Mean Johnny Barrows (1975)

In all respects this is an utterly dull, derivative B-movie with barely anything to recommend it. It's cheap, often laughable when it tries to be serious, and the plot – what little of it there is – is boring and almost free of action. Somewhere there's a statement about the condition of Vietnam veterans and their place in American society after the fighting, but it gets lost amid a terrifying '70s battle field of cheap, incessantly drivelling and dated music, and endless, repetitive shots of Mr. Williamson walking around the streets aimlessly.Interestingly, this is not the first time that Fred Williamson played a character called 'Johnny Barrows'. That was back in '74, in an episode of a crime television series called THE ROOKIES. Now, I've never seen that show, or even heard of it, but I guess that Williamson liked his role so much that he decided to make a film of his own about the character and this is the measly result. It's also Fred's first time behind the camera as director, and I have to say, to put it kindly, that he needs more practice.Now, I like Fred Williamson, or "The Hammer" as he is nicknamed. I think he's great as an actor and he's a minor action star. He was fantastic in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, for instance, he had so much presence. Here, he's the most entertaining thing in the film, but even so he gives a poor performance. All the script requires is of him to walk up and down the streets over and over or sweep the floor. It's weird but the early part of the film – in which he works as a janitor – is more engaging than the hokey gangster stuff that finishes the movie. While Williamson makes a definite presence here, his fight scenes are frankly laughable, complete with sub-Bruce Lee sounds and Williamson striking absurd poses that bear no relevance to real-life fights.The film is packed with plot holes and silly incidents that don't make much sense. The worst bit has to be the ending, involving the twist with the mine; while it might have seemed clever at the time, the question remains, how on earth did it get there? This moment beggars belief but adds a hilarious aside to an otherwise mainly dull production. Strangely, for such a low budget and uninspired film, Williamson assembled some big-name actors to take part. I guess they owed him a few favours, or perhaps he won them around with his charisma. In any case, we get Stuart Whitman as a big-haired gangster and Roddy McDowall as a weird-haired gangster, who gets his leg slashed with a knife in another entertaining moment. Elsewhere, Elliott Gould pops up in an amusing – and head-scratching – cameo appearance as a homeless man, while screen veteran R. G. Armstrong (familiar for his role as the general in PREDATOR) gives one of the best turns as the stuffy garage owner. Elsewhere, Jenny Sherman makes a small impact as the love interest and only female in the film; not because of her acting, but because she's naturally pretty, easy on the eye. As for Fred, well, he's Fred, and he's still cool despite all the nonsense that goes on in this film. Fans of gangster, blaxploitation and action films should steer well clear of this movie, as it doesn't offer much of value. Fred made lots of other cooler films in the 1970s and I recommend tracking one of those down instead of giving this one a go.

This downbeat crime drama fumbles and stumbles as often as it does something right...but there is some decent stuff in this movie along with the dross. Seeing that Williamson directed this, I was impressed at his attempt to portray some complicated issues and relationships in the context of a blaxpoitation movie. He didn't really succeed,but this was an interesting effort. I am not a huge fan of Fred Williamson (too often he coasts on his good looks and charisma and too often he picks roles in crap like "Black Cobra"), but he looks good on camera and he has his moments. He can mosey down a city street with his hands in his pockets and still be at least as interesting as Sylvester Stallone flexing his pecs in any of his action flicks. So the movie has that doing for it. Plus the character is an interesting study in ambiguity - "Johnny Barrows" tries to walk the straight and narrow after being drummed out of the Army in spite of temptation from the Mob...and yet in the final half of the movie he gives in (apparently for the love of a 3rd grade Sunday School teacher) and proves quite effective at taking out the "bad" bad guys (who can be distinguished from the other bad guys because the mobsters Fred works for don't believe in running drugs and prostitution.) There are racist cops, but also decent cops who nevertheless don't do much to help.And the gas station owner who at first seems like a decent fellow and gives "Johnny Barrows" a chance, turns out to be a son-of-a-b*tch who just wants an indentured servant in place of actual slave labor. There's lots of problems with the movie of course. The casting is a weird mix of hard working character actors and obvious amateurs and decent talents who are wildly out of place (Roddy McDowall is absolutely ridiculous and unbelievable here - he must have been desperate for work). The big love interest (the movie's Lorelei figure) is a pleasant looking young woman, but she's utterly wrong for the role and doesn't have the focus, maturity or presence to be believable as the Siren Who Betrays The Hero At The End. And the soundtrack is a major irritant - decent instrumentals support a grating, overwrought soul soprano shrieking lyrics that seem to be there to tell the audience things it already knows. Watch this one if you simply want to see everything Williamson has even been in or every blaxploitation film ever made. Or if you have 90 minutes to kill and don't care how you kill them.

I wanted to see this movie, Williamson's debut as a director, because I have long suspected that Williamson once knew how to make an action movie (at least Blaxploitation style) and later got bored and started directing filler.Well, I was wrong - Williamson was a bad director from the get go.The problem with most of his films - including this one - is that one has a right to expect action from an action film, even if it has some other comment to make. Williamson's action scenes are invariably dull, routine, cliché, and not very frequent.When I see a character in an action film pull out a gun, I expect him to shoot something or somebody - not just stand around posing as if just holding a gun was in itself exciting - one might as well hold a broom.But as in most Williamson-directs-Williamson films, when the gun comes out... he stands and, well... just stands there.An off-beat Elliot Gould performance slips through - otherwise, noting much here. And Landau is at his worst, which is just what Mr. Williamson wanted from him - what a waste of time! Don't let it waste yours.

I can't say that this film was any good. There isn't much to be said about the plot, acting, direction ... anything, really. I like Fred Williamson, but "Mean Johnny Barrows" certainly isn't the high water mark in his resume.That being said ... the scene with Williamson and Elliott Gould was, I thought, really touching. Not necessarily in the context of the movie itself ... but I couldn't help but notice that probably 95% of that scene was improvised by both Williamson and Gould. As I understand it, both men became friends while filming Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H," and I suspect that Gould probably did the "Professor" role as a favor to his friend Williamson.The scene is set in the first act of the movie and is relatively short ... I'd say about three or four minutes in length. It doesn't add any sort of perspective to the plot at all. It probably could have been cut from the film altogether, were it not for Elliott Gould's namesake.Anyhow ... Gould's "Professor" character attempts to educate Williamson's "Barrows" on how a bum ought to live. The two find a clueless man ordering a hot dog and root beer from a street vendor. After a little smooth talking from Gould, he entices the "man with the popsicle shirt" to purchase "a couple dogs with some kraut" for he and Williamson. This scene is totally improvised by both men, leaving the other poor guy in stitches. And in the context of the movie, Williamson's "Barrows" would probably not be laughing it up and saying things like "shall we?" unless he was completely intoxicated or some other way out of his element. I suppose it was refreshing to see these two "old friends" having a good time NOT taking themselves or the scene too seriously.It's probably pretty silly, but that scene really tickled me. I'm a huge admirer of Elliott Gould's earlier work, but until the moment I saw him on screen, I had no idea he was in this movie. It was a nice surprise. Made this movie a little more palatable. Though I suppose I've seen worse movies by comparison, I doubt that "Mean Johnny Barrows" is a feather in either Fred Williamson's or Elliott Gould's cap.