Directed by Melvin Van Peebles • 1972 • United States
Starring Joe Keyes Jr., Rhetta Hughes, Avon Long
Melvin Van Peebles’s film version of his own Tony Award–nominated Broadway musical is a bold blend of theater and nervy, New Wave–inflected cinematic invention. A cast of Black stage and screen luminaries including Esther Rolle, Mabel King, and Avon Long stars in this charmingly offbeat, fablelike fantasy in which a pair of mischief-making devil-bats dispatched by Satan assume human form in order to wreak havoc on a Saturday-night house party in Harlem—only to find their diabolical plan thwarted by their hosts’ infectious generosity of spirit. Staged with ebullience, the original blues- and gospel-infused songs by Van Peebles burst forth in a life-affirming celebration of Black joy, tenderness, resilience, and strength.
Up Next in Directed by Melvin Van Peebles
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Three Pickup Men for Herrick
Directed by Melvin Van Peebles • 1957 • United States
The second short film Melvin Van Peebles made in San Francisco before decamping for Europe is a striking portrait of a group of day laborers competing to secure a job.
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Les cinq cent balles
Directed by Melvin Van Peebles • 1961 • France
Made in 1961 in Paris, LES CINQ CENT BALLES is about a boy who tries to retrieve a five-hundred-franc note from a gutter.
