Robert J. Maxwell A couple of fine actors here -- Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Koto. Anthony Franciosa is less spastic than usual. And the story itself, in which just about everyone in New York, including the African-Americans in Harlem and most of the police force supposedly arraigned against them, are crooked. Even the less admirable characters are given some humanity: Quinn is about to be sidelined on the NYPD because of his age, and one of the three blacks causing all the uproar and murder has epilepsy. Black against white, with crookedness cutting across the castes like overlapping Venn diagrams. It's pregnant with possibilities.But, alas, it's undone by the direction, editing, and musical score. It's not worth going into in too much detail. The director, Shear, has overwhelmed the plot with crowded scenes and overlapping dialog, or else huge choker close ups of sweaty faces. Some important scenes are deleted. The film is overscored and the music is loud and distasteful. Suspenseful scenes are backed by rattling mariachis.The story itself is good enough to overcome some of these weaknesses but on the whole the impression it makes is one of hasty shooting on the cheap.

videorama-759-859391 Another film inspired by a song, the racier version I didn't so much like, when compared to the one played at the start of QT's Jackie Brown. As for the movie, I did like, where I've seen it now, four to five times. This is an interesting cop drama with an interesting though simple plot, the movie that falls on the verge of a blaxploitation one, a little saggy though in part. Quinn plays a near retiring detective, 55, worn and weary, where he's spent 60 percent of his life in his occupation. His unconventional methods of force, as he says "get's results". After a mob money rip off by three small time ex cons, where a couple of black cops get in the line of fire with some other casualties, being that of the mob boys, he's assigned with a black cop (Yaphet Kotto) who as he says, is "running the show". That he is to Quinn's dislike, where the two form a kind of partnership and mutual friendship. Now we know, stolen money is dead money, and if it's mafia involved, those three thugs lives are dwindling, their fate so foreseeable, the last of three, creating a memorable and honorable death, followed by a shock passing from Quinn's character. We too get into the three black guy's lives, and their conflict with their partners, over their fateful actions, which I liked. Anthony Franciosa (Finder Of Lost Loves, Tenebrae, really is the standout in this and if you push his buttons, the fun is watching in how he responds. Antonio Fargas, an actor I've always liked and enjoyed watching, with his ugly black mug, is fun to here, as he is in other pics, as one of the low life money stealing who meets a short demise. At the other end of this bar, it's always a privilege fine actor Quinn, and here he's top form, giving reality and believiability to this character, even though his unjust methods are kind of reprehensible. This oldie but goodie seventies movie, isn't the best of it's time, but still stacks up pretty well, due to it's story, with some heavy and impactful violence, and it's other asset, Franciosa.

tieman64 Set in the mean streets of Harlem, "Across 110th Street" is one of the better blaxploitation films released in the early seventies. With two fairly big stars in lead roles (Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Kotto), the film also had a slightly larger budget than most of its siblings.The plot revolves around two detectives, played by Kotto and Quinn, who attempt to bring down a black gang. Unfortunately things don't go as planned, mostly because Kotto is black and Quinn is a racist Italian. Written, directed and produced by whites, this film pretends to make a racial statement (the last shot is that of a white on black handshake), but like most of these white-directed blaxploitation films, it's all rage and anger, everyone despicable, nasty and vile.The film ends with a massive shootout (lots of squibs and submachine guns) that was memorable in its day. Today the film is remembered mostly for influencing Tarantino's "Jackie Brown", particularly its opening shot.6/10

JasparLamarCrabb Skirting at least some of the clichés of blaxploitation, ACROSS 110TH STREET is an entertaining mess. Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Kotto play NYC cops and unlikely partners trying to find out who stole some mafia loot and killed a couple of cops in the process. Anthony Franciosa is an inept low-level mafiosi also hunting for the culprits. Quinn and Kotto are actually pretty dull, but Paul Benedict gives an electrifying performance as the lead thief. He's well matched with Norma Donaldson as his sympathetic wife. Antonio Fargas also appears in a brief, and of course, flamboyant role. It's a ridiculous and violent time-capsule capturing the nearly bankrupt NYC of the early 1970s...and it's tough to beat that Bobby Womack music. Directed by Barry Shear, who came from television and promptly went back to television.