Willie Dynamite

Plot synopsis:
We first see Willie Dynamite as the film's opening credits begin, with Martha Reeves singing the movie's title song, 'Willie Dynamite.' Willie is driving his 'pimped-out' purple Cadillac on the streets of midtown Manhattan. The front license plate reading the first part of his nickname - 'Willie,' and the back license plate reading the second part - 'Dynamite.' Willie's destination is a midtown hotel, to collect payment from his women - who work the midtown hotels, attracting the many businessmen, conventioneers, who are looking for sex.
Willie's 'stable' of seven women are of all ethnicities, dressed in vibrant outfits. Their entrance into the Business International Association convention - by entering as an ensemble through the hotel's main doors in-sync with the title song's description of them - has all the men in the room ogling them. Many conventioneers - including even a pair of police officers - take the women to their hotel rooms. Pashen is the newest hooker working for Willie, and she is last in line to hand in her payments. Willie gets mad at her for producing less than expected. Willie compares his business with those of a production line: "Seven girls out there. Every ten minutes, one comes off the production line, like that. This is a business, baby, a production line, and just like GM, Ford, Chrysler, Willie's comin' through." Willie tells of his dreams of being the number one, top-pimp in New York City.
Bell, currently the number one pimp, holds a 'pimp council,' and tells the gathered pimps of the police cracking down on prostitution activities across the city. Bell makes a business proposal, wherein each pimp will get his own area to run, instead of the pimps competing for territory. Everyone agrees, except Willie. He argues the idea would hurt his business. Willie says his women are akin to 'animals of the jungle,' having the need to 'roam free,' and 'conquer all that can be controlled.'
Soon after the meeting ends, Willie learns Pashen has been arrested. Cora is a social worker, who tries to get the prostitutes in jail, to get out of the business, and turn their lives around. Cora meets Pashen, and tries to educate her on the dangers of being a prostitute. Cora encourages Pashen to change her life, and, as she's so young and pretty, to become a model and get paid for it. Being naïve, Pashen dismisses the idea, believing she can make more money as a hooker for Willie. Willie comes to post bail and gets Pashen out of jail. While Willie is out of his apartment, Cora makes an unexpected visit, and tells the women they are being ripped off by Willie. They ponder what Cora said as she leaves the apartment. When Willie comes back, he learns Pashen has been arrested again and the other women are reluctant to work. Willie threatens them if they decide to not work.
Cora visits the jail and tries again to persuade Pashen to get out of prostitution. Pashen still insists prostitution - and being part of Willie's 'stable' - is okay, as she's making a lot of money, and she likes the men's attention while working, because she feels like someone 'important,' wanted & beautiful. Cora tells Pashen that she, too, was once a prostitute, on the streets. Cora sneaks into Willie's apartment to find records of Willie's bank accounts, which could provide evidence of his illegal activity, but, the materials she takes would not be able to stand up in court. After this second arrest, Pashen finally decides to take Cora's advice about pursuing modeling, and does a photo-shoot for which she gets paid. She tries to tell Willie she wants out, but, he tells her of his dreams and hopes for her (and for himself), which she's not able to refuse.
Willie goes to the hotel convention, and finds his territory has been invaded and his lead hooker, Honey, has been killed after a territorial battle. Willie's life is spiraling downward, as he finds all his bank accounts have been frozen, and he's under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. Two detectives chase Willie through New York. Willie's seven hookers are arrested after the hotel fight, but Willie can't post bail, and the women are sent to the women's detention center for holding. While in the detention center, Pashen's face gets cut, and she's traumatized by her loss of beauty.
When Willie returns home, he is met by Bell and his men, who tells Willie to quit the business, and a fight ensues. Later, Willie is caught by the same two detectives, for possession of drugs. They have to free Willie, as the evidence obtained was done so without a warrant. In the end, Willie thinks back on past events, and after hearing news of his mother's dying, leaves his car - and by inference, pimping - for good. The film ends with Willie walking happily down the streets.

Tags: violence, blaxploitation

Review:
******SPOLIERS****** "Willie Dynamite" is miles above the average "Blaxploitation" films made in the 1970's by it's not glorifying the title character in any way but showing him as a ruthless as well as tragic and misguided person.
A person who's self-destructive lifestyle as a big time city pimp lead to disaster not only to himself but to all those around him: his women his friends his hangers-on and worst of all his sweet and church-going mother played by Royce Wallace.
Back in those days, the 70's, Willie Dynamite, Roscoe Orman, could easily have been made to be a hero for the youth of the inner city ghettos to be looked up to and emulated.
Thats how Willie was to those women who worked the streets and hotels for him selling their hot bodies for the only thing that mattered to him the bottom line: Cold Cash.
