User reviews

After watching 100 or more blaxploitation movies in the last 10 years or so, my wife and I fell in love with this movie. You love blaxploitation for the cheesy acting, the characters, the cars, the ghetto heroes. But for this one, it's the costumes. Sure, it's got pimps, hos, bad cops, drugs and prostitution, even a ex-hooker with a heart of gold. With costume changes nearly every scene; leather, fur, satin and those hats!, this one should have taken an Oscar!

If we can find the DVD, this one goes in the permanent collection.

Mary and David

This Blaxploitation classic merits a viewing on at least two bases: one, you've got none other than Gordon of 'Sesame Street', a.k.a. actor Roscoe Orman, playing a pimp, and two, you have to love these COSTUMES! "Willie Dynamite" (Orman) is a capitalism-oriented flesh peddler with a wardrobe to die for. But he'll have a few thorns in his side: a pair of detectives (George Murdock, Albert Hall) out to righteously bust him, a mysterious enemy determined to screw him over, and a crusading social worker named Cora (Diana Sands), who acts as a patron saint to hookers.

Directed with style by Gilbert Moses, "Willie Dynamite" is generally engaging entertainment. Some viewers may be pleased to note that, although the rating is R, there's no excessive violence, and very little in the way of bare female skin. That doesn't mean, however, that it's not worth other peoples' time. It spins a decent yarn (screenplay by Ron Cutler, based on a story by Cutler and Joe Keyes Jr.) that unfolds at a respectable pace, gives us some agreeable action set pieces, and makes fine use of locations. There's a wonderful score provided by J.J. Johnson, and a rousing title theme song that gets you in the proper mood immediately.

Orman is great fun playing a charismatic antihero. The scenario lets you wait until the end to let you know whether or not Willie D. can be redeemed, leading to some poignant moments. Sands, sadly dying of cancer during this time, gives the best performance in the movie. Thalmus Rasulala is saddled with little to do as her attorney boyfriend. Similarly, there are other familiar faces here that are rather wasted. Judith Brown, Juanita Brown, Marcia McBroom, and Mary Charlotte Wilcox as some of Willie D.'s hookers mostly just take up space. The pretty Joyce Walker gets the lions' share of attention as novice ho Pashen. Roger Robinson, as an antagonistic pimp named Bell, is most amusing, but there may be viewers who will take offense to his stereotypical portrayal of a gay character.

"Willie Dynamite" is lively, funny, and sometimes touching. Blaxploitation completists will want to check it out, for sure.

Seven out of 10.

A classic 70's Blaxploitation film. Pimps as colorful as peacocks with land cruisers dressed in chrome.

Roscoe Orman (Gordon from Sesame Street) plays Willie, a pimp who has the patter down pat and the clothing that rivals anything that your imagination can come up with. He runs afoul of a determined social worker and the police, both determined to bring him down. They use every trick in the book to make his life hell and bring on him the wrath of his fellow pimps.

Diana Sands, who was one of the top black actresses of the 50s and 60s, shined as the social worker. This was one of her last films as she died of cancer before its release. She was 39.

Like Al Capone, Willie's downfall was the IRS.

The ad and plotline for this movie may give you the impression that Willie Dynamite is a typical blaxploitation actioner with heavy doses of violence and sex but that is not the case. Willie Dynamite deals with a NYC pimp (Orman) who must deal not only with the police and a dedicated social worker (Sands), but also his fellow pimps who resent his increasing level of power within the city. There is not much in the way of nudity or blood or even profanity. During the last third of the movie, the story switches gears as both Orman and Sands go through some major changes which cause them to alter their outlook and approach to their lives. In doing this, Willie Dynamite goes in a different (and less sensational) direction than many films of this period chose to go. The film also takes on a higher level of believability which helps to bring the two main characters to life. Both Orman and Sands are impressive in their roles. It is sad to note that Sands died shortly after making this as she was a very talented woman. Orman, believe it or not, went on to become a staple on TV's Sesame Street as Gordon! Now that's a change of pace. His fur coats and fur hat add some unintentional laughs to the story, though at the time this was made, they were probably in vogue. In fact, Willie Dynamite has a great early 70s ambiance that many of the bigger movies of the time did not contain. Willie Dynamite may not be the best known of the blaxploitation genre but it deserves more attention than it got.

