SUPER SOUL BROTHER

A pair of crooks pay a midget doctor $6,000 to concoct a serum that will give them super strength in order to pull a major jewel heist. The drug works, but the user will die a week after taking it, and the antidote has not yet been finished. Anxious to commit the robbery, the hoods decide to pick up a wino off the streets and trick him into taking the serum and assisting them in the crime. They wind up with Steve (Wildman Steve), a pitiful derelict who accepts their offer of fine threads, a new apartment and all the fried chicken he can eat. The serum works, and Steve finds that he has the ability to bend solid steel bars with his bare hands and lift a two thousand pound safe over his head. Oblivious to the deadly effect of the drug and believing that the jewelry heist is merely a practical joke, Steve helps the criminals pull off the robbery. When Steve discovers the truth, he panics, but luckily the doctor's beautiful assistant Peggy (Jocelyn Norris) has fallen in love with him, and together they work to finish the antidote and foil the jewel thieves.

Comedian Wildman Steve (aka Steve Gallon) was an ex-disc jockey who made a series of raunchy "party" albums during the 70s. After appearing in fellow traveller Rudy Ray Moore's 1977 blaxploitation epic The Devil's Son-In-Law, the Wildman must have figured he could make it big as a raw, low budget action comedy star as well. Pairing up with director Rene Martinez, Jr., they headed down to Miami and cobbled together this threadbare, confounding chunk of no-budget funk. Super Soul Brother suffers from wretched non-acting and simple-minded plotting, with sloppy cinematography and hotel room sets. It's dull-witted, unfunny and poorly executed in every way. That being said, however, Super Soul Brother is a must-see for blaxploitation fans, not only as a benchmark of quality but also to savor the performance of Wildman Steve. The Wildman has enormous charm, enough to carry him through the lamest jokes, even when he's ad-libbing his lines and repeating himself ad nauseam ("You want me to lift that safe? Man, I can't lift no safe. Ain't no way I can lift no safe."). With the right collaborators, Wildman Steve may have had a chance, but this amateurish mess was no way to build a career. The film concludes with the defiant claim that "This Nigger Will Be Back!" It was not to be. FRED BELDIN