Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor Battle French Drug Runners in This Unexpected, Underrated Thriller

Out of many stars who headlined blaxploitation style motion pictures within the ‘70s, Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor had been just some enduring skills who managed to crossover into mainstream cinema. Williams had the Clark Gable-like heartthrob standing that attracted feminine followers. Pryor was an edgy slapstick comedian who spoke the reality in regards to the black expertise in America. Each stars discovered themselves taking a novel efficiency flip within the 1973 thriller Hit!

Capitalizing totally on the landmark success of The French Connection, Hit! was a captivating studio movie reuniting Williams and Pryor with Sidney J. Furie, the director of their earlier collaboration within the Diana Ross musical drama Woman Sings the Blues. Written by screenwriters Alan Trustman (The Thomas Crown Affair) and David M. Wolf, the globe-trotting revenge story marked a pointy departure for its stars. Although it runs at a dense two and a half hours, Hit! wouldn’t solely solidify Williams’ functionality of main an motion image but additionally set up the flexibility of Pryor as a severe actor.

What Is ‘Hit!’ About?

Picture by way of Paramount Footage

Very like The French Connection, Hit! particulars the inside workings of rich French heroin producers and distributors who funnel their provide overseas and into the arms of low-level sellers on American avenue corners. A type of sellers sells to a younger man in Washington D.C. who injects his teenage girlfriend Jeannie Allen (Tina Andrews) with the heroin, leading to a deadly overdose. Jeannie’s secret authorities agent father, Nick (Williams), initially goes after the boyfriend till he realizes who the real target should be: the supply.

Turning his again on his company employers, Nick will get entry to a top-secret file containing the names of seven people who had their lives affected by medicine or stress from the federal government. Amongst them embrace a intercourse employee (Gwen Welles), a system-weary cop (Warren J. Kemmerling), a married pair of retired assassins (Sid Melton and Janet Brandt), a Vietnam vet sniper (Paul Hampton) and an ex-navy officer (Pryor) haunted by his spouse’s rape and homicide. Inside one week, Nick trains his staff in a small Canadian coastal city to arrange for his or her complicated assassination plot towards the heroin suppliers in Marseille.

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Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor Shine in ‘Hit!’

Lengthy earlier than the world knew him for Lando Calrissian within the Star Wars saga, Williams performed low-key with an undercurrent of anger as Nick. Throughout the first 20 minutes of the movie, he says little or no dialogue in his pursuit of solutions and stands off towards his authorities handlers. Although he retains his signature allure within the movie’s lighter moments, he channels the quiet depth of Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson. To that finish, race shouldn’t be a think about Williams’ efficiency. The actor advised EBONI Magazine in 1974 how Hit! was written with McQueen in thoughts and that “I play a person. The truth that I’m black isn’t a difficulty”.

Whereas Hit! surrounds Williams with a colourful solid of allies, the clear standout within the ensemble is Pryor. He doesn’t play a standard comedian reduction though he manages to chop via some very intense moments with humor. Through the coaching phase of the movie, he witnesses Williams berate a excessive Welles when she proves unconvincing to seduce a possible goal. Williams’ uncharacteristic meanness will get instantly cooled down when Pryor intervenes. The supply of Pryor’s humor may simply have been a observe from one in every of his legendary comedy albums.

Although Pryor nonetheless manages to suit a few of his trademark humor into an in any other case unfunny image, a few of Pryor’s finest work as an actor shines right here. He continues to showcase his dramatic skills as he had finished beforehand as Piano Man in Woman Sings the Blues. Particularly when Williams drives Pryor to a location to confront and lash out towards his spouse’s killer. It’s a uncommon violent depth that Pryor wouldn’t be capable of attain once more by the point his profession reached family title standing within the latter a part of the last decade.

‘Hit’ Suffers From Its Dense Operating Time

Billy Dee Williams firing a machine gun in Hit! — Picture by way of Paramount Footage

Even with the shining performances of Williams and Pryor, Hit! suffers from its gradual pacing. Although this was an period earlier than action pictures had been continuous rollercoaster rides, the movie intentionally devotes an excellent chunk of screentime to Williams recruiting his staff and coaching them as a part of the narrative’s character growth. Moreover, Hit! manages to squeeze in a pressured romance plot between Williams and Welles that at occasions comes throughout as mean-spirited as a result of latter character’s drug habit and Nick’s expression of robust love.

Regardless of the dramatic moments dragging the general story, Hit! succeeds within the motion suspense division. Furie, whose earlier credit embrace The Ipcress File and The Bare Runner, manages to craft moments that break up the slowness of the story, akin to a shootout and automobile chase as Nick evades his authorities employers whereas failing to recruit a staff member. By the point Hit! reaches its remaining act in Marseille, the Hitchcockian rigidity of Williams’ staff going after the suppliers one after the other will get dialed as much as make for a satisfying conclusion.