Not a very common blaxsploitation film released through Universal Pictures. This one had a decent budget and starred the one and only Gordon from Sesame Street (Roscoe Orman). It was a little odd watching him play a pimp but he did do an amazing job. I wonder if this role landed him the job as Gordon.

This isn't really exploitative at all with no violence or nudity instead tells a story of a pimps hardships with the police always arresting his girls and shaking him down constantly. His competition works him over as well every chance they get. His biggest problem seems to be his mother who obviously disapproves of his life choice.

A great film all the way through but the only thing missing was a funky soundtrack.

As all fans of exploitation cinema will know, there were many, many blaxploitation movies released during the 1970s after Melvin van Peebles left an incredibly impression on black audiences with Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song in 1971. While many are rather enjoyable in a comical way, few works of blaxploitation were actually any good. Tony Award-nominated Broadway director Gilbert Moses' Willie Dynamite is incredibly under-seen, but is one of the genre's most impressive works, shunning the usual hyper-stylised, lightly comic beats in favour of something more serious and dramatic, while also touching on themes such as black identity, racism and police corruption.

New York pimp Willie Dynamite (Roscoe Orman) has built himself a mini-empire, training his girls to work like a production line to maximise profits and keep his many customers happy. While his clothes are utterly outlandish (there are some of most ridiculous outfits ever seen in the genre here), Willie ain't no lovable scamp like Super Fly (1972), but a real piece of s**t; he regularly threatens his girls with violence, underpays them, and fails to offer any help when they get themselves arrested. When he's late to turn up to court for his most recent arrival Pashen (Joyce Walker), prostitute-turned-social worker Cora (Diana Sands) takes a particular interest, and becomes intent on rescuing Willie's girls and ending his reign of terror.

For a genre normally so rich in exploitative traits, Willie Dynamite contains no nudity and little violence, earning its adult rating instead for language and drug use. The lack of sex and action scenes leaves plenty of room for drama and character building, and Willie's journey to discovering his place in society and ultimately redeeming himself is all the more engrossing for it. Anyone familiar with Sesame Street will be left shocked at the sight of Orman wearing some of the most garish costumes ever committed to celluloid and trying to keep his bitches in check, and it's a very convincing performance. But it is in fact Diana Sands, who sadly died shortly after filming, who steals the film as the force of nature with a gentle side. Ripe for re- discovery, there's much more to Willie Dynamite than I would have ever expected. Now, bring me some scratch.

******SPOLIERS****** "Willie Dynamite" is miles above the average "Blaxploitation" films made in the 1970's by it's not glorifying the title character in any way but showing him as a ruthless as well as tragic and misguided person. A person who's self-destructive lifestyle as a big time city pimp lead to disaster not only to himself but to all those around him: his women his friends his hangers-on and worst of all his sweet and church-going mother played by Royce Wallace.

Back in those days, the 70's, Willie Dynamite, Roscoe Orman, could easily have been made to be a hero for the youth of the inner city ghettos to be looked up to and emulated. Instead the movie wisely chose to show him and his lifestyle for what it was, indifferent and unfeeling. Thats how Willie was to those women who worked the streets and hotels for him selling their hot bodies for the only thing that mattered to him the bottom line: Cold Cash.

The film chronicles the rise and fall and in the end redemption of big city pimp Willie Dynamite after he saw his mother collapse in the courthouse, when she found out what Willie really did for a living, and later die in the hospital without Willie being able to tells her that he's sorry for what he did and get her forgiveness. Willie let his mom on to believe that he was a record agent not a pimp.

