Five on the Blackhand Side
| Five on the Black Hand Side | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Oscar Williams |
| Produced by |
Brock Peters Michael Tolan |
| Starring |
Clarice Taylor Leonard Jackson Virginia Capers Glynn Turman Bonnie Banfield D'Urville Martin |
| Music by | H.B. Barnum |
| Cinematography | Gene Polito |
| Edited by | Michael Economou |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
|
Release date
|
October 25, 1973 |
|
Running time
|
96 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $200,000 |
Five on the Black Hand Side is a 1973 Blaxploitation comedy film based on the play by Charlie L. Russell. It was shot in Los Angeles, California. Leonard Jackson appeared as John Henry Brooks. He was cast in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple fifteen years later. Tagline: "You've been coffy-tized, blacula-rized and super-flied - but now you're gonna be glorified, unified and filled-with-pride... when you see Five on the Black Hand Side."
During the weekend of her daughter's wedding, Mrs. Gladys Ann Brooks, a meek wife (played by Clarice Taylor) and her three children; Gideon Brooks (Glynn Turman), Booker T. Washington-Brooks (D'Urville Martin), and Gail Brooks (Bonnie Banfield) finally decides to stand up to their overbearing husband and father Mr. John Henry Brooks Jr. (Leonard Jackson) who displays retrogressive behavior.
Mrs. Brooks is tired of everybody treating her "like an old couch" and decides to leave her husband if he does not change his abusive behavior. Mr. Brooks controls every moment of his wife's life. Unlike his children, he considers himself "American" not "African". He does not agree with the fact that his daughter Gail is having an African themed wedding. His younger son Gideon does not talk to him and refuses to stay in the same room with his father. Gideon camps on the roof, instead, where he practices martial arts (by that time an important element of the Black Power movement). Mrs. Brooks joins her son on the roof in a civil rights movement after invading her husband's barbershop, where women are not allowed, where she hands Mr. Brooks a list of demands. She, for example, requires him to call her by her first name "Gladys", while Mr. Brooks insists on calling her Mrs. Brooks. Mr. Brooks finally changes his behavior and all the family members gather at Gail's and her new husband Marvin's "African" wedding.
This relationship between the two parents in this movie got parodied in a skit of the same name on the comedy series In Living Color. The film went into limited release in theaters, but helped launch the careers of Glynn Turman and Ja'net DuBois: he did films and TV, landing mostly African-American characters, leading to the role of Bradford Taylor on the TV Show A Different World and she became famous as Willona on the TV hit Good Times.
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