Customer Reviews

Across 110th Street [VHS]

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Since it's release in 1972 this film has fallen by the cinema wayside, being lumped into the blaxploitation genre - a purgatory from which it needs to be rescued. Labeling this film has limited its audience appeal in the thirty years that have followed, but those of us who were fascinated with it then remain so now.

"Across 110th Street" is sparked by the kind of gritty and incisive urban realism that blaxploitation films are missing. It's production values are an immediate tipoff that you are watching a first-rate movie. The competent, skillful direction by Barry Shear; a superb story that hardly takes a breath; great Harlem location shooting adds authenticity that makes it feel almost quasi-documentary.

It's also highlighted by a great cast of veteran A-list movie stars, B-movie regulars and a few performers getting their first chance in a meaningful role. Anthony Quinn, one of the films' executive producers, plays a brutal, insensitive police detective with a streak of racism. Anthony Franciosa plays a cruel and ruthless Italian mobster tracking down his stolen money. Richard Ward plays a raspy voiced Harlem crime kingpin that Quinn tries to pressure; Ward will be recognizable to film buffs as a prisoner in the film "Brubaker" playing the pivotal role of Abraham. Paul Benjamin, the leader of the trio of thieves, appeared in the crucial role of the con 'English' in the terrific prison drama "Escape From Alcatraz". Antonio Fargas creates another of his patented colorful, hip characters as one of the thieves. And finally, Yaphet Kotto gets his first significant film role playing the no-nonsense, by-the-book, newly assigned lieutenant who is refreshingly free of vulgarity - although he will steal a truck when he needs to!

Period detail keeps this film stuck squarely in the 70's which is one of it's strengths. The pulsating music score by Bobby Womack and J.J. Johnson perfectly matches the films moments of tension and transitional scenes. Womack's catchy title song is another plus.

MGM has released this as part of it's 'Soul Cinema' DVD collection in Widescreen format - that's with the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen for those who don't know - and it's a great transfer. Pair this movie with "The French Connection" for a great double feature.

Not a blaxploitation movie at all, this film is a smart, sharp, tough black crime drama that pulls no punches, and because of that is still remarkably fresh today after 30 years. Made in 1972, it features an early performance by Yaphet Kotto as a by the book black police lieutenant who has to work with a crude, unruly white captain--Anthony Quinn in a very strong performance.

They're after some black hoods who slaughtered five men--three whites and two blacks--in a holdup that netted 300 grand. The getaway driver is played by Starsky and Hutch's Antonio Fargas and is just one of the several excellent performances that give this film real power.

Another is turned in by Tony Franciosa playing a Mafia lieutenant who finds out about the hit and, with his henchmen, goes after the hoods. In one of many violent scenes, he finds Fargas' character and slices and dices him in a Harlem whorehouse.

The dialogue here is much more intelligent than in many dumber films and is another reason this is a real winner. When somebody talks--cop, hood, Mafioso, junkie, girlfriend--it's natural, real, uncontrived, and completely credible. You understand who these characters are and you get involved because they're not shooting bull--they're telling it like it is.

The mix of this down to the bone talk and '70s dress and behavior makes this a tremendously entertaining film. The inclusion of violence is not gratuitous at all; it's an integral part of what happens--and what has to happen, given the circumstances.

Highly recommended for fans of crime drama.

