D'Urville MartinFilmography

Black Hollywood: Blaxploitation and Advancing An Independent Black Cinema

Actors: Diahnne Abbott, Rosalind Cash, Alfre Woodard, Jim Brown, Vonetta McGee

Synopsis: Through probing exploration and expert commentary, this documentary takes an in-depth look at the evolution of African American cinema, examining how African Americans have been portrayed in film, and how the community has both utilized and expressed itself through movies. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Read More

The Big Score

Actors: Fred Williamson, John Saxon, Richard Roundtree, Nancy Wilson, Ed Lauter

Synopsis: A Chicago cop is wrongly accused of theft and dismissed from the force. In order to clear his name, he goes after the real culprits -- without the extra baggage of police regulations that might have made his task more difficult if he were still active in the department. This script was originally Read More

Blind Rage

Actors: D'Urville Martin, Leo T. Fong, Tony Ferrer, Fred Williamson, Dick Adair

Synopsis: Despite an amusing premise -- five blind men commit a bank robbery -- this Filipino crime film fails to rise above its low-budget blaxploitation look. D'Urville Martin (Dolemite) and Fred Williamson are the main draws, but only devoted fans will want to sit through this one. After 1974's Read More

Fass Black

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Actor D'Urville Martin held the directorial reins for Fass Black. Disco owner John Poole is threatened with a takeover by the Mob. Poole puts up a fight, a few innocent people are killed, and revenge is exacted. The film's omnipresent disco music was its principal selling card back in 1977. Since Read More

Black Samurai

Synopsis: Cult director Al Adamson's entertainingly cheesy blaxploitation effort stars Jim Kelly as a wealthy agent for the government organization D.R.A.G.O.N. Kelly does the "international spy" bit -- familiar from the James Bond films -- to save his kidnapped girlfriend from a group of Haitian voodoo Read More

Death Journey

Synopsis: Fred Williamson returns as L.A. detective Jesse Crowder in this loose sequel to the previous year's No Way Back. This time, Crowder must escort a government witness (Bernard Kuby) across the country to New York, dodging homicidal gangsters at every stop along the way. Blaxploitation fans will Read More

Sheba, Baby

Actors: Pam Grier, Austin Stoker, D'Urville Martin, Rudy Challenger, Dick Merrifield

Synopsis: After a series of violent, sexy blaxploitation films like Coffy and Foxy Brown, Pam Grier returned in this more sedate PG-rated actioner. Grier plays Chicago P.I. Sheba Shayne, who returns to her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky to save her father's loan business from vicious gangsters. Austin Stoker Read More

Dolemite

Crew: Director

Actors: Lady Reed, D'Urville Martin, Rudy Ray Moore

Synopsis: Stand-up comedy legend Rudy Ray Moore's foul-mouthed rap routines took many of the elements of blaxploitation films -- pimps, gangsters, and sex -- to their hilarious limits. It was only natural that he should take his stage persona to the big screen as Dolemite, the "baddest" cool cat in town. Read More

Boss Nigger

Synopsis: A black cowboy saves a frontier town from both the law and the bad guys in this western written by and starring Fred "The Hammer" Williamson. Boss (Williamson) is an African-American bounty hunter traveling though the Wild West with his best friend and sidekick Amos (D'urville Martin) Read More

The Zebra Killer

Book of Numbers

Actors: Frank DeSal

Synopsis: Raymond St. Jacques both directs and stars in The Book of Numbers. St. Jacques and Philip Thomas play depression-era African Americans, barely making out an existence as waiters in a deep-south community. Both men decide that there's more money to be had on the shadier side of the law, so they set Read More

Disco 9000

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Fass Black owns the Disco 9000, a neon-lit penthouse dance club that's one of the top nightspots in Los Angeles. He also owns Disco 9000 Records, a successful label that provides the music for this venue. A rival mogul ascertains that his company can't get a hit record in the Los Angeles market Read More

The Soul of Nigger Charley

Actors: Michael Cameron, James Garbo, Johnny Greenwood, Robert Minor

Synopsis: This movie, a sequel to The Legend of Nigger Charlie, tells the story of a Southern colonel in the Civil War who has raided locations in the North in order to capture renegade slaves for a colony of Southern aristocrats living in Mexico. Escaped slave Charley (Fred Williamson) and his friend and Read More

Five on the Black Hand Side

Actors: Tchaka Almoravids, Kwasi Badu, Bonnie Banfield, Carl Mikal Franklin, Sonny Jim, Rudy Joe Ringo, Imamu Sukuma, Clarice Taylor, Leonard Jackson

