Hell Up in Harlem 4K 1973

Yes, Tommy Gibbs is alive. As I wrote in the release for the first part, Larry Cohen had two endings in store: the unconditional death of the main character and the hope for a happy ending. And so, the first film grossed huge box office returns in America, and producer Samuel Arkoff, without hesitation, gave Cohen the task of shooting a sequel as quickly and cheaply as possible. In his commentary on the film, Larry honestly admitted that he shot the film half-heartedly—and it shows.

Filming took place on weekends (on weekdays, Cohen was shooting his main film, It's Alive 1) in New York. Meanwhile, Fred Williamson was filming in Los Angeles, and he was too lazy to fly to New York every weekend. Therefore, Williamson's screen time was greatly reduced, and in many scenes, a stunt double played his role. The missing scenes (for example, close-ups) were later reshot with the actor himself, but without the sets (a couple of times in the film it is very noticeable that Williamson is standing in front of a plain backdrop, while the other actors are talking to empty space).

Due to all of the above factors, the script was written directly on set and ultimately never took shape. In essence, it is a classic “revenge movie,” but a patchwork one. Patchwork because the film consists of a set of separate scenes, half of which could be removed altogether (as Cohen himself notes), and the rest could be put together in any order, because they don't fit together at all.

James Brown, alas, is not there. Cohen would like to hire him again, but the studio has forbidden it (Brown is quite the prankster). Accordingly, the musical accompaniment is also very pleasing, and as with the script, it is simply a collection of songs. Here is a song for the credits, here is a song for the scene where Tommy gets out of prison, etc.

Everyone who writes about the film (on IMDb) says more or less the same thing: “More dynamic than the first one. The plot is illogical. The seriousness of the first part is completely absent.” And Larry echoes them: “The first film was a drama. This one turned out to be more of an adventure...”

But that's not a bad thing. The film is easy and unobtrusive to watch. There's no time to get bored—setups and shootouts follow one another in quick succession. And Fred Williamson is still incredibly cool.