This is one of my favorite "Urban Action/Suspense" films... 110th Street is the invisible line after Central Park that divides "us" from "them" in this film. The whites and the mob, and the blacks and Harlem. - -Its tempting to call it Blaxploitation, but the film with its images of despair, people trying to make it and the turbulent relationship between an idealistic black cop and the old, street wise white cop on the take, both out to find out what the mob is doing in Harlem (while the mob is out to find money stolen from them by whatever means necessary) is so message based and realistic, and some of the scenes are so memorable (great acting by Yaphet Koto, Anthony Quinn and the entire cast, excellent shooting, great soundtrack by Bobby Womack and J.J. Johnson) its hard to classify it as such. There is incredible depth between the charactors, and its not merely "the man" vs. the community. Everyone is trying to make it doing whatever they have to do to survive (as Womack states in teh theme music.) Anthony Quinn's charactor, on the take from the mob for the years is forced to bite the hand that feeds him, and realizes he's growing old and part of a dying breed as he struggles to survive and reconsider his loyalties, attitudes and allegences. Meanwhile, everyone is out to find the missing money and prevent a war. The film is suspenseful, long and engaging... the ending, to be quite honest bleak and depressing, yet it will warent repeated viewing... hence I reccomend buying not renting it... afterwords, check out "Cornbread Earl and Me" and "Cotton Comes to Harlem". - - Does anyone remember the name of the film shot in that era about the Afro-American boy who falls in love with the Spanish girl, and that has an appearence by Jose Feliciano ?

This violent little gem ranks right up there with "The French Connection" in the pantheon of early 70s urban crime thrillers. Smartly edited, paced like an out of control freight train, and with fabulous location work that bellows authenticity, "Across 110th Street" deserves a far bigger cult. Stir in Anthony Quinn's inimitable basset hound charm, Yaphet Kotto's steely cool, Anthony Franciosa's reptilian sneer and the raspy voiced dude from Brubaker and you have a combustble confection that belongs in the collection of every discerning action movie fan. Oh, I almost forgot to mention Antonio Fargas' so-cool-it-hurts supernova wardrobe and the bleak poetry of the final shootout, including a freeze frame ending that will stay with you for days. Aces all around.

I'm a big fan of so-called blaxploitation flicks. The combinaton of high camp, low budget, charismatic actors in over the top farcical roles, the slice of 1970s stereotype, all add up to terrific entertainment. what I was really surprised at watching Across 110th Street is that cheap (and plentiful) gore notwithstanding this film is a work of art. Sure blaxploitation stallwarts like Antonio Fargas and Yaphet Koto are here. Sure there are cartoonishly racist white cops, racist Italian mobsters, parasitically pimpin' black criminals, longsuffering and abused black women, just like most of these flicks. But there is also a real sense of drama here. The timing and camera work, the characterization and detail, are all a step above the standard. The acting is generally witty and convincing. Makes me wish I knew more about this film and where it fit in the development of the genre.

It gets only 4 stars because the DVD lacks special features. A commentary track would have been great.

ACROSS 110th STREET sad to say, was lumped in the blaxpop genre and was denounced for it's violent content. Wrong on both counts: This is an under appreciated gem that is brainy, tough and quick. Veteran action pro Barry Shear was the right director for the film and his experience shows in every frame. The Bobby Womack soundtrack deserved a better fate than having the title track be remembered as an opening for JACKIE BROWN (but this had to be a favorite film of Quentin's...you can read between the lines). The best cuts are: QUICKSAND, IF YOU DON'T WANT MY LOVE and HARLEM LOVE THEME. Too bad none of them charted.

Bobby Womack's awesome theme song opens the film as we get some overhead shots of gritty parts of Manhattan, circa 1972. 110th Street is the boundary between Harlem and Central Park; interestingly enough, the word "Harlem" is rarely, if ever uttered in this straightforward, very visceral and serious urban drama, commonly considered "blaxploitation" but really, apart from a couple of scenes, belonging to a different world of intent than something like SHAFT or THE MACK altogether.

Five guys in a room, making a deal. Lots of money in a briefcase. But into the scene burst a couple of New York's finest - or are they? Somebody reaches for a gun when he should know better, and before long seven men, black and white, including two real cops are dead. The $300,000 is missing, and wanted by the mobsters it belonged to; and the three black men responsible are wanted by the real police. Anthony Quinn is Captain Mattelli, 55 and not wanting to retire but feeling pushed, especially when he's replaced as the leader of this investigation by the younger and less senior African-American Lt. Pope (Yaphet Kotto) for obviously political reasons. Mattelli being more-or-less a good cop who knows when to follow orders doesn't put up TOO much of a fuss though he doesn't much like Pope and the feeling is mutual. They have no leads at first, until they find the getaway car, but there's a snitch in the department, and soon the mob starts to learn something about the three men who stole the money as well.