The film chronicles the rise and fall and in the end redemption of big city pimp Willie Dynamite after he saw his mother collapse in the courthouse, when she found out what Willie really did for a living, and later die in the hospital without Willie being able to tells her that he's sorry for what he did and get her forgiveness.
Willie let his mom on to believe that he was a record agent not a pimp.Willie's top hooker Pashen, Joyce Walker, who wanted to get out of the hooker business and become a fashion model after she was shown the light by Cora, Diana Sands, a social worker who tried to save girls like her from being exploited by pimps like Willie.
Pashen instead gets sweet-talked back into turning tricks by Willie's and ends up having her pretty face slashed while she was in the womens house of detention waiting to be bailed out by him.
Diana Sands steals the movie with her sensitive portrayal of a social worker who knows all too well what life on the streets can do from her sad and abysmal life as a young women and tries to get the girls working for Willie to save themselves from that life like she did.
We also see Diana change her opinion about Willie when he's destroyed by his fellow pimps as well as the law and becomes a broken and humbled person instead of the brash and arrogant pimp that she fought with throughout most of the movie.
It's Cora's tender and emotional scene with Willie at the end of the film made you want to reach for your handkerchief.
Finally Willie himself who went from a cold-hearted and unfeeling person who looked at both his hookers and the Johns who paid for their services only as dollar signs to where he became a sensitive and understanding person by the time the movie ended but it took a walk through hell for Willie to get to that point.
The movie also has fine location filming in and around NYC with a great musical soundtrack.It would be unfair for "Willie Dynamite" to be described as a "Blaxploitation" movie; It doesn't exploits it's audience it educates it..
The ad and plotline for this movie may give you the impression that Willie Dynamite is a typical blaxploitation actioner with heavy doses of violence and sex but that is not the case.
Willie Dynamite deals with a NYC pimp (Orman) who must deal not only with the police and a dedicated social worker (Sands), but also his fellow pimps who resent his increasing level of power within the city.
During the last third of the movie, the story switches gears as both Orman and Sands go through some major changes which cause them to alter their outlook and approach to their lives.
In doing this, Willie Dynamite goes in a different (and less sensational) direction than many films of this period chose to go.
The film also takes on a higher level of believability which helps to bring the two main characters to life.
Orman, believe it or not, went on to become a staple on TV's Sesame Street as Gordon!
In fact, Willie Dynamite has a great early 70s ambiance that many of the bigger movies of the time did not contain.
Willie Dynamite may not be the best known of the blaxploitation genre but it deserves more attention than it got..
Sure, it's got pimps, hos, bad cops, drugs and prostitution, even a ex-hooker with a heart of gold.
Highly entertaining and interesting as willie dynamite applies  the principles of capitalism to enhance his business of managing sporting ladies.
But where there is greed and the quest to be second to none, one is always confronted with jealousy and envy from your fellow peers.The character Willie dynamite was immaculate in his dress from the beginning of the film to the end.
He displays the 70's pandering apparell that he wore to absolute perfection.I originally saw Willie Dynamite in 1973, and after watching it again today, after all of these years, it had the same impact.
If you like blaxploitations films, this is a must see!!!.
In the course of one week, poor Willie the pimp is getting the heat from rival pimps, from the cops (including the wonderful Albert Hall), and from a reformed prostitute who is trying to get Willie's girls' to unionize (`You can call me the Ralph Nadar for prostitutes', she snaps in one of the film's funniest lines).
He even gets the IRS on his ass, although that scene isn't terribly realistic since no pimp and/or drug dealer with even half a brain would put his earnings in a bank!.
The film breaks away from formula a number of times, and despite the OUTRAGEOUS costumes and decor (even the telephones are fur-lined!), we care about the people in this film.
You can't help enjoying the absolutely ridiculous outfits and mannerisms of the pimps.Everything from Willie's beyond gaudy car to even the characters' names (i.e. the white pimp named Milky Way) is pretty entertaining.But it does have some serious (well okay, maybe not serious) implications as well.
Especially since it also presented positive Black role models who came from similar situations, like Cora, a prostitute-turned-social worker on a quest to help rescue other young girls from a life on the streets..
Pimps as colorful as peacocks with land cruisers dressed in chrome.Roscoe Orman (Gordon from Sesame Street) plays Willie, a pimp who has the patter down pat and the clothing that rivals anything that your imagination can come up with.
They use every trick in the book to make his life hell and bring on him the wrath of his fellow pimps.Diana Sands, who was one of the top black actresses of the 50s and 60s, shined as the social worker.
Willie Dynamite is most certainly one of the most flamboyant pimps to ever grace the screen and his "stable" of beautiful women are frequently scantily clad, but don't let the smooth taste fool you, Willie Dynamite is not your average pimp film."Willie Dynamite" was at times thought-provoking, frequently intense and entertaining throughout.