Synopsis: Five on the Black Hand Side was released at a time when most black-oriented films were bloody action fests. In contrast, this low-budget effort, coproduced by actors Brock Peters and Michael Tolan, eschews exploitation for humanity and domestic drama. Leonard Jackson plays a barber who is also the Read More

Hell Up in Harlem

Actors: Fred Williamson, Julius Harris, Gloria Hendry, Margaret Avery, D'Urville Martin

Synopsis: This hastily assembled sequel to the blaxploitation hit Black Caesar downplays the gritty drama of that film to create a pure action tale with a comic book flavor. The story begins with badly wounded crimelord Tommy Gibbs (Fred Williamson) escaping an assassination attempt masterminded by corrupt Read More

Black Caesar

Actors: Omer Jeffrey

Synopsis: Cult director Larry Cohen (It's Alive) directed this violent blaxploitation film. Nasty racist John McKinney cripples a black shoeshine boy, who grows up to be Tommy Gibbs (Fred Williamson), the Godfather of Harlem. The crimelord now has his tormentor McKinney (Art Lund) in his pocket, based on Read More

The Legend of Nigger Charley

Synopsis: Set in the pre-Civil War South, this western adventure follows three escaped Virginia slaves on their journey into the West. The already arduous journey is made worse by the dogged bounty hunter who pursues them. Along the way the fugitive trio add others to their group, doing good wherever they Read More

The Final Comedown

Actors: Billy Dee Williams, D'Urville Martin, Celia Kaye, Raymond St. Jacques, R.G. Armstrong

Synopsis: When an underqualified white man is given the job that Johnny Johnson (Billy Dee Williams) is infinitely more qualified for, the young black man becomes involved in a violent, radical movement to rise up against the perpetrators of racism. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Hammer

Actors: Tracy Ann-King, Nawana Davis, John DeCarlos, Leon Isaac, Perrie Lott, Jamal Moore, Al Richardson

Synopsis: A man who fights his way to success learns the people who helped him may be his biggest enemies in this action drama. B.J. Hammer (Fred Williamson) is a dock worker who used to box in the Golden Gloves and still knows how to handle himself in a fight; when he gets into a brawl at work, he's seen Read More

Ironside: The Good Samaritan

Synopsis: Shot during a jewelry-store holdup, Sgt. Ed Brown (Don Galloway) owes his life to a man (Michael Callan) who rushed to his aid--and then disappeared into the crowd. It soon develops that the good samaritan is actually an AWOL Vietnam veteran who may or may not have killed a comrade in arms. Read More

The Watermelon Man

Actors: Godfrey Cambridge, Estelle Parsons, Howard Caine, D'Urville Martin, Mantan Moreland

Synopsis: African-American activist and actor Melvin Van Peebles directed this comedy-drama starring Godfrey Cambridge as Jeff Gerber, a white, middle class husband to Althea (Estelle Parson) and father of two who is also a mild bigot. One morning, Jeff wakes up to discover that he has become a black man Read More

The F.B.I.: The Sanctuary

Synopsis: Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) gives African American FBI agnet Harry Dane (Booker Bradshaw) plenty of latitude as Dane combs through a tough ghetto neighborhood in search of athlete-turned-criminal Nate Phelps (Billy Dee Williams). Meanwhile, Nate turns to his former girlfriend Lenore Read More

Rosemary's Baby

Actors: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans

Synopsis: In Roman Polanski's first American film, adapted from Ira Levin's horror bestseller, a young wife comes to believe that her offspring is not of this world. Waifish Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) and her struggling actor husband, Guy (John Cassavetes), move into the Bramford, an old New York City Read More

A Time to Sing

Actors: Hank Williams, Jr., Shelley Fabares, Ed Begley, Sr., Charles Robinson, D'Urville Martin

Synopsis: This musical chronicles the rise to fame of C&W singer Grady Dodd (Hank Williams Jr.). The tale begins as the talented young man defies the uncle who raised him and tries to break into the music business. As a result of the conflict, the boy learns that his mother, whom he doesn't remember, was a Read More

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Houghton, Beah Richards, Roy E. Glenn, Sr., Isabel Sanford, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: Old-line liberals Matt and Christina Drayton (Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn) have raised their daughter Joey (Katharine Houghton) to think for herself and not blindly conform to the conventional. Still, they aren't prepared for the shock when she returns home from a vacation with a new Read More

The Monkees: The Monkees in the Ring

Actors: Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Michael Nesmith

Synopsis: Davy quits the Monkees when a shady boxing promoter named Vernon (Joseph Perry) decides to groom the long-haired Britisher as the next champ. But when it turns out that all of Davy's fights have been fixed, the other Monkees try to rescue their pal from a pre-arranged pummelling by The Champ Read More