Dolemite is a 1975 American blaxploitation crime comedy film and is also the name of its principal character, played by Rudy Ray Moore, who co-wrote the film and its soundtrack. Moore, who started his career as a stand-up comedian in the late 1960s, heard a rhymed toast about an urban hero named Dolemite from a regular at the record store where he worked, and decided to adopt the persona as an alter ego in his act.
Rudolph Frank Moore, known as Rudy Ray Moore, was an American comedian, singer, actor, and film producer. He created the character Dolemite, the pimp from the 1975 film Dolemite and its sequels, The Human Tornado and The Dolemite Explosion. The persona was developed during his early comedy records. The recordings often featured Moore delivering profanity-filled rhyming poetry, which later earned Moore the nickname "the Godfather of Rap." Actor and comedian Eddie Murphy portrayed Moore in the 2019 film Dolemite Is My Name.
The Human Tornado is a 1976 American blaxploitation film directed by Cliff Roquemore. The film is a sequel to Dolemite.
Dolly Dearest is a 1991 American supernatural horror slasher film starring Denise Crosby, Rip Torn, Sam Bottoms, Chris Demetral, Candace Hutson and Lupe Ontiveros. The film was initially supposed to be direct-to-video, but it did get a limited theatrical release in the Midwestern United States. Despite being critically panned, it has been sometimes credited as being the inspiration for the 2014 film Annabelle.
William Bunch, known as Peetie Wheatstraw, was an American musician, an influential figure among 1930s blues singers.
D'Urville Martin was an American actor in both film and television. He appeared in numerous 1970s movies in the blaxploitation genre. He also appeared in two unaired pilots of what would become All in the Family as Lionel Jefferson. Born in New York City, Martin began his career in the mid-1960s and soon appeared in prominent films such as Black Like Me, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and Rosemary's Baby. Martin also directed films in his career, including Dolemite, starring Rudy Ray Moore.
Talk to Me is a 2007 biographical film directed by Kasi Lemmons and starring Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Taraji P. Henson, Cedric the Entertainer, and Mike Epps. It is about Washington, D.C. radio personality Ralph "Petey" Greene, an ex-con who became a popular talk show host and community activist, and Dewey Hughes, his friend and manager. The film spans the time period May 1966 to January 1984, ending with Greene's memorial service.
Blood Hook is a 1986 American slasher film directed by Jim Mallon and starring Mark Jacobs, Lisa Todd, Patrick Danz, Sara Hauser, and Christopher Whiting. It follows a group of young people who arrive in a small northern Wisconsin town during a fishing festival, where a series of bizarre disappearances and murders are occurring. It was distributed by Troma Entertainment. The film was premiered at the MIFED Film Market in October 1986. The film was truncated for its 1987 release after the Motion Picture Association of America threatened to grant the film an X rating due to its violent content.
Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president of the Beverly Hills–Hollywood NAACP branch. He claimed the genre was "proliferating offenses" to the black community in its perpetuation of stereotypes often involved in crime. The genre does rank among the first after the race films in the 1940s and 1960s in which black characters and communities are the protagonists and subjects of film and television, rather than sidekicks, antagonists or victims of brutality. The genre's inception coincides with the rethinking of race relations in the 1970s.
Blaxploitation horror films are a genre of horror films involving mostly black actors. In 1972 director William Crain did the first blaxploitation horror film, Blacula.
Memories Within Miss Aggie is a 1974 American pornographic film directed by Gerard Damiano and starring Deborah Ashira, Eric Edwards, and Harry Reems. The film pays homage to both Damiano's previous skin flick The Devil in Miss Jones and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.
Steve Gallon, Jr., known as Wildman Steve, was an American comic entertainer, radio personality, promoter, MC and recording artist.
Dolemite Is My Name is a 2019 American biographical comedy film directed by Craig Brewer and written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. The film stars Eddie Murphy as filmmaker Rudy Ray Moore, who is best known for having portrayed the character of Dolemite in both his stand-up routine and a series of blaxploitation films, which started with Dolemite in 1975.
Vinegar Syndrome is an American home video distribution company which specializes in "protecting and preserving genre films". The company was founded in 2012 in Bridgeport, Connecticut by Joe Rubin and Ryan Emerson, who created it to restore and distribute old X-rated films that were lost or otherwise unavailable. Their catalog has since expanded to include other types of cult and exploitation films, including horror films and action films.
Bloodbeat is a 1982 supernatural slasher film written and directed by Fabrice-Ange Zaphiratos and starring Helen Benton, Terry Brown, Claudia Peyton, James Fitzgibbons, and Dana Day. The plot focuses on a young couple attending a family gathering for Christmas in a rural home when a spirit wearing samurai armor begins killing members of the family—two of whom have psychic abilities—and their neighbors.
Cliff Roquemore was an American writer, producer and director. Principally active in Detroit theater, he was also involved with the production of several blaxploitation films, including The Human Tornado (1976), Petey Wheatstraw (1978) and Disco Godfather (1979).
In the Cold of the Night is a 1990 American erotic thriller film produced and directed by Greek filmmaker Nico Mastorakis, who also wrote the screenplay with Fred C. Perry. It stars Jeff Lester, Adrianne Sachs, Marc Singer, Brian Thompson, Shannon Tweed, John Beck, Tippi Hedren, and David Soul.
Welcome Home Brother Charles is a 1975 American blaxploitation film written and directed by Jamaa Fanaka. The film stars Marlo Monte as a wrongfully imprisoned man who seeks vengeance upon his transgressors using his prehensile penis. The film, which was shot on weekends over the course of seven months, was completed while Fanaka was a student of UCLA Film School.
New York Ninja is a 2021 American action film written, directed by and starring John Liu. It was shot in 1984, but was not edited or released until 2021, when its footage was discovered and restored by the film preservation and home video distributor Vinegar Syndrome.
