All month, we’ll celebrate musical moments in Black film. Our latest entry is the opening of the 1976 rarely-seen blaxploitation film, Black Shampoo.
John Daniels plays Jonathan Knight, the owner of “Mr. Jonathan’s,” the most successful hair salon for women on the Sunset Strip. His reputation as a lover has become so awesome that he is sought after almost as much in that capacity as he is for his experience as a hair stylist. Everything is cool for Jonathan until he messes with the mob in an effort to protect his young attractive receptionist, played by Tanya Boyd (Celeste in Days of our Lives), from her former boss. Action explodes when the “loving” machine becomes the “killing” machine. Jonathan, chainsaw in hand, gets down to the get down on the vicious mob gang that wrecks his shop and kidnaps his woman.
Where do we start with this entertaining but extremely politically incorrect film that features almost every stereotype in the book. Blacks, whites, gays, rich, no ones safe from the screenwriters. Plus, the film has a badness that crosses over into surrealism at moments, especially the rodeo cookout.
Also, its hilarious how no one can resist our hero’s “charms”, Mr. Jonathan. He comes across as being egotistical and dull as a dishwasher but it all works within the context of the film. Add to this some truly silly violence (the gay hairdresser gets a curling iron up his, well you know, and the aforementioned hero’s chainsaw revenge), make this lots of fun for fans of psychotronic cinema.
The film’s score was by composer Gerald Lee.
Check out one of Lee’s compositions for Black Shampoo below: