Review: Mean Johnny Barrows

Fred Williamson plays the title character, a former football star-in-the-making who experiences racism and injustice in and out of the military. He gets dishonourably discharged from the military for punching his racist, antagonistic S.O. Johnny’s down on his luck after his service is over, but likeable mobster Mario Racconi (Stuart Whitman) takes an interest in Johnny, giving him a free meal and a job offer as a paid hitman for Racconi and his mafia don father (Luther Adler). Johnny at first refuses, as he did enough killing in the war. However, when things go pear-shaped for Johnny at the auto-shop gig that he has landed, he reluctantly takes up Racconi’s offer and goes on the mob payroll. Racconi wants Johnny to wipe out a rival mafia family, headed by Don Da Vince (Anthony Caruso), and his sons Tony (Roddy McDowall) and hulking Carlo (Mike Henry). Jenny Sherman plays Racconi’s main squeeze, R. G. Armstrong is the angry and bristling auto shop owner, Robert Phillips plays a hired goon for the Da Vince’s, and Elliott Gould plays an erudite vagrant who takes Johnny under his wing for about three minutes of screen time.

 

Traditional film critics won’t have a bar of it, and even genre reviewers are mixed on it. As for me, I think this 1975 film from director-star Fred Williamson (his debut directorial effort) is one of his better efforts behind the lens. Whilst it’s true that his talent as a filmmaker is far outweighed by his ambition, I was more impressed that Williamson even showed ambition at all here. When I think of Williamson either as actor or director, I usually think of a guy wanting to make a quick buck by dolling out the bare minimum of effort. He’s admitted himself that he’s perfectly happy to just chomp his cigar, shoot some bad guys and get the girl. The End. He’s always seemed to me to be fine exploiting his audience with just the usual Fred ‘The Hammer’ Williamson cynical crap and maybe a few cameos by has-been stars and friends of the director. This film is a little bit of an outlier, however. This is Williamson younger, perhaps more ambitious, or perhaps just not sure yet what his directorial style was going to be. And the film is all the better for it. Oh it still has Williamson’s cheap penchant for getting his famous friends to turn up for about 5 minutes in roles that are barely there, and in which the actors may or may not be well-cast in the role. Its still cheaply and quickly done, and some of the acting is pretty darn amateurish. However, Williamson gives the second-best performance I’ve seen from him besides “Black Caesar” (directed by Larry Cohen), and perhaps best of all, for once he shows some vulnerability on screen. I’m not saying he’s Monty Clift in his ability to convey vulnerability, in fact he’s a bit rough around the edges as an actor. However, he’s giving it a jolly good try, allowing himself to look a bit pathetic on screen. He’s relatively ego-free here and it’s really refreshing. He’s still the most stylish-looking vagrant I’ve ever seen, but I’ll let that slide.

 

Some might say that Williamson’s Johnny Barrows is a bit of a put-upon misery-guts story. 10 minutes in and he’s been through absolute hell in and out of the military. It’s definitely an unpleasant, intolerant, and violent worldview that Williamson sets up here. It might even remind you a little of “First Blood”, though not quite as effective. Look, Williamson’s not quite a good enough actor to sell it all to the fullest, but he’s certainly better than most other actors of the Blaxploitation era would’ve been in the part, and definitely more charismatic. It’s a shame that he subsequently showed contempt for his audience, because this film at least shows Williamson having a bit of ambition, as well as a willingness to get a little down and dirty himself. The supporting cast here is completely insane. Luther Adler and especially Anthony Caruso are rock-solid as the duelling mafiosos, and Stuart Whitman is solid, if unexciting as Adler’s son. However, Williamson’s decision to cast London-born Roddy McDowall as the scheming, ladies’ man son of mobster Caruso is just bonkers. He looks like frigging Liberace crossed with a 60s “Batman” villain (Indeed, McDowall guest starred as villain Bookworm on the show). Cornelius the benevolent chimp as a pants man who runs a flower shop that fronts for his family’s mafia activities? It just ends up completely head-scratching, especially since the very middle-aged looking McDowall was only 12 years younger than Caruso playing his father. The normally genteel and very English character actor might’ve made the goofy miscasting at least memorably strange if not for the fact that he’s a background player even in the scenes he’s actually in, despite technically being the lead villain. It’s so weird, he’s in the background for much of the film, no suggestion that this is a guy we’re meant to notice, even though we recognise the actor playing him. It’s sloppy and ultimately doesn’t come off. Elliott Gould plays the resident ‘Hammer calls in a favour from a friend’ star cameo, as a highfalutin street denizen named Professor Theodore Rasputin Waterhouse. Improvising his lively scene that was filmed in just 30 minutes, Gould’s participation is amusing but completely inappropriate for the otherwise downbeat, grim material. It’s simply a case of Williamson trying to cash in on someone’s name recognition value, at a time when Gould was a pretty big deal, and not caring if he belonged in the story at all. Perhaps that’s what his thinking was in casting McDowall, too. Much better is old pro R.G. Armstrong as Johnny’s mean, short-tempered, miserly employer at the auto shop.

 

If there’s a dud performance in the film it’s by debutant Jenny Sherman, who isn’t talented enough to play all the facets of her character, unfortunately. She’s porno-bad. To be honest, I probably would’ve liked more scenes dedicated to fleshing out the relationships between Sherman, Williamson, and Whitman, as it really would’ve helped put this one well out in front. Some might consider the film a bit slow, but I appreciated that Williamson was taking his time here given how cheap and bare bones some of his films can be. I just think with a bit more care in the script and a better director, it could’ve been even better. Let’s be honest, Williamson’s a crap director (“Down ‘n’ Dirty” in particular), and the script by Jolivett Cato (no further writing credits to date), Charles Walker (a prolific actor, mostly on TV), and Williamson himself (strangely credited as ‘Jeff’ Williamson) is better with ideas than execution of said ideas. Having said that, this was Williamson’s directorial debut, so he actually got worse after this, as got lazier and lazier in pursuit of a quick cash grab.

 

The social issues at play here give this a little bit of a boost from the usual cheapo Williamson effort. I imagine it was filmed fairly cheaply and quickly like all of his directorial efforts, but the results come out quite a bit better than usual here. The supporting cast is better than usual too, even if some are not cast to their best advantage. An interesting, downbeat film with a solid music score and soundtrack, and fine location shooting adding flavour. Boring it ain’t, but in more accomplished hands this one could’ve been even better. The score I’m giving is more in comparison to Williamson’s other directorial efforts than a genuine reflection of its quality, as at this stage it feels like Williamson was hungrier, more ambitious, and maybe had something to say. Eventually he’d just churn out money-earners for fans who didn’t expect much beyond the cigar, the girl, and the gun. I really did think this one was a pleasant surprise though, the first half is especially strong.

 

Rating: B-