The Soul of Nigger Charley (1973) review

 

THE SOUL OF NIGGER CHARLEY 1973

Fred Williamson (Nigger Charley), D’Urville Martin (Toby), Denise Nicholas (Elena), Pedro Armendariz, Jr. (Sandoval), Kevin Hagen (Colonel Blanchard), Kirk Calloway (Marcellus), George Allen (Ode), Bob Minor (Fred), James Garbo (Collins), Michael Cameron (Sergeant Foss), Johnny Greenwood (Roy), Joe Henderson (Lee Travis), Richard Farnsworth (Walker)

Directed by Larry G. Spangler

The Short Version: The controversial LEGEND gets a SOUL sequel that’s even bigger and more polished than before. The score by Frank Sinatra’s musical arranger Don Costa is opulent, alternating between a soaring, traditional western style and European western sensibilities--tinged with that unmistakable 70s funk sound making the movie feel like an epic unfolding as opposed to an adventurous exploitation movie. With a much bigger cast and storyline, THE SOUL OF NIGGER CHARLEY rides with the best westerns of the 1970s.

 

Charley and Toby ride into a town and discover a massacre at the hands of Blanchard the Butcher, a confederate Colonel hellbent on keeping slavery alive and reforming the Confederacy with $100,000 in gold. Blanchard plans to rob a train carrying the gold and split it with General Hooks, his partner across the border in Mexico. Charley and Toby recruit some free blacks living in a small Quaker community. Charley plans to intercept the train ahead of Blanchard to steal the gold in order to buy the freedom of 71 slaves held by General Hooks. However, the General has no intentions of making a deal. On his way to Mexico, Charley is captured by bandit leader Sandoval who decides to sell Charley to the General, but the wily ex-slave quickly turns the tables on the bandito. The two then join forces and with Sandoval's gang of 100 men, ride to the General's fort to settle with him and Colonel Blanchard.

Producer Larry G. Spangler was apparently fond of the Old West. When he wasn’t producing offbeat oaters he was directing and or producing them them. These range from the awful THE LAST REBEL (1971) to the awkward KNIFE FOR THE LADIES (1974). THE SOUL OF NIGGER CHARLEY (1973) is the best of the westerns Spangler directed and or produced through his own production company, Spangler and Sons Pictures.

 

For a successful sequel, everything needs to be bigger and expand on what came before while maintaining a degree of familiarity to the source material. SOUL does all of that. There’s a striking amount of exposition not normally afforded a film referred to as blaxploitation, or even your garden variety exploitation feature. Whereas that label is a more comfortable fit for THE LEGEND OF NIGGER CHARLEY, the more character-centric sequel is a black action picture—spending less time on shootouts, sex and violence, and streams of racial epithets the blaxploitation moniker demands. SOUL strives for more than cheap thrills; and a lot of this is due to Fred Williamson. 

 

The Hammer would never be described as a serious thespian, but he’s got an endless supply of charisma that drives all his performances. In SOUL, he does something he seldom, if ever, did again, and that’s emote. Charley, as depicted in this sequel, has attained folkloric status; a near mythic level hero. In the sequel, Charley embraces the derogatory epithet as if it were an authoritative appellation; he turns the negative connotations of "nigger"  back against the men labeling him. Such as a scene wherein an aristocratic representative of General Hooks refers to our hero in a condescending tone, Charley replies in a commanding voice, "It's MISTER Nigger Charley, to you". He did this in the first film but it's more profound in the sequel.

 

There are a few scenes, though, where we see this revered and feared gunslinger in a vulnerable, emotional state. It’s striking since you rarely saw larger than life heroes take a moment to break down and mourn someone close to them. This kind of pathos evoked by Williamson is refreshing. There’s a little bit of it in the first movie but it's more prevalent in this sequel.

 

 

Another area where SOUL surpasses LEGEND is in the romance between Charley and Elena. The angle with Tricia O'Neill in LEGEND was just there to bridge the next action scene. In SOUL, the script is gracious with its time building the relationship between Charley and Elena (played by Denise Nicholas). There's a curious scripting issue late in the film. When Charley and Sandoval and his mini army ride off to battle with Hooks and Blanchard, Elena stays behind; but without any explanation she turns up at the General's fort in the last scenes.

 

The career of Pedro Armendariz Jr. followed the trajectory of his father. The famous elder made movies in both Mexico and the United States as did the famous younger Armendariz. Both men featured alongside John Wayne--Armendariz senior in the westerns FORT APACHE and 3 GODFATHERS (both 1948); Armendariz junior in THE UNDEFEATED (1969) and CHISUM (1970). Father and son also appeared in James Bond productions--the former in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963) and the latter in LICENSE TO KILL (1989). Other westerns Pedro Jr. featured in include the underrated GUNS FOR SAN SEBASTIAN (1968), the major misfire MACHO CALLAHAN (1970), the mediocre THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN RIDE! (1972), and the massive missed opportunity that is THE DEADLY TRACKERS (1973). His part in SOUL is one of the better ones. 

 

 

Armendariz Jr (as Sandoval) and Williamson have good chemistry on-screen, and it would've been even better if they had a few more scenes together. One memorable sequence is when Sandoval walks in on Charley who awakens to find Sandoval's woman in bed with him. The two men fight (Bob Minor doubles Williamson in this scene) till they're exhausted and start laughing at the fact they're killing each other over a woman. Sandoval says to Charley as they continue to laugh uncontrollably, "There are some things worth dying for... money, excitement.. even patriotism... but a WOMAN?!"