Watching Willie Dynamite fall from pimp grace makes for some interesting drama.Roscoe Orman is great as the fallen pimp and Diana Sands is brilliant as always but there is much to be said about the performance of the young Joyce Walker, Willie's newest and most inexperienced 'treat'.
This Blaxploitation classic merits a viewing on at least two bases: one, you've got none other than Gordon of 'Sesame Street', a.k.a. actor Roscoe Orman, playing a pimp, and two, you have to love these COSTUMES!
"Willie Dynamite" (Orman) is a capitalism-oriented flesh peddler with a wardrobe to die for.
But he'll have a few thorns in his side: a pair of detectives (George Murdock, Albert Hall) out to righteously bust him, a mysterious enemy determined to screw him over, and a crusading social worker named Cora (Diana Sands), who acts as a patron saint to hookers.Directed with style by Gilbert Moses, "Willie Dynamite" is generally engaging entertainment.
There's a wonderful score provided by J.J. Johnson, and a rousing title theme song that gets you in the proper mood immediately.Orman is great fun playing a charismatic antihero.
Sands, sadly dying of cancer during this time, gives the best performance in the movie.
Roger Robinson, as an antagonistic pimp named Bell, is most amusing, but there may be viewers who will take offense to his stereotypical portrayal of a gay character."Willie Dynamite" is lively, funny, and sometimes touching.
Probably what might make most people give this particular Blaxploitation movie a look is the promise of "Gordon" from the children's television show "Sesame Street" playing a flamboyant pimp.
There definitely is some novelty to get from that, and the movie boasts other attributes such as good production values (including a lot of outrageous clothing choices).However, the end results overall are to some degree a bit unsatisfying.
The script also suffers from the fact that the narrative is more or less a collection of vignettes loosely connected together, rather than one strong story thread.If you like Blaxploitation movies from the 1970s, you'll probably find enough to enjoy here.
Good but not a pimp movie..
As all fans of exploitation cinema will know, there were many, many blaxploitation movies released during the 1970s after Melvin van Peebles left an incredibly impression on black audiences with Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song in 1971.
Tony Award-nominated Broadway director Gilbert Moses' Willie Dynamite is incredibly under-seen, but is one of the genre's most impressive works, shunning the usual hyper-stylised, lightly comic beats in favour of something more serious and dramatic, while also touching on themes such as black identity, racism and police corruption.New York pimp Willie Dynamite (Roscoe Orman) has built himself a mini-empire, training his girls to work like a production line to maximise profits and keep his many customers happy.
While his clothes are utterly outlandish (there are some of most ridiculous outfits ever seen in the genre here), Willie ain't no lovable scamp like Super Fly (1972), but a real piece of s**t; he regularly threatens his girls with violence, underpays them, and fails to offer any help when they get themselves arrested.
When he's late to turn up to court for his most recent arrival Pashen (Joyce Walker), prostitute-turned-social worker Cora (Diana Sands) takes a particular interest, and becomes intent on rescuing Willie's girls and ending his reign of terror.For a genre normally so rich in exploitative traits, Willie Dynamite contains no nudity and little violence, earning its adult rating instead for language and drug use.
Anyone familiar with Sesame Street will be left shocked at the sight of Orman wearing some of the most garish costumes ever committed to celluloid and trying to keep his bitches in check, and it's a very convincing performance.
The Pimp Of Sesame Street.
This one had a decent budget and starred the one and only Gordon from Sesame Street (Roscoe Orman).
I wonder if this role landed him the job as Gordon.This isn't really exploitative at all with no violence or nudity instead tells a story of a pimps hardships with the police always arresting his girls and shaking him down constantly.
His biggest problem seems to be his mother who obviously disapproves of his life choice.A great film all the way through but the only thing missing was a funky soundtrack..
I think Willie's acting was good too.
I think the movie as a whole had good acting.
I think people would of got killed doing the things they did in this movie.
I like the way Willie handled his business.
i'll never look at Sesame Street the same way again.
Roscoe Orman is Willie D, a sad sack of a pimp who embodies the Godfather of WWF(E)'s saying "Pimpin' ain't easy".
Willie's pimping clothes are, in a word, Dynamite (especially this one hilarious huge hat he wears at one point).
By the way, this isn't the last of Willie, oh no it ain't.
Hope he wasn't the one to pimp Ernie out to Bert.Best Line: (Willie in a line-up shouting about his coat) "It's Lamb!!
Well meaning liberal social worker tries to reform street-hardened pimp..
What is uncanny about Willie Dynamite is that the film is able to take this despicable, self-absorbed, sadistic pimp and humanize him.