Henry J Jackson - flamboyant, loud and flashy and played not surprisingly by Antonio Fargas, who specialized in the fey pimp and pusher roles - is the first to be found, and punished, by the mob's chief enforcer, Nick (Anthony Franciosa). Nick is clearly very racist and seems to take special enjoyment out of hurting black men - though he's backed up by black bodyguards. And the main leader in the Harlem territory is, not surprisingly, also black - Doc Johnson (Richard Ward), a man with a very deep and smooth voice and a cultivated demeaner who stands in real contrast to the sharp-dressing but clearly brutal and streetwise Nick. This is one of many parallels between the mob and the cops as well - on both sides of the field, white leaders are afraid of being upstaged by black upstarts, though in the case of Mattelli and Pope's relationship there's the added element of age. It's a tribute to the film's honesty that though Quinn's and Franciosa's characters are clearly pretty racist, and Johnson's as well, there are some real differentiations between the ways those prejudices play out; and if Kotto seems less prejudiced on the surface it's also clear that he resents any implications that he's gotten anywhere through affirmative action or quotas. Many of the strongest tensions in the film are the most subtle, as when we see Mattelli regularly treat black women and children much less harshly than he does men - but we wonder how much of it is patronizing.

Director Barry Sears had worked in TV for over 20 years but only made a couple of theatrical features previously, but he pulls off the potent mix of action and social commentary as well as any pro at the time and for me this compares very favorably to better-known gritty crime films like THE FRENCH CONNECTION or DIRTY HARRY. We follow both the cops and the mob searching for the robber-killers, and gradually we get to know the two surviving members of the heist as well. Though Sears and screenwriter Luther Davis don't exactly make them heroes, they do succeed in humanizing a couple of guys off the street with few hopes and small dreams, who really weren't able to think so far ahead and realize what they were getting themselves into, and who really don't believe they have any reason to worry about shooting people that stand in their way. What starts out as a shoot-em-up becomes a sadder and sadder commentary on the impossibilty of change in a world with extremely circumscribed choices - the shooter, Jim Harris (Paul Benjamin) is a Jamaican immigrant with a criminal record and epilepsy - even as violence wratchets up to a tragic conclusion and a final scene that is a flat-out shock, summing up the entire theme of the film in a few seconds.

Bobby Womack contributed other songs to the movie as well, though there's less music here and it's lower-key than is usual in the genre; Jack Priestley's low-key, natural-looking cinematography should be mentioned as well. Anthony Quinn was one of the producers on the film as well as starring, and it's clearly something of a labor of love for him and I think many of those involved. This is one of those films that has languished in part because of its labelling as an exploitation film, as "urban action"; though it has some of those elements - particulary in Fargas' character and a couple of his scenes - as I said at the outset, it's got a seriousness and purpose to it that is rarely evident in even most of the better examples of the genre, and it is one of those very rare films that can work equally well as both an visceral action film and a serious issue-oriented drama. Absolutely top-flight.

An excellent police thriller from the 1970s that isn't hugely well known, Across 110th Street is definitely one you shouldn't miss. In a dingy Harlem apartment, two men disguised as cops take down a mafia bank, stealing $300,000 and killing seven men, including two cops, in the process. But fresh on their tails are the New York police looking to arrest the three men responsible and the mafia looking for revenge and to get their money back. The only question is can the police find the trio before the vengeful mafia does? Made in 1972 and filmed in New York, the movie has a realistic, gritty feel to it. This isn't super-cops taking on the world, it's a strong, well-told story about the changing times when it comes to crime and punishment and how race issues play into the investigation. Don't be confused though, this isn't a 'message' movie. There's good action and a ton of 70s style to go around.

