Bullet Points: Black Shampoo
Shampoo, starring Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn, was one of the top five grossing films of 1975. The success of Shampoo was no doubt part of the inspiration behind the plot and the name of the 1976 Blaxploitation film, Black Shampoo starring John Daniels and Tanya Boyd.
In both Shampoo and Black Shampoo, the leading man is a hairdresser by trade in Southern California. In both Shampoo and Black Shampoo, the female clientele of both hairdressers are getting more than their hair done by the studly stylists. And that is really where the similarities end between the two films. Shampoo chose to go the dramatic route, where Black Shampoo has little time for drama and instead amps up the sex and nudity and throws in a fair amount of action and gratuitous violence.
- Pornography: The first act of the film felt more like a porno than it did an action movie. Even the title Black Shampoo is like a lazy version of one those clever porn parody titles of a famous movie like Coming on America or Hairy Twatter. The opening credits feature Mr. Jonathan (John Daniels) shampooing the hair of Mrs. Phillips one his regular clients. Mrs. Phillips is practically orgasmic as Jonathan massages her scalp and runs his fingers through her wet hair. When the shampooing is done Mrs. Phillips shows her appreciation by orally pleasuring her favorite hairdresser… Shortly after Jonathan’s appointment with Mrs. Phillips is done, he makes a rare house call to Mrs. Simpson. Jonathan is practically molested by Mrs. Simpson’s teenage daughters and their giant 70’s bushes. After that rendezvous, Mr. Jonathan returns to his salon, where he eventually hooks up with his receptionist Brenda (Tanya Boyd) and those two let it all hang out. There is more sex and nudity sprinkled in as the movie progresses (they even manage to work in some nudity at a barbecue that Jonathan is invited to), but there is an exceptionally high sexual content in the first 30 minutes or so.
- There’s Something About Brenda: Unlike the meaningless sex he has with his customers, Jonathan’s night of passion with Brenda meant something to him. Yes folks, Mr. Jonathan is in love. But, Brenda’s past soon comes back to haunt her. Brenda was in an abusive relationship with crime boss Mr. Wilson (Joe Ortiz aka Joseph Carlo) before she left him and started working at the salon. For whatever reason, Mr. Wilson wants Brenda back… I would think a rich and powerful mafia boss could have any piece of tail he wanted, but there must be something about Brenda that makes men melt. When Wilson’s goons show up at the salon and tear the place up and rough up Artie and Richard, the two effeminate hairdressers who work there, Brenda decides it would be easier if she just returned to Wilson’s side. The destruction of property, abuse of his friends and loss of his lady love does not sit well with Jonathan and he storms over to Wilson’s palatial estate to get Brenda back. But once he arrives things go from bad to worse for Jonathan when Brenda refuses to come back with him.
- Broken Glass Everywhere: With his business in shambles and his heart broken, Jonathan takes off for a few days to go his cabin up in the mountains to clear his head and chop up some wood with a chainsaw. It isn’t long before Brenda shows up (after dipping out on Wilson once again). Brenda explains why she did the things she did to Jonathan and our two lovers are reunited. But wait…
- Hey Mr. Wilson: A powerful man like Mr. Wilson is not going to allow a hairdresser and some broad to make a fool of him and he is prepared to exact his revenge, but first he has to find them. So Wilson goes over to the salon (along with his goons). Wilson uses an extreme interrogation technique to extract Jonathan’s whereabouts. And when I say extreme, I’m talking Gary Busey Eye of the Tiger level of extreme as Wilson shoves a hot curling iron up the rectum of Artie the hairdresser… this scene was absolutely brutal. But there was more brutality to come when Wilson and his goons show up at the cabin and we almost instantly see a man run over by a car upon their arrival, our hero using a chainsaw to fend off the villains and we learn just how effective a weapon a pool cue can be.
Black Shampoo was the first Blaxploitation movie I saw that did not feature one of the stars most associated with the genre like a Pam Grier or Fred Williamson. But I have to say that this cast of unknowns and this film I had never heard of left quite an impression on me. Not sure it was necessarily a good impression, but Black Shampoo is a movie I won’t soon forget.
Will these Bonus Bullet Points leave an impression on you?
- Credit Check: William Bonner, who plays Wilson’s head goon Maddox, was credited as Jack Mehoff.
- Montage: We get to witness the first date between Jonathan and Brenda montage style.
- AKA: The alternate title of Black Shampoo in the United Kingdom is Sex at the Salon.
- Directed By: Greydon Clark was the director of Black Shampoo. Clark had a total of 20 directorial credits to his name over the course of his career. Some of his other movies include Final Justice starring Joe Don Baker (MST3K did a great episode on Final Justice that I highly recommend) and The Forbidden Dance, one of the two lambada themed movies that came out on March 16, 1990.