For all it does exceedingly well, the one area that modestly cripples the film is the weak villains led by "The Butcher", Colonel Blanchard, as played by Kevin Hagen. The bad guys are introduced in a sufficiently sadistic manner; but afterward, Charley and his crew are almost always ten steps ahead of them. They never do anything else to match the evil of their act of violence at the film's outset. That they're frequently made to look foolish lessens the impact of the antagonists and makes them lose some of that threat level they started out with.

After multiple times of being outmaneuvered, Blanchard and his men (along with those of General Hooks) do manage to ambush Charley and his band once they cross the border. Prior to this, Charley underestimates the power of control over not just an individual, but a people. When a slave of General Hooks brings Charley a message that one slave per day will die for every day his gold isn't returned, Charley tells the man he's now free, but the scared man says he must return or else his family will be killed. What Charley doesn't take into account is that this man--a black man--would betray him and reveal his plans to the General. So when Charley and nine of his freedom fighters sneak into Hooks' headquarters, they walk into an ambush. 

 

There's this back and forth chess game between Nigger Charley and Colonel Blanchard; but perplexingly, Blanchard and Charley never meet face to face, nor does Charley deliver the killing blow to him; Toby does. It's curious why director Spangler didn't have his main hero and villain have a fistfight and concluding gun battle since the movie is built around these two men vying to wipe the other out. That they never exchange words nor fists damages the ruthlessness inherent in Blanchard and his rampaging gang of racist killers.

Hagen’s Colonel Blanchard is possibly modeled on the confederate guerrilla leader William Clarke Quantrill who led what was known as Quantrill’s Raiders. They were a serious threat during the Reconstruction Era that lasted approximately 40 years beginning in 1861. Led by Quantrill, his Raiders were a pro-slavery gang of cutthroats that included the James brothers, “Bloody”  Bill Anderson and Joel Mayes, a Cherokee Nations war chief.

Many Indian tribes took slaves, like the Apache, Seminoles and Chickasaw; and not just captives of enemy tribes, but blacks as well. The Cherokee were among the Indian tribes that enslaved Africans. 

As for Quantrill references, the opening slaughter is potentially based on the infamous Lawrence, Kansas massacre that occurred on August 21st, 1863. By that time, the US Army had ordered that anyone giving aid to Quantrill and his men would be arrested. At the beginning of SOUL, the killing and razing of the town is due to the townsfolk—made up of black and white residents—refusing to give supplies to Colonel Blanchard and his men.

Hagen played some despicable characters such as a Confederate deserter and rapist-murderer in the epic western SHENANDOAH (1965); another rapist killer in the BILLY JACK clone starring William Smith GENTLE SAVAGE (1972); and a psychopath who comes to a macabre bad end in the season 9 episode of GUNSMOKE, ‘No Hands’. Hagen of course, will forever be best remembered as Doc Baker on LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE (1974-1983). 

The most colorful of the villains is this albino character that Spangler curiously kills off thirty minutes into the movie. With such a unique look, it would’ve been more compelling to keep him around till the finale. This is another bizarre filming decision that makes as much sense as not having the leading protagonist and antagonist have the expected duel at the finale.

As for General Hooks, he’s only seen once, and you never get a good look at his face. He’s not included in the credits, but it appears that director Spangler may have played the villainous General. As for the historical significance of there being a General in Mexico maintaining slaves, the practice was abolished in Mexico in 1829. No date is given for when this film takes place, but it's presumed to be set during the Reconstruction Era sometime between 1865-1877. 

 

Unlike the poor quality bootleg that has been the only source to see this movie, this new restoration allows for a clearer visual of the General surrounded in shadow that you could barely discern before. If you'd like to compare screenshots between this new review and our old one from 2010, you can click HERE.

Williamson and Martin would costar together in another western, 1975s BOSS NIGGER for director Jack Arnold. The first half of that film is of a comedic nature; but once William Smith—the underrated actor The Hammer called “the toughest man alive”—makes his presence known, the movie turns totally serious. Williamson and Martin did many movies together and SOUL is one of their best collaborations.

As was touched on in the new review for the first film, had there been one or more legitimate sequels to make a longer-running series it would’ve been interesting to see Charley and Toby meet up with a regiment of Buffalo Soldiers; they being black soldiers who fought for the US Army against not only the Confederacy, but against Indian threats from the likes of the Apache, Kiowa and Comanche tribes.

 

 

Something that can make or break a movie is its music score, and the one SOUL is saddled with is epic. Don Costa, the musical arranger for Frank Sinatra, composed it--his one and only film score. The soundtrack spans a rousing, traditional western score with slivers of 70s funk, and cues of the European western variety. Standouts are the main theme and the Euro-fueled cue 'Sandoval'.

 

Compared to the LEGEND, the SOUL is a bigger and better movie. It's not blaxploitation in the purest sense of that term, it's a black action movie; and more accurately, it's simply a good and very entertaining western. A few fumbles and bizarre filming choices aside, Spangler directed a superior sequel that's polished and professional in virtually every way. Of all the westerns Fred Williamson did (the two NIGGER CHARLEY films; BOSS NIGGER; TAKE A HARD RIDE; JOSHUA; ADIOS, AMIGO), you could make a case that from a filmmaking perspective, THE SOUL OF NIGGER CHARLEY is the best of that wild, and wildly uneven, bunch.

This review is representative of the Imprint blu-ray part of the Blaxploitation 4-film box set including THE LEGEND OF NIGGER CHARLEY (1972), SUPERFLY TNT (1973) and DETROIT 9000 (1973). Specs and extras: 1080p 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen from a new 4K restoration; audio commentary by filmmaker/critic Mike Sargent; interview with Fred Williamson; running time: 01:49:28.