Willie's top hooker Pashen, Joyce Walker, who wanted to get out of the hooker business and become a fashion model after she was shown the light by Cora, Diana Sands, a social worker who tried to save girls like her from being exploited by pimps like Willie. Pashen instead gets sweet-talked back into turning tricks by Willie's and ends up having her pretty face slashed while she was in the womens house of detention waiting to be bailed out by him.

Diana Sands steals the movie with her sensitive portrayal of a social worker who knows all too well what life on the streets can do from her sad and abysmal life as a young women and tries to get the girls working for Willie to save themselves from that life like she did. We also see Diana change her opinion about Willie when he's destroyed by his fellow pimps as well as the law and becomes a broken and humbled person instead of the brash and arrogant pimp that she fought with throughout most of the movie. It's Cora's tender and emotional scene with Willie at the end of the film made you want to reach for your handkerchief.

Finally Willie himself who went from a cold-hearted and unfeeling person who looked at both his hookers and the Johns who paid for their services only as dollar signs to where he became a sensitive and understanding person by the time the movie ended but it took a walk through hell for Willie to get to that point. The movie also has fine location filming in and around NYC with a great musical soundtrack.

It would be unfair for "Willie Dynamite" to be described as a "Blaxploitation" movie; It doesn't exploits it's audience it educates it.

I grwe up in NYC during the time frame this movie was made. I can remember Geraldo Rivera -- who was a reporter on the local ABC station back then -- doing an expose of the pimps of Manhattan.

They dressed just like Willie in this movie. Even drove the same type of Caddie Eldorado on 42nd Street (that's why elaboratly adorned cars are said to be "pimped out").

This movie is clearly heads and tails above other Blaxploitation movies of the time. But that doesnt make it good. It's still filled with silly thinly written characters and dumb dialog.

Willie brings it up a notch with some decent acting, but that can't hide the fact that this is a silly inconsequential movie.

The best part for me was revisitng the urban decay landcape of 70's NYC. The exteriors are chock full of soon to be demolished buildings of my childhood.

Highly entertaining and interesting as willie dynamite applies the principles of capitalism to enhance his business of managing sporting ladies. But where there is greed and the quest to be second to none, one is always confronted with jealousy and envy from your fellow peers.

The character Willie dynamite was immaculate in his dress from the beginning of the film to the end. He changes wardrobe complete with hats more times than Cher did in her last concert! He displays the 70's pandering apparell that he wore to absolute perfection.

I originally saw Willie Dynamite in 1973, and after watching it again today, after all of these years, it had the same impact. That is why I feel that I can recommend the viewing of this film. If you like blaxploitations films, this is a must see!!!

Let me start with the only real positive for this movie, the fantastic outfits worn by Mr Willie D. They are super. Over the top examples of I don't know muscrat, squirrel? Who is to say but they look epic!

Beyond that Willie Dynamite is a fizzer. Its a blaxploitation film where no one is exploited!!! They simply removed every element that makes this genre what it is. The language (usually the best parts) is flat, the sex is missing and the action was hiding out whereever they kept the sex. Only the clothing came to the party.

Additionally I like a story to have some ups and downs but we must have caught Mr D at a bad time because his life just went continually from bad to worse.

Skip it and check out some much better examples :)

In the course of one week, poor Willie the pimp is getting the heat from rival pimps, from the cops (including the wonderful Albert Hall), and from a reformed prostitute who is trying to get Willie's ‘girls' to unionize (`You can call me the Ralph Nadar for prostitutes', she snaps in one of the film's funniest lines). He even gets the IRS on his ass, although that scene isn't terribly realistic since no pimp and/or drug dealer with even half a brain would put his earnings in a bank!. What else? His purple Caddy gets towed about twice a day, his girls get busted (or worse!) and ultimately, his poor mom strokes out. Pimping just doesn't pay! This film isn't like most of the other blaxploitation films. It downplays the guns and drugs angle, and the lead character is not so baaad that he's good – or vice versa. He's a nut, really. You can even see people in the background who were unaware they were in a film, pointing at him and laughing. You can almost feel sorry for him because he's more stupid than evil, and that's where the film wins the viewer over. The film breaks away from formula a number of times, and despite the OUTRAGEOUS costumes and decor (even the telephones are fur-lined!), we care about the people in this film. There are good cops and bad cops, and there is a nice balance of giving us women with brains and brawn, but who are still capable of a pretty nasty catfight when the need arises. Something for everyone! My only beef is that despite a pretty ‘bad' theme song, the score doesn't rock at all. In fact, there are even a number of scenes that are scored with folky harmonica music. How uncool is that? It's also a shame that this film wasn't nominated for Best Costume design, but we all know how unlikely it was that most of the Academy members ever even saw this film. Just isn't fair! Overall, I think this is one of the best films of the blaxploitation genre, and along with `Unholy Rollers' and `Switchblade Sisters', one of the best exploitation films of the seventies.

