Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes

Black gangsters and the Italian mob embark on a turf war in 1950's Harlem.

Jive Turkey seems to be the retitled name for this film which seemingly went under the insane original title of 'Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes'. It's a typically low-budget bit of Blaxploitation that starts out claiming that it is based on a true story, only to then hilariously state that despite this it contains different names, places and events! So I initially thought this had to be a comedy, yet it never actually plays out like one at all, so have to imagine these opening lines were intended with no irony whatsoever. One definite defining feature though is the fact that it's a period piece given that it's set in the 50's. The trouble with this approach, however, is that the low budget hampers this quite drastically and it never feels very much like the 50's at all. It would've been far more sensible if it had been set in the present day as period detail costs money – something of which there was clearly not an abundance of here. But you have to at least give the film-makers credit for having the nerve to try to execute something so ambitious though.

Overall, despite certainly having interesting things about it, this is not truly a very successful movie. It really lacks focus and doesn't tell its story in a particularly engaging way, despite the fact that the plot elements have a fair bit of promise. There isn't even too much action either to make up for this. One definite standout aspect though was the inclusion of a transvestite psychopath hit-man character that killed people with spiked stilettos and a sharpened ring. I was interested to read here that the movie intended the fact that this character was a man to be a bit of a major surprise twist in the plot, yet I thought it was so obvious this was a guy in drag I just kind of assumed we were all meant to know this up front. On the whole, this is certainly one mainly for fans of Blaxploitation cinema; it's a bit rough around the edges and not especially good but it still has enough of that sub-genre's energy and attitude to ensure it has some interest level.