black levels are solid, and fine detail is quite nice, evidenced by those finely detailed glistening guilt-fueled beads of sweat pouring off of Tank's face throughout the film. Audio comes by way of English LPCM 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles sounds terrific, dialogue is cleanly delivered without hiss or age-related wear, and the driving score from Booker T. Comes through with some solid depth and bottom-end.

Via Vision's premium sub-label Imprint Films offer a nice array of newly produced extras for this one, we get an excellent Audio Commentary by film historians Alain Silver & Jim Ursini, that dives deep into pretty much anything you could ever want to know about this flick, and as someone who didn;t know a lot about it, I appreciated the deep-diving and knowledge rich commentary. Also new is the 17-min Interview with curator Karen Alexander about the film’s impact in African American Hollywood that contextualizes the radical film, as does the new 16-min Elective Vicissitudes: The Radical Exiles of Jules Dassin – a video essay by film historian Daniel Kremer. The single-disc release arrives in a high quality clear keepcase with a two-sided, non-reversible sleeve of artwork, with a slipcover and a wrap with unique artwork. The slip features the original movie poster artworks. Remember, this limited edition slipcase edition is strictly limited to 1500 units, so act fast if you want this one!