"Willie Dynamite" (Roscoe Orman) is a pimp who has a stable of 7 prostitutes who earn him a very lucrative living. Life is good. However, one day a rival pimp by the name of "Bell" (Roger Robinson) decides to call a meeting to discuss organizing into a collective group and allocating territories for each of them to conduct their business in. Willie is the only one who doesn't care for the idea and incurs the wrath of Bell in the process. Not only that, but a social worker named "Cora Williams" (Diana Sands) becomes concerned about one of his prostitutes by the name of "Pashon" (Joyce Walker) and decides to put Willie out of business. The fact that she is sleeping with the Assistant District Attorney makes her much more dangerous than Willie realizes. Suddenly things mysteriously start going wrong for him. Big time. Anyway, rather than divulge the entire story, I will just say that this was an interesting film depicting the life of a pimp from his point of view. The problem with that scenario is that in order to be realistic it had to show the ugliness within him. As a result, it became difficult to sympathize with him or develop any concern with his plight. On the other hand, because of the arrogant and illegal tactics the police used it was also difficult to side with them either. Likewise, the ending wasn't well-developed and seemed to leave the story hanging. In any case, in spite of all of the challenges and flaws this was still an entertaining film for the most part. Not great by any means, but for a blaxploitation film dealing with this particular subject matter I suppose it deserves a rating of slightly better than average.

The movie was good but it's not a movie about pimps. The movie is comparable to The Mack. Pimp movies don't have reform built into its plot. A movie can't have a message and be about pimps. It does not go together. A story about a bad guy turned good is a dime a dozen. Pimp movies aren't for that.

I can't fully explain why but I absolutely love this movie. I put this with Pineapple Express. Even though their completely unrelated; their movies that make me smile, and a little happy, and I could watch it over and over which I can do with few movies. I think Bell's parts are funny. The way he says "Willeee Dynooomiiiite"(You have to see it for yourself). I think Willie's acting was good too. I think the movie as a whole had good acting. I thought that the movie was pretty believable....well maybe. I think people would of got killed doing the things they did in this movie. That Willie is a smooth mofo though. I've read some reviews and some people really don't like this movie. I guess that's why we're all different. I think it was a pimp classic. I like the way Willie handled his business. I did't like the black cop though for some reason. The white one either really, but the black one I just didn't like his face lol as mean as that sounds. This movie is not for everyone by a long shot. I can't picture some...lets say..upscale people watching and enjoying this but um...if you have the right background and possible the right buzz you will really enjoy this knee slapper lol.

This movie flew way under the radar for me. When I was talking to a a coworker about the genre of blaxploitation, this title came up. Released by Universal Pictures in 1974, this movie is as old as I am and in my opinion,a good year for movies to boot. Here comes Willie Dynamite. Played by Roscoe Orman, who right after this is best known as Gordon from Sesame Street! The film take place during the prime of a pimp's career to his rapid decline. Willie Dynamite is a super cool pimp with a slick purple Cadillac with a wardrobe that is so flamboyant, it has to be seen to be believed. Plus, he also has a catchy and supercool theme song. Roscoe's performance is pretty solid and compared to other films in the genre, Willie Dynamite is very good. If you saw more than a handful of movies in the genre, you will see a lot of familiar faces. I think the reason why this was not as successful is because it was released around the same time as The Mack. The Mack is one of the absolute best and biggest hits in the blaxploitation genre and is one of the few movies that is centered around a pimp as the main character. Willie Dynamite still has something to say about racism, corrupt police and the consequences of life in the crime underworld. I'm glad that I have Willie Dynamite a shot and definitely recommend it, if you are a fan of the blaxploitation genre.

