Cast and Crew: Robert Clouse (Director); Fred Weintraub and Paul Heller (Producers); Luchi De Jesus (Score); Dennis Coffey (Theme Song); Charles B. Pierce (Set Decorator); Gloria Hendry, Alan Weeks, Earl Jolly Brown, Sonny Barnes, Marla Gibbs, Robert Wall
What It’s About: The mob wants Papa Byrd’s (Scatman Crothers) karate dojo. When Papa Byrd won’t sell, they send their local drug dealer/pool hall owner Pinky (Malik Carter) to take it. Things go wrong and Byrd dies, leaving Pinky and the mob to deal with Papa Byrd’s best student: international super agent Black Belt Jones (Jim Kelly).
Why watch it today?: Scatman Crothers, the character actor and all around entertainer with a long and varied career, died on this date in 1986. While many remember him explaining “the Shining” to Danny, to me Crothers will always be Papa Byrd, the rather sketchy but lovable dojo owner from today’s movie. Besides giving you the chance to see Scatman do “karate”, Black Belt Jones features Jim Kelly’s unique and incomprable acting style, 3 Stooges style kiai, Malik Carter’s over the top Uncle Tom act, Ted “Issac the Bartender” Lange as a Black Panther style militant, an incomparable theme song, the least intimidating mobsters in film history, a fight in a municipal garbage truck car wash, a karate funeral, and, probably most importantly, immortal dialogue such as: “Who hit me?” “Batman MOTHER FUCKER”‘; “My cookie would kill you”‘; “Let’s Go McDonalds!” and “Don’t bullshit me man, I’m from New Orleans.”
In other words, this is inexplicably one of my favorite movies of all time, and I really have no idea why it took three years of doing Movies of the Day for me to get to it!
Other Choices: The Shootist, Detroit 9000, Truck Turner
The League of Dead Films 
Well, I’m laughing as I type because yeah, this film is a total howler from beginning to end and JIm Kelly was probably the best looking worst actor in those “blaxploitation” movies. Oh, you forgot to note that Scatman’s “martial arts” skills here may have helped him land the lead in Hanna Barbera’s nutty Hong Kong Phooey cartoon series. Or not…
I’ve heard some say Fred Williamson circa Black Caesar was the best looking, but I could see a vote for Kelly, too. I love this movie, both for the unintentional comedy and the intentional comedy, but it is most definitely a howler. 🙂
Ha! I almost forgot about Black Caesar. That film was a total hoot thanks to the “Mammy Alabammy” scene where Fred beats a bad cop to death with a shoeshine box! Yeah, it’s as awful and hilarious as it sounds. I love it that a sequel (Hell Up in Harlem) was made despite the ending to BC being so “final”.