Cool Breeze (film)

Cool Breeze
Original Theatrical Poster
Directed by	Barry Pollack
Produced by	Gene Corman
Screenplay by	Barry Pollack
Based on	The Asphalt Jungle by W. R. Burnett
Starring	Thalmus Rasulala Jim Watkins Judy Pace Lincoln Kilpatrick Raymond St. Jacques
Music by	Solomon Burke
Cinematography	Andy David
Edited by	Morton Tubor
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	July 2, 1972
Running time	101 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Cool Breeze is a 1972 American blaxploitation film directed by Barry Pollack and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.^[1] The film Cool Breeze is loosely based on W. R. Burnett's 1949 novel, and is a remake of the 1950 film The Asphalt Jungle with a predominately all-black cast. Upon the movie’s release, the film was released with the tagline^: "He hit the Man for $3 million. Right where it hurts. In the diamonds. And baby, that's cold."

Sidney Lord Jones is a convicted felon who is granted an early release by the parole board in San Quentin. While imprisoned, he learns about the underworld diamond trade from reading and studying trade magazines. It motivates him to plan a heist to steal $3 million worth of diamonds from the largest diamond brokerage on the Pacific Coast.

After his release, Jones returns to Los Angeles and proposes the idea to ‘the Money Man’ Bill Mercer and "Stretch" Finian, in hopes that Mercer would provide the $50,000 seed money needed to set up the heist. Jones recommends using profits from the heist to start a community bank to support black-owned businesses, in addition the bank could be used to launder illegal business activities. Unbeknownst to Jones, Mercer is having financial difficulty and has little money. However, he agrees to provide the funds, but secretly plans to keep all the loot for himself. To accomplish the heist, Mercer and Jones assemble a group of men consisting of Travis Battle (‘the Muscle Man’) a well-known career criminal, Roy Harris (‘the Box Man’) an expert safe-cracker transformed into a Christian minister, and John Battle (‘the Driver’) an honest business man and half-brother of Travis. Unfortunately, after the successful robbery, the group finds themselves caught up in a string of unhappy accidents and double crosses.