Based on The Face of Night by Bernard Brunner, this is the last film for director Henry Hathaway, who directed True Grit, The Sons of Katie Elder and Call Northside 777. It’s a blaxploutation film that was distributed by American-International Pictures; amazingly, Hathaway had turned down Rooster Cogburn.
Re-released as Super Dude, this is all about heroic black cop Ken Ramsey (William Elliott) and Julie (Marki Bey), who has been addicted to heroin and forced to do sex work. She used to be the girl he loved back in high school; now he wants to save her from Richards (Michael Lerner).
This is competently made and the fight scenes look good. That’s not why one usually watches blaxploiutation. Still, an interesting footnote in a great career.
You can watch this on YouTube.
