Mandingo
Tags: violence, blaxploitation, melodrama

Plot synopsis:
The movie is set in the Deep South of the United States prior to the American Civil War. Falconhurst is a run-down plantation owned by widower Warren Maxwell (James Mason) and largely run by his son, Hammond (Perry King). Hammond and his cousin, Charles, visit a plantation where both men are given black women out of hospitality. Hammond chooses Ellen (Brenda Sykes), who's a virgin. Both she and Hammond watch as Charles abuses and rapes his wench, claiming that she likes it. Hammond asks Ellen if this is true, and she says no. Hammond then gently has sexual intercourse with Ellen.
Warren Maxwell pressures him to marry, so Hammond chooses his cousin, Blanche (Susan George). A social climber and sexually promiscuous, Blanche had been having an affair with her brother, Charles. After their wedding night, Hammond is sure that she is not a virgin—a claim Blanche denies. On their way back from their honeymoon, Hammond returns to the plantation where Ellen is kept and purchases her as his bed wench. Eventually, he comes to genuinely care for her.
Meanwhile, Hammond purchases a Mandingo slave named Ganymede (Ken Norton). Nicknamed "Mede", the slave works for Hammond as a prize-fighter. He's forced to soak in a large cauldron of very hot water to toughen his skin. Hammond also breeds Mede with female slaves on his plantation. Hammond makes a great deal of money betting on Mede's fights.
Rejected by Hammond, Blanche becomes a slovenly alcoholic who does nothing all day long. While Hammond is on a business trip alone, Blanche discovers Ellen is pregnant. Correctly assuming the baby is Hammond's, Blanche beats Ellen. Ellen flees, but falls down some stairs, and miscarries. Hammond (who had promised Ellen that her baby would be freed), returns to Falconhurst and discovers Ellen lost the baby. Threatened with bodily harm by Warren, Ellen does not tell him how she miscarried. Hammond gives Ellen a pair of ruby earrings, which she wears while serving an evening meal. Hammond gave the matching necklace to Blanche, who becomes enraged to find Ellen being publicly favored by Hammond.
Hammond leaves on another business trip, taking Ellen with him. A drunken Blanche demands that Mede come to her bedroom. Although the other slaves attempt to stop him, Mede does as he is ordered. Blanche says she will accuse Mede of rape if he does not have sex with her, so he spends the night with her. Blanche's sexuality is reawakened by Mede, whom she finds exceptionally well-endowed, and she has sex with him several more times.
Hammond returns to the plantation. A great deal of time has passed since Hammond and Blanche's marriage, and Warren Maxwell is eager for a grandchild. Sensing that the marriage is troubled, Warren locks Hammond and Blanche in a room together and refuses to let them out until they reconcile. They appear to do so. A short time later, Blanche announces she is pregnant, but when the baby is born, it is clear the child is a mulatto. To avoid a scandal, the child is killed on doctor's orders. Sickened at Blanche's sexual indiscretion, Hammond asks the doctor if he has the poison he uses on old slaves and horses. He pours the poison into a toddy for Blanche. An outraged Hammond seeks out Mede, intending to kill him. As Hammond attempts to force Mede into a boiling cauldron of water, Mede tries to tell him that Blanche blackmailed him into having sex. Hammond shoots Mede twice with a shotgun and the second shot throws Mede into the boiling water. Hammond uses a pitchfork to drown Mede. In a fit of fury, the slave Agamemnon (Richard Ward) picks up the shotgun and aims it at Hammond. When Warren calls him a "crazy nigger" and demands that he put the gun down, the slave shoots and kills Warren. As he runs away, Hammond kneels helpless next to Warren's lifeless body.

Review: As a bonus, the director, Richard Fleischer, the star, Perry King, and Brenda Sykes, who plays King's slave "wench" in the film, spoke before the screening.The audience alternated between gasping and roaring with immediately regretted laughter throughout the screening.
Perhaps it was screened once or twice, but my point is that essentially no one since 1975 has seen this film with an audience, to feel the reactions of those around the room, to see it on the big screen.I think it's really unfortunate that MANDINGO has gotten locked into this "camp" label.
This is an underrated, truly great film on the subject of slavery, sexual hypocrisy and the haunted, hothouse atmosphere of generations of white bad karma in the 19th century deep south.
All performances are excellent (well, that's not strictly true as Ken Norton stumbles his way through but Fleischer, through his direction and editing gets an adequate job from him), including superb James Mason (one of his most brutally fearless roles as opposed to the nadir of his career as one IMDB commentator puts it).
One of the things that's most disturbing about the film is the depiction of the consequences of slavery, racism and hypocrisy on the white race, how it warps son, Perry King's natural tenderness towards Brenda Sykes into a horrifying insecure paranoia that evolves into aberrantly exaggerated jealousy and sexually motivated violence by the climax.
Mason reaps what he sows at the end and King's upbringing (and inferiority complex) is ultimately too much for him in the end, taking him down the same road to hellish oblivion.If one wants to see a truly lurid, exploitive treatment of the same subject (although very entertaining also with a great cast -- Warren Oates, Isela Vega, Yaphet Kotto, et.al.) one should look no further than MANDINGO's sequel, DRUM.
That's probably because it sheds light onto a tough, painful subject that many people would prefer to ignore or forget; if you're expecting a "slaves-and-masters-are-all-a-big-happy-family" depiction of the life in the mid-19th-century Southern plantations, then this simply isn't your movie."Mandingo" was followed, one year later, by "Drum".
Mandingo seems to divide it's audience strongly between love and hate and that's not really surprising; the film features some real nasty elements and the way that it's all done with a highly quality 'period drama' sort of style means that it will likely miss it's supposed intended audience - although it seems to have found a good fan base among exploitation fans.
He's sympathetic with his slaves and soon becomes affectionate with one of the women, which doesn't sit well with his wife Blanche who, for revenge, forces the top fighter to sleep with her.Anyone going into this film expecting a serious look at slavery will be either disappointed or annoyed (maybe both), but if you go into it expecting some nasty exploitation, you might find a lot to like.
The video edition of this film I saw was from the early eighties, when movie studios did their transfers from the first worn-out prints the could grab, and may have had a muddy, faded look because of this, but it's hard to believe this thing came from a major studio.
One would think that this is as close you can get to actually seeing the slave-owning south on film."Mandingo" is probably lumped into the "cult/camp classic" category because this is a film no one would dare make today, unless the slaves got a major comeuppance at the end.
I'm not sure I'd go as far as calling this an exploitation film, but it's certainly startling at times and deals with the subject of slavery without backtalk or ambiguity.The movie takes place in Deep South prior to the American Civil War. Slavery is at its highest bloom and it's just as bad as you've probably heard.
First night rights are freely exercised, slaves are just one step above animals, sold like cattle and while they're not beaten daily – they still need to work, and it's not like you beat your cows daily, either – it doesn't take much for them to incur the wrath of their masters.The movie is also notable in that it uses the term 'mandingo' somewhat correctly.
The movie tells the tale of one particular manor, its owners and the pair of mandingo slave that were brought there, one of them to be trained as a fighter.It's a tough movie to sit through if you're squeamish and while it's not overly gluttonous in its depictions of violence, like Django Unchained is, it doesn't shy away from them either or pull its punches.
Even some thirty years after its release,the motion picture Mandingo is mainly but not to be compared with films like Birth Of A Nation,or Triumph Of The Will that be contemplate objectionable content of the material while reluctantly allowing mitigating qualities relating to the vast subject matter and to this day,it still gives shock value.
However,Richard Fleischer's most controversial work,Mandingo still holds the title some 30 years later and still is as shocking as ever.Mandingo is very much a pulpy,lurid antebellum potboiler that really turns the fantasy world of a classic romanticized film like Gone With The Wind inside out,and to put in bluntly a slap in the face.
James Mason,in the nasir of his career,is a campily eccentric white massa,a slave breeder determined that his handsome randy young son(Perry King)settle down and provide the family with a new heir.
But he must contend with his daddy's wishes and soon courts and weds Southern belle Susan George,who is not all she seems,having very early on been deflowered by,of all people,her brother.When King turns a cold eye to his new bride,the lady seeks vengeance by lending to her bed to a good,faithful Mandingo slave(Ken Norton),who in fact has been so good and so faithful that he is now rewarded with the Old South's most prized possession:this blonde,light-eyed white woman!
During the seduction scene,director Fleischer works hard at heating up the audience which the infamous sex scene was the center of the entire movie in which the scene almost became too close to an "X" rating at the time this film was release.
There are several scenes that were shocking to watch:there's lynching and incest and molestation,blacks treated like animals by their white counterparts,in the depiction of slave auctions,since life on the plantation wasn't easy....it was living hell.
The hilariously cast James Mason drawls his way through the role of a bigoted plantation patriarch in 1840s Louisiana, with Perry King playing his son.
Among the story threads are the hideous envy that Kings' lowly wife (an over the top Susan George) shows towards the "wench" (Brenda Sykes), whom King is rather sweet on, and Kings' acquisition of a slave (the appropriately cast Ken Norton) whom he hopes will achieve tremendous success as a fighter.
I felt there were very convincing performances all around .Though far from perfect ,the producers of MANDINGO have delivered an interesting drama .The average viewer is likeley to be repulsed at what he's seeing layed before him.This film merely scratches the surface of the savagery known as the slave trade.Gritty ,realistic, ugly, as you should expect.The film shocks those who would rather not see the true face of the African-American Holocaust.I'd be the first to admit ,I was pained when I first saw this ,but I believe in films power to in some ways expose truths ,also document and educate .I wonder why anyone would call this campy .Its as campy as Shindlers List may have been.Sure there's loads of sex in this ,what do you think slave masters would be doing when they wer'ent.
If you don't like those movies, don't even think about renting Mandingo, because it's very upsetting.James Mason is the head of the plantation, but his son Perry King takes over the management when he's old enough.
You can call it a love triangle if you want to, between Perry, Susan, and Brenda Sykes, but it's not a very conventional one.The second plot in the movie is after Perry purchases another slave, Ken Norton.
Director Richard Fleischer ('Soylent Green') apparently wanted to make a hard-hitting gritty look at racism in the South, but producer Dino De Laurentiis ('Barbarella', 'Death Wish') was mainly known for trashy exploitation movies.
"Mandingo" is a great film, just like "Gone With the Wind", however, because it really tells the truth about how Afro-American's were really treated as Slaves in this country, it was forbidden to see years ago, the subject matter was too hard for the public to accept.
It is a great film and I hope my grandchildren get to see it and learn that no person should treat any person like they did in "Mandingo" The actors gave an excellent performance, and James Mason and Susan George should have received an Academy Award for their excellent acting skills..
Based on this film, one would get the impression that slaves served no other purpose than to be beaten by or have sex with their masters and mistresses.More damning, despite the film's appeal to an African-American audience, Mandingo strips its black characters of all dignity.
Most of the acting is downright terrible, with Susan George giving a histrionic, career ending performance.The only good things about this film are an opening theme by Muddy Waters and the atmospheric sets, which capture the dark, grim reality of a plantation house before the gaslight era..
Well, I have to agree with everything that Mike has said: I haven't read the books (and don't intend to, now) but "tasteless", "jaw-dropping" and "turkey" is right - I cannot fathom what the film-makers were thinking with this one...and why anyone would even want to make a continuation of it is not even worth pondering about!Knowing Mike is a Southerner himself, I wouldn't want to hurt his feelings by saying what I really feel of the way of life of these privileged white people; I'll just thank Christ for progress!
I'll end by saying only this: generally, I'm a great admirer of Richard Fleischer's work - FOLLOW ME QUIETLY (1949) and THE NARROW MARGIN (1952) are seminal Noirs, while THE VIKINGS (1958) is one of the finest adventures epics ever made, to name but a few - but, with MANDINGO and THE JAZZ SINGER (1980; which I've just watched as well), he has obtained the unenviable record of having helmed two of the greatest actors of all time (James Mason and Laurence Olivier respectively) through what are probably their career nadirs!!.
I bought the VHS copy and was immediately fascinated by the over-the-top acting by James Mason (the scene where he places his feet on the little black boy speaks volumes of 'camp'), Susan George's role of the 'neglected' and 'troubled' wife only reinforces to me that white beauty is truly in the eyes of a white America, and Ken Norton, phoning in his lines and being 'raped' by Susan George is funny because without much movement, he shudders to a climax.
I will give "Mandingo" some credit on its depiction of slavery in the South: I'm not certain if it was accurate but just like I feel about the movie overall, it was demeaning and exploitive.
Whenever I am down and feeling that things cant get any worse, I look at this movie or "Schindler's List" and I say "yes, they can get worse".If you want to see how terribly man can treat a fellow man and how the down trodden will eventually rise up against their masters, they don't get much better than this.There is very little of the "romantic" south here, everyone (whites and blacks) are treated as they should be--as pathetic souls to be pitied regardless of their station in life.By the way, what ever happened to Brenda Sykes--she was such a babe?.
"Mandingo" is a very powerful film, despite the large amount of exploitative sex and violence, and Richard Fleischer's like-it-or-not narrative style is ultimately confronting!
All of the bodies of the four leads - Perry King, Brenda Sykes, Susan George and (especially) Ken Norton are eroticised by the camera and served up before the viewer as icons of sexuality; in this way, it is all the more ironic that the centre of power is the decaying body of James Mason's patriarch.The film shows consciousness, love and hatred being created and deformed in a corrupt society.
His handsome and more compassionate son Hammond (a fine Perry King) gets married to spoiled belle Blanche (a gloriously histrionic Susan George mangling a Southern accent), but falls for tender slave girl Ellen (an affecting performance by Brenda Sykes).
This is but one example of how MANDINGO takes racism to a completely new level – since owning slaves was legal, it's shown in a workaday fashion.But after the first fifteen minutes of blunt dialog there's a pretty decent story involving Warren's son Hammond, played by Perry King, who reluctantly marries his cousin Blanche, brought to life with vicious melancholy by STRAW DOGS ingénue Susan George.
As the wedding guests start to celebrate (and Hammond continues to think about Ellen),Mede gets into a fight with a fellow slave who he quickly destroys in a hard knuckle battle.Astonished by Mede's fighting skills,Hammond decides that instead of punishing Mede,he could actually make back all the money that was spent on buying him,by entering Mede into brutal,fight to the death,slave v slave "mandingo" fighting..View on the film:Opening with a scene where a potential buying is checking a slave for hemorrhoids,the refreshing adaptation of the "mandingo" novels by Kyle Onstott and a failed Broadway show by Jack Kirkland, (starring Dennis Hooper!) by Norman Wexler keeps the traditional south setting of movies which look at slavery in America,whilst rooting out all of the self- rigorous smugness usually connected with historical slavery movies,to instead create a film that is raw ruthless,and also a whole lot of fun!.Giving each of the characters cracking dialogue,Wexler hits every nerve of the viewer's expectations by making the dialogue blunt and raw,with the screenplay never treating the viewer in a condescending or preaching manner,but instead showing the audience nakedly the sheer harsh attitude that the Maxwell's have towards their slaves,which goes from hitting one of them on the bottom until it is bleeding,to pushing any of them to the ground,to keep them in their place.Whilst Wexler does suggest some southern charm romance developing between Warren Maxwell's (played by a deranged Foghorn Leghorn like James Mason) son Hammond (played by an excellent Perry King) and "wench" Ellen, (played by the wonderful Brenda Sykes) he smartly keeps away from dropping the movie into melodrama clichés,by making the romance one that thrillingly goes out of the frying pan and into the fire,due to Hammond never being able to get out of the mindset,that no matter how kind and courteous Ellen is,he will always see her as someone even lower than dirt.Tragicly having to cut his original 4 hour version down to 2 due to studio demands,director Richard Fleischer still makes this deep-fried southern tale a joy to watch.Showing the eye catching real locations with long walk & talk shots,Fleischer makes crimson a the main prominent colour in the film,from the tops that the characters wear to the colour of building in the background,which help to create an intense atmosphere that is only diluted in the moments of raw,bloody violence in the movie.With the marriage between Hammond and Blanche (played by a perfectly crumbling Susan George) being forced by Hammond's dad,Fleischer places (and shoots a number of scenes between them from) a mirror to show Hammond and Blanche real reflections,which each look to have come from a Horror movie, (with a scene between Blanche and Ellen being particularly tough) as Blanche starts to plan on how to use Mede (played with the right mix of stern and good innocence by Ken Norton) for her own deadly "Mandingo" game..
Warren Maxwell(James Mason)lords over a rundown plantation and his son Hammond(Perry King)travels to New Orleans in hopes of purchasing a top-of-the-line fighting slave, a Mandingo.
The novel makes it perfectly clear that the plantation is not much more than a shambles, purely for breeding; the characters are ALL over-sexed, even the old man ("Warren Maxwell"), James Mason's role.A male, "Mandingo"-slave was very desirable in many ways, especially for the huge bundle of "meat" usually found in their pants.
Mandingo (1975) 1/2 (out of 4) Incredibly offensive and tasteless film set in the 1840's has a slave owner (James Mason) making his son marry his cousin (Susan George) so that they can start a family to take over the plantation.
The only problem is that the son prefers black slaves, which makes the wife jealous and causes her to have an affair with a Mandingo (Ken Norton).
He mumbles his lines and we never get a feeling for what his character is about.James Mason was working for alimony money as the patriarch of a run-down plantation, while Perry King plays his son who is almost as close to a decent human being as any white person gets in this film.
Susan George plays his long suffering wife who decides to get back at him for his "Wenching" by sleeping with his prize fighting slave (Norton).Is it worth seeing.
There is a plot where Perry King wants to exploit a black slave (Ken Norton) as a bare-knuckle fighter.
It's definitely one of the worst movies of the 1970s--made worse by its big budget which was totally wasted.Some dumb scenes (apart from the rapings and beatings) include seeing Mason's rheumatism treated by sleeping with his feet on a naked black kid's belly(?!?!), the "...never, never, never, never done it!!!!" tirade as well as every love scene between Perry King and Susan George...every last one of them.Needless to say, there is LOTS of nudity (including full-frontal) in the film and I am actually surprised that it was only rated R.
That's what this movie is--novelist Kyle Onstott's butthole view of Southern plantation life in the 1840's.In 1975, this film pushed the envelope by showing as many naked black women having sex with white men as it could.