The Guy From Harlem

I guess The Guy from Harlem is best described as the 70's blaxsploitation version of a noir detective story. Al Connors is the stereotypical womanizing P.I. only he grew up on the streets of Harlem. This is the tale of two of his cases.

His buddy Dave works for the CIA. Fearing for the safety of a visiting African princess and suspecting a leak in his department Dave turns to Al for help in keeping the lady safe. Just one thing, she's married to a head of state and messing around with her could cause an international incident. That doesn't stop Al. Nor does their secrecy and planning keep the thugs away.

Following on the heels of this case is the head of a gang whose rival, headed up by Big Daddy, has nabbed his daughter. The kingpin wants Al to save his girl. This puts Al in Big Daddy's sights which may not be good for his health. But never fear. You don't mess with the guy from Harlem!

I guess for a bad action flick this is mildly entertaining. It's an hour and a half of Al getting into fights as well as into girls' pants. There's not much else to it. The story is thin without any mystery to it. It's just a way to generate some scenes of Al getting in and out of danger.

The acting for the most part is laughable. I couldn't help but notice how the “African princess” had nothing even resembling an African accent. The written dialogue doesn't help either. It's so bad it sometimes repeats itself most of the time without seeming to mean to.

The fight choreography is not that great, either. Al uses some Martial Arts moves, but his style is weak. It's enough to keep the movie from being completely boring but is an awfully long way from impressive. And it's all done against the distinctly 70's gaudy style. Has any era in American history had a more laughable style than the 70's? I don't know, maybe some people say the same thing about the 80's.

MORALITY:

Al loves to fool around with the girls. The result is plenty of sexuality throughout the movie. It seems to smile on womanizing and treats infidelity as if it's no big deal. There are a few shots of nudity though most of them are fleeting or obscured.

Violence includes some fighting and shooting. It's not especially bloody or graphic.

There's plenty of strong language including some racial slurs.

There are also some drug references though no usage other than tobacco.

SPIRITUALITY:

Sexuality is a conquest here. Even sex with another man's wife seems to be met with less of an attitude of “Geez, dude, control yourself and leave a man's wife alone” and more of “Way, to go, dude! You can bed ANYONE with that macho ego of yours. I wish I could be like you and get women to disregard their marriage vows for the chance to get with my great manly manliness 'cause I'm so awesome.”

I hear a lot of complaints about how society treats sexually promiscuous girls as sluts while the guys are considered studs. I don't know if The Guy from Harlem would be an example of the cause of that attitude or a symptom of that perverted train of thought, but looking at it through the lens of what scripture says about these things I would be more impressed with this guy's inner strength if he'd been able to say “Yes, we're attracted to each other, and we're tempted to get in each others pants, but I'm going to protect your purity as well as your body and go in the other room now.” At least if his womanizing ways carried more weight as far as negative consequences we could call it a character flaw.

Aside from the attitude of celebrating womanizing, there's not really a lot to talk about here.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I could enjoy this as a bad detective action flick if the hero wasn't pushed as being “cool” for taking advantage of women. Bedding another man's wife pushed all the wrong buttons in my brain. Check it out as an example of classic blaxploitation, but don't count on it to have any other merit.

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