Leading a strong ensemble cast, Anthony Quinn plays Captain Matelli, the NY police officer who's worked 33 years on the force and has seen the worst the city has to offer. He'll get the job done, even if its not the politically correct way. Yaphet Kotto is a strong counter to Matelli as Lt. Pope, an up-and-coming officer trying to do things by the book. Their methods differ and the confrontations grow, but at their most basic, Matelli and Pope want to get the crooks. Tony Franciosa is perfectly evil/slimy as Nick D'Salvio, the mafia enforcer gunning for the three robbers. Paul Benjamin leads the trio as Jim Harris, an ex-con with no money looking for a better life for his wife. It's a great part as Benjamin makes this character, a murderer/robber, a somewhat sympathetic person. The other two robbers include Ed Bernard as Joe Logart and Antonio Fargas (later Huggy Bear on Starsky and Hutch) as Henry J. Jackson.

The DVD has the movie in its widescreen presentation that looks good if somewhat grainy. The graininess adds to the mood so it's not a huge issue, the movie still works regardless of how clear the image is. A trailer is added as the only special feature. Don't miss this one if you're a fan of cop movies with a hint of blaxploitation thrown in. Check out Across 110th Street!

With the slap of the introduction music, the blast of the old car plowing through the streets, and the images of old New York (especially the rarely filmed Harlem) - one is prepared for the possibility of two cinematic directions. One, this could be a cliché cop film, filled with the dirty cop, the good cop, and all those evil-doers in between. Or two, it could be a panache of reality mixed with honesty, a blend of modern Scorsese with old Scorsese perhaps with a dash of 70s nostalgia. Well, fellow film review readers, this is an honest first for this critic. "Across 110th Street" was more than just a cliché (yet it was full of them), it was deep and developed (yet had a simplistic story about cops and criminals), it was gritty and honest (yet overly-so enough to make you gasp, not laugh), and it was pure, uncut, cinematic genius from beginning to the wildly unseen ending. There were plenty of pitfalls for "Across 110th Street" to fall into, but it continually saved itself by being genuine and dark throughout. While the editing, albeit pure 70s cinema, was completely tangent, the film itself demonstrated the raw force of truth, giving us a rare (yet fictional) story of the changing of the guard in Harlem, the truth of its streets, and the minds of its criminals. Get ready; this isn't going to be an easy film.

Sounding like a scene right out of "Dead Presidents", our story begins with three African Americans stealing money from the mob, only to transform the simple robbery into a battleground, equipped with machine gun fire and plenty of cops caught in the line of fire. Needless to say, both sides - the Italian mob who currently has a strong hold on the crime in Harlem - as well as both the upcoming African American police Lieutenant (played by Yaphet Kotto) and the decaying corrupt Captain (played by Anthony Quinn) - are ready to do whatever it takes to bring these men to justice. Our plot device suddenly becomes a ticking clock, with our minds in constant question as to who is going to get to the finish line first. What keeps this cliché device from sounding stale is director Barry Shear's ability to take us through each of the three storylines with nobody eating from the sweet cake of victory at any given time. "Across 110th Street" is not a comfortable story. The characters are flawed, the imagery is sandpaper rough, and the language is honest. Shear has made this film during a time where corruption is used to represent the mindset of the community. Harlem is not shown in a productive light, but then neither is the police nor the mob. What makes "Across 110th Street" feel like a science experiment is that you see the decay of the community implode systematically. From the simple thugs who begin the robbery, to the Italian mob who is just as brutal but with better suits, all the way to the police who use the same tactics, but are protected (supposedly) by a badge, this film explores the explosion of corruption in a bold new way that eliminates cliché, yet builds on honesty.