How director Gilbert Moses and actor Roscoe Orman(as Dynamite)pull this off is worthy of applause.
Cora(Diana Sands, in a solid performance), a social worker, attempts to pry a lovely young prostitute, Pashen(Joyce Walker)from the clutches of Dynamite's powerful influence.
Willie Dynamite decides to take his pimping solo, splitting from his colleagues, securing wealthy clientèle for his girls.
Cora, understanding his dangerous nature, wishes to see Willie taken down, soon recognizing that despite his corrupt ways, he's still a human being in need of guidance.The film starts out as almost a comedy where these pimps, with their pomp and attitude, driving their colorful cars and wearing their vibrant custom suits, fur coats, and flashy hats, are almost caricatures, over-the-top creations broadly performed by the African-American cast.
But, as the film progresses, it gets dead serious and we see how the life style of a pimp can, in fact, lead to tragedies of severe magnitude.
It's a hoot seeing Orman, a fixture on Sesame Street, in the role of a lecherous pimp!
See "Gordon" from SESAME STREET playing a pimp!!!!.
Kids, let's think of some words that start with "P",...In probably the weirdest case of casting I can think of, Roscoe Orman plays the title character--who is a pimp!
Years later, Orman would achieve some notoriety playing "Gordon" on SESAME STREET--now THAT'S interesting casting!!
Now, although Willie is on top of his game, his world begins to crumble when an ex-hooker turned social worker decides that enough is enough.
She decides to declare war on Willie and things look really, really bad for the pimp-meister.However, when things go worst for Willie, the movie takes a very, very strange twist with the social worker--one that rather blindsided me.
While not at all believable, it was certainly an interesting twist.While this is a so-called "blaxploitation" film in many ways (especially due to the lead being a pimp), the film is much different than you'd expect.
Second, the film isn't all "black and white" with cartoon-like characters and silly stereotypes.
And finally, the story doesn't seem either anti-White or glorify evil by the time it's finished--and as such, is a much more three dimensional film that's worth a look.Needless to say, this film that, at times, glamorizes pimps may seem like the ultimate misogynistic film, but stick with it.
Rabid feminists probably should not watch this film or they'll suffer a stroke, but if they'd bear with it, by the end it does have a positive message and is not a "pro-pimp" film like THE MACK!!!.
Now, thanks to Arrow Video, one that is rarely seen makes its way to blu-ray, WILLIE DYNAMITE.From the opening credits with the theme song sung by Martha Reeves while we watch Willie (Roscoe Orman) driving his pimp mobile to views of the ladies who work for him picking up johns at a convention we can tell where this movie is going.
This movie apparently plans to do the same thing with the story of a pimp.Willie dreams of the big time, of being the number one pimp in New York City.
And he makes sure that his girls are doing the job he uses them for or out they go.A gathering of pimps in the city is called by Bell (Roger Robinson).
The police crackdown on Willie and his girls.
She is approached by Cora (Diana Sands), an ex-hooker turned social worker who's trying to get the girls to go straight.
One has to wonder if the outfits worn by the pimps in the film were what was being worn or what was stereotypical Hollywood versions.
If while watching the film you keep thinking to yourself that Roscoe Orman looks familiar the odds are you watched him as a kid.
If you're a fan of Blaxploitation films then pick this one up today..
Willie is trying to keep his position as the most profitable pimp in the city, but the heat are coming down hard.
He has an enemy in a politically active social worker trying to liberate the women in his stable, and he has pressure from the other pimps to follow a group plan to out-maneuver the law.
Willie doesn't want to deal with any of it; he just wants things to continue the way they have been.
Willie then decides to rethink things, and the social worker turns supportive, offering him compassionate council, and with one conversation, he decides to turn his life around.
Bell was an entertaining protagonist, with the highlight being the first scene of the movie: the pimp council.
An Interesting Film Depicting the Life of a Pimp.
"Willie Dynamite" (Roscoe Orman) is a pimp who has a stable of 7 prostitutes who earn him a very lucrative living.
Not only that, but a social worker named "Cora Williams" (Diana Sands) becomes concerned about one of his prostitutes by the name of "Pashon" (Joyce Walker) and decides to put Willie out of business.
Anyway, rather than divulge the entire story, I will just say that this was an interesting film depicting the life of a pimp from his point of view.
Not great by any means, but for a blaxploitation film dealing with this particular subject matter I suppose it deserves a rating of slightly better than average..
A not too bad blaxploitation film with a "happy ending." A reformed prostitute (Diana Sands) attempts to bring a fairly inept pimp down while the cops are on him like glue.
Roscoe Orman plays the title role, a pimp who's seen better days, and he's woefully upstaged by his ridiculous outfits.
Sands brings a lot of class to the film and Thalmus Rasulala is in it too.