I'm not sure this satirical comedy about race relations in 1970's America would be made today, times being what they are. Let's just say that if it were made today it would almost certainly be directed by an African-American director and the satire would be even more pointed. Unfortunately for many people the stereotypes are just...well, too 'stereotypical'. It was a Norman Jewison production but directing duties were handed to his former editor Hal Ashby, making his directorial debut.
It's about a white yuppie, (Beau Bridges, very good), who buys a tenement building in an African-American neighbourhood as an investment but finds he just can't get rid of his tenants and that, as he gets to know them, he becomes a little too involved in their lives and problems. Here is a movie about as subtle as a sledgehammer and it's often hard to shake the feeling we are meant to laugh at these characters, both black and white, rather than with them as if sending up the rich white folks makes the racist jibes seem funny.
About midway through it takes a somewhat melodramatic and unlikely turn that might seem even more offensive than the comedy but in its favour you can see that Ashby was prepared to take chances, (as Jewison had done with "In the Heat of the Night"), and risk being offensive if that's what it took. The performances throughout are excellent, (Lee Grant was Oscar-nominated as Bridges' mother), and while today we have to view it as a period piece and something of a curiosity, it's also a striking debut and deserves to be better known.
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