Trick Baby And How It Ranks As A Blaxploitation Film

By Sandra Mitchell


Films in the Blaxploitation genre can have unusual or common themes central to their plots. But often, and with the best of them, they usually nod at issues that are traditional elements of African American societies. These are different from usual exploitation films, which tend to be very derogatory about its subjects.

There was a film released in 1972 that might have been so good as to have really defined the genre. This film was entitled Trick Baby, from the novel of the same name, written by a former African American pimp named Iceberg Slim. It is a novel that was intensely written, but the movie failed to be interesting enough in this way, watered down.

This movie is about two friends living and operating in Philadelphia, where they make a living deceiving people. The characters are called Blue Howard and White Folks, and being half white, folks could be somebody that is white. This fact helps them in their adventures to con people, and the movie is about their plan for their biggest con to date.

The racial tensions obviously propel this plot, but then it can be expected from the work of an author with very intense experiences in the African underworld, and his books were even bestsellers in his genre. Delineation of character was present in a watered down sense, and Folks was especially cited for having a ho hum and forgettable performance. There was no focus on being black and male, and that was something that could have really made the difference.

Folks is a product of the mating of a white man and a black prostitute, and so it became the title. It is an accident that is a focus in both works, but critics said that the book was very intense while the feature was not quite there. But then the production just went with the need for Hollywood products to work with easier subjects for film.

In this sense, the movie might be forgiven its being unable to really take advantage of the intensely dramatic idea of a biracial conman. However, no conflicts or friction arise from this, especially between Howard and Folks, and their relationship is mostly about the easier time they have of being able to get away with crimes. The cliched theme of black criminality was chosen above everything else.

Films from Hollywood will tend to be dehumanizing, concentrating more on great visuals than focusing on the story elements. This defect is something that is still present, and so whatever films there are that are found meritorious in a story sense will not end up successful, in comparison to those that tend to con people.

The con being hatched by the two friends is nearly stopped on its tracks by the Mafia and a crooked cop. This twist is so cliched that most film goers can predict the ending, but even with critics howling, it is a thing beloved by producers. As with many features, the main point was overtaken by concerns about box office success in the end.

The director for the movie was Larry Yust, who soft focused the many things that could have made it unacceptable with the general public. This organism is a very sensitive one that also allows and condones so many blasphemies. The Blaxploitation film can be very discomforting, and so the elements that make it so are often taken out.




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