Main Cast: Tchaka Almoravids, Kwasi Badu, Bonnie Banfield, Carl Mikal Franklin, Sonny Jim, Rudy Joe Ringo, Imamu Sukuma, Clarice Taylor, Leonard Jackson
Release Year: 1973
Country: US
Run Time: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Five on the Black Hand Side was released at a time when most black-oriented films were bloody action fests. In contrast, this low-budget effort, coproduced by actors Brock Peters and Michael Tolan, eschews exploitation for humanity and domestic drama. Leonard Jackson plays a barber who is also the domineering head of a middle-class African American family. Jackson is forced to rethink his values when his previously docile wife (Clarice Taylor) joins their three children in rebelling against her husband's retrogressive behavior. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Godfrey Cambridge; Virginia Capers - Ruby; Frankie Crocker - Rolls Royce; Ja'net DuBois - Stormy Monday; Doug Johnson; Philomena Nowlin; Brenda Sutton; Glynn E. Turman - Gideon; Ronald Warden; Cal Wilson; D'Urville Martin - Booker T; Jean Taylor; Fred D. Scott; Tchaka Almoravids - Fun Loving; Kwasi Badu; Bonnie Banfield - Gail; Carl Mikal Franklin - Marvin; Sonny Jim - Sweetmeat; Rudy Joe Ringo; Imamu Sukuma; Richard Williams - Preston
Credit
Oscar Williams - Director, Michael Economou - Editor, H.B. Barnum - Composer (Music Score), Gene Polito - Cinematographer, Brock Peters - Producer, Michael Tolan - Producer, Charlie L. Russell - Screenwriter, Charlie L. Russell - Play Author
Five on the Black Hand Side is a 1973 comedy film based on the play by Charlie L. Russell. It was shot in Los Angeles. Leonard Jackson appeared in this motion picture as John Henry Brooks. He was cast in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple fifteen years later. Its tagline was "You've been coffy-tized, blacula-rized and super-flied - but now you're gonna be glorified, unified and filled-with-pride... when you see Five on the Black Hand Side."
This relationship between the two parents in this movie (Mr. and Mrs. Brooks), was parodied in a skit of the same name on the comedy series "In Living Color".