Shear's ability to build the story into the camera's frame is only the stepping stone of this film. The unrelenting ending could only have occurred with the power of the actors in front of the camera. Their work is simple, at times one could even call it amateurish, but Quinn and Kotto do a phenomenal job of keeping the story, and their characters, grounded at all times. Their beats could have been tightened, but their flaws build upon the chaos of this story. Their facial expressions alone are worth their weight in gold, especially Quinn's ending glare. As Quinn and Kotto were our leads for this film, what stands out is how similar they are to their flawed mobsters and criminals. With our lead mobsters racism coupled with our medial issues of our criminals, we see a blend between them all. While they are all different characters, Shear brings them all together with small similarities. For someone jumping into the middle of this film, one would have trouble guessing who were the "real" bad guys, the guys with the guns or the guys with the badges. That is the next layer of "Across 110th Street" that could be used in any film studies class across the nation. Not just the visuals of a time filled with racial disgust, but also the fact that the racial divide wasn't in just black and white. Harlem owns the police, yet they are there to uphold the law - while perhaps not exactly like that in Harlem today - one can see this happening throughout the world in modern society.

Finally, one cannot end a review of "Across 110th Street" without mentioning the music - which was icing on the hypothetical cake. To me, the sounds captured the era, the chaos of the music coupled well with the violence happening on screen. The two blended perfectly together, giving us not just a taste of an explosive Harlem, but also the sounds that may have accompanied it. As a child of the 80s, I never was witness to this - so to see it (albeit in a form of fiction) only helped to heighten the awareness of this era in NYC.

Overall, "Across 110th Street" was a violent, loud, and turbulent film that was laced with clichés that were forgotten by the next scene. One could easily watch this film on late-night television and never quite see the power behind Shear's camera, or Quinn's acting ability (that final scene still haunts me), or the challenging music that accompanied our visuals, but watching it on a bright and sunny Saturday, the excellence of this film comes full force. The acting was at a perfect pitch for this film, the corruption that Shear demonstrates from across three spectrums adds a level of honesty to a film that could have easily been lost by another director. "Across 110th Street" reminded me of early Scorsese work, the raw grittiness of the city, a city that Shear loved (he filmed in Harlem), coupled with the powerful imagery took me to "Mean Streets" and "Goodfellas", but not "The Departed". This is a cannon of a film, one that should be watched and retained for the sheer honesty of the work, while it is fiction it holds a bit of truth to the turbulence of the world.

Wow. All I can say is "wow".

Grade: ***** out of *****

Across 110th street is a great movie. As one reviewer said it is depressing, and yes... it is heavy, and leaves you with a sense of pain and sadness.

I dont think that one has to have lived an impoverished life, or have been raised in the inner- city, to relate to and be compassionate with most of the characters in this film. No, it is not a "color" thing at all...It is just a case of really understanding the movie.

Its about 3 men that stick up a numbers spot in harlem...which quite historically accurate, is run by the Mafia. Thus a snowball of intimidation, interrogation and brutality ensue...from both the Mafia and the N.Y.P.D. Anthony Quinn, Yaphet Kotto, Anthony franciosa, and Paul Benjamin all give intense performances. One of the most powerful yet unerrated performances is by Paul Benjamin as the ex con "Jim Harris". His desperation and harsh look at his own reality, bursts in every inch of his character. Of course the great Quinn..is gritty and raw as always, and i had heard that many people were begging him not to do a movie of this genre....what could they have possibly known...nothing of course! Franciosa does well as a maniac Mafia flunky..very convincing. Ed bernard as "Joe" and raspy voiced Richard ward as "Doc johnson" do very well also. And Antonio fargas adds much more to his character as opposed to some of his other film roles.

There is loads of building tension amongst the characters...all done beautifully with emotion and dialogue. Across 110th street is not some laughable exploitation film laden with stereotypical characters, and negative images. It is a truthful and numbing look at men and women struggling, and blindly hoping for a way to make it out.

Many people might say i am crazy for the passion of that i emote in this review. I must say to those who dont agree to watch across 110th street again...and look at this period piece of Harlem in the early 70's...It is somewhat of a documentary. If you still think I am far off track..then please, for those who dont know...Take a ride Across 110th street, before the claws of Gentrification sink deeper, and stop and ask an old timer sitting on a stoop about how things were in Harlem in the early 1970's..

This will always be one of my favorite movies

To this day it makes me very emotional when i watch it