There's some crazy clothes and pimp style in the 70's melodrama, but it's all about the downfall and redemption of the character rather than more B-movie fun like a Black Caesar or Slaughter. It's probably a better "film" than most Blaxploitation movies, but it's a bit of a downer for silly entertainment after about the halfway point. Still, some awesome clothes!

It is impossible to deny that this film has some hilarious parts. You can't help enjoying the absolutely ridiculous outfits and mannerisms of the pimps.

Everything from Willie's beyond gaudy car to even the characters' names (i.e. the white pimp named Milky Way) is pretty entertaining.

But it does have some serious (well okay, maybe not serious) implications as well. It is basically set up like most classic tragedies; a man in a position of great power falls due to a tragic flaw. Willie is likable enough not to deserve our hatred, but ruthless enough that we accept that he deserved his fate. Okay, so it's a bad idea to overthink this movie, but it is important to at least recognize that format.

Furthermore, its social implications are pretty relevant. It portrayed Black and White characters in both positive and negative stereotypes, as well as providing more well rounded characters to serve as positive rolemodels. It started out glorifying the pimp lifestyle and slowly de-glamorized it as a life of dishonesty, drug addiction, violence, and eventual ruin. It may have really given young kids growing up in ghettoes in that era as made something to think about by slowly exposing the harsh realities of a life outside the law. Especially since it also presented positive Black role models who came from similar situations, like Cora, a prostitute-turned-social worker on a quest to help rescue other young girls from a life on the streets.

Willie D. (Roscoe Orman) is a New York City pimp with seven diverse hoes. He and the other pimps get together for council. Big pimp Bell suggests coordinating and dividing up the territories. Cora, the social worker, goes to jail and tries to reform Pashen, Willie's newest and youngest hoe.

This is so 70's, so pimping, and so blaxploitation. It is so everything that it's almost a spoof of the genre. Roscoe Orman would go on to be best known as Gordon on Sesame Street. Somehow that's fitting. There is a Sesame Street quality to the film especially with Willie's many costumes. Everybody is acting hood with some quirkiness. Some scenes are downright hilarious like the lineup. Even the blood is redder than usual. I do recognize Albert Hall who plays one of the cops.

This is one of the better blaxploitation films. It simultaneously works as a parody of the genre, action movie, and social commentary.

In the first half of the movie, Roscoe Corman does a magnificent performance as an over the top pimp Willie Dynamite, who talks the talk and walks the walk. Willie is a "business oriented" Alfa Male who, in satisfying the demand for prostitutes, mercilessly dominates his women, dresses extravagantly, drives a most tastelessly customized Cadillac Eldorado, and talks or fights his way out of competition, the police, and the courts.

The second part of the movie finds Willie's stature and freedom challenged by social worker Cora (Diana Sands), who tries to talk the women out of their lifestyle while her DA husband concentrates on putting Willie behind the bars. Cora particularly embraces Pearl (Marcia McBroom of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls fame), dreaming of a modeling career until she is sent to jail, where she is assaulted and disfigured by other female prisoners.

Pearl's experience forces Cora to question her own feminist male-female antagonism, while Willie's rough fate at the hands of the police and other pimps prompts him to give up his career in managing prostitution, and abandon its false material trappings and glory.

Strangely, Willie Dynamite can be looked upon as an educational movie in the same way some of the B-class motorcycle films of the era are. There will always be a heavy price to be paid when assuming a career in crime.

Strong performances, especially by Diana Sands, who tragically passed away before the movie's premiere, and high-quality restoration of the film, add to Willie Dynamite's lure.