Truck Turner

Plot synopsis:
Mack "Truck" Turner (Isaac Hayes) is a former professional football player who becomes a Los Angeles-based bounty hunter after being hurt. Turner begins his morning watching his girlfriend Annie's cat, Frances, while she is in jail for stealing a television set. Truck and his partner Jerry Barnes catch a fugitive, then take him to jail. Truck takes the opportunity to visit Annie (Annazette Chase) in jail. Annie asks if they can "go somewhere" when she gets out. Truck and Jerry go to collect the bounty from Nate Dimwiddie, a bail bondsman, who refers them to Fogarty (Dick Miller), a bail bondsman who wants Gator, a pimp who skipped bail.
After haggling over the price because of Gator's violent past, they visit Dorinda (Nichelle Nichols), who runs Gator's stable of prostitutes. Truck tries to trick her into giving up Gator's location. Dorinda does not fall for the ruse. Truck and Jerry wait for Gator to visit, and chase him. Gator crashes and then leads them on a foot chase, but doubles back and steals Jerry's car. Truck and Jerry hijack a truck to chase him. The radiator in Jerry's stolen car gives out, so Gator runs into a bar and offers money to everyone inside to beat his pursuers. Jerry circles around to the back of the bar, but gives up the chase to help Truck win his fight in the bar.
A tip from Truck's retired pimp friend Duke (Scatman Crothers) allows Truck and Jerry to nab one of Gator's cohorts, who leads them to the house of the woman harboring Gator. They attempt to lure Gator out of the house, and a shootout ensues. Truck and Jerry kill Gator when he attempts to shoot Truck, but the topless woman stabs Jerry on his right shoulder with a pair of scissors. Truck then smacks her in the face, knocking her out cold.
Dorinda threatens Gator's former whores to keep them in line, and orders them to attend a meeting of pimps who want Gator's action. At the meeting (following Gator's funeral and burial), Dorinda offers the pimps a deal: whoever kills Truck gets to replace Gator and gets half of the proceeds while she runs the stable. A pimp named Desmond immediately objects that pimps deal in prostitutes, not violence. The only pimp interested in the violence is Harvard Blue (Yaphet Kotto).
One of Blue's assassin's, Reno, attempts to kill Truck while he is walking with Annie, but Truck shoots him. Truck escorts Annie into their apartment where Blue awaits, cuddling Frances. Blue tells Truck he needs to retire, who responds by pulling his gun and telling him to leave in the next 10 seconds. Another attempt is made on Truck's life by the next morning. Truck shoots and kills him and another gunman on a rooftop.
Blue argues with Dorinda that he wants 25% of Gator's take in exchange for killing Turner. Dorinda only relents when Blue points out that she won't be able to deal with Turner on her own. Blue and Desmond will share the cost of getting rid of Truck, and Desmond will run the stable. Blue calls in some "insurance men" to "insure" Truck's death, who force Nate to call Truck and tell him that there is a big job. Truck doesn't feel sober enough after a night of partying, so he calls Jerry and asks him to check on Nate. Jerry arrives at Nate's business and is shot dead through the door. After fleeing the scene, Blue and Desmond argue over the way their deal is proceeding. The argument ends with Blue ordering Desmond to lead Truck to him if he comes his way.
Annie and Truck visit Nate in the hospital. He warns Truck of the hit out on him. Truck and Annie return to their apartment, which has been ransacked and Annie's cat, Frances, killed. Truck tells Annie to visit her mother for safety, but she refuses. Truck offers to take her shopping, then stuffs her purse with expensive perfume while she tries on some clothes. He then alerts the security guard, who calls the police to arrest Annie.
Truck goes to Desmond's house and demands to know where Blue is. Desmond pretends to resist, but ultimately tells Truck where to find Blue. Truck again visits Nate in the hospital. Nate repeats his warning to Truck that Blue is dangerous. Truck gives Nate Jerry's gun for protection. Just then, Blue and several of his thugs barge in. Nate surprises them by shooting at them. Nate and Truck shoot all of the intruders but Blue. Blue attempts to flee, but Truck shoots him in the leg after Blue grabs a hostage, and again as he exits the hospital. Blue makes it to his getaway car, but dies a few minutes later in the driver's seat.
Truck confronts Dorinda at her house, and tells her she has to leave town. As Dorinda reaches for a gun, Truck warns her that he will shoot her. Dorinda says he won't shoot a woman, but is fatally shot as soon as she pulls the gun from her dresser.
Truck tries to make up with Annie as she gets out of jail. She refuses to get in the car at first, but relents when he professes his love and points out that all of his belongings are packed in the back seat and he is ready to keep his promise to go away with her. She gets in the car and Truck presents her with a new cat. They drive off together, leaving L.A. for good.

Tags: comedy, neo noir, murder, cult, violence, revenge, blaxploitation

Review:
He was also considered for the role of Shaft but it ended up in Richard Roundtree's hands.Truck Turner the movie is every bit the blaxploitation classic one should expect.
Filled with hot rods, jive ass broads, pimps and crooks, superb dialogues in that outdated but always funny 70's genre lingo and enough slow motion gunfights to equal Sam Peckinpah, Truck Turner is a thrill a minute and one of the best the genre has to offer.
That's just one of the good parts of the movie, as it manages to work on all levels: the action is nice in that good old fashioned way, the dialogues are not just filler, the drama works when it has to and the comedic timing is spot on.Eighteen days from the posting of this review Isaac Hayes passed away and heaven became a little funkier.
A fan of 70s Blaxploitation cinema, I've had "Truck Turner" of 1974 sitting on my DVD shelf for some time now, always eager to watch it, and the recent death of Isaac Hayes (R.I.P. big man) was reason enough to finally do so.
Isaac Hayes is probably most prominent in Blaxploitation cinema for composing and performing the theme song for the sub-genre's most famous film, Gordon Parks' "Shaft" of 1971, and he also starred as the super-tough and super-cool eponymous hero in a flick that ranges among the most entertaining of its kind - namely this, "Truck Turner".
The bald and bearded Mac 'Truck' Turner is a former football player turned bounty hunter and Hayes is supremely bad-ass in the role.
Inbetween crime-busting and drinking sessions with his colleague Jerry (Alan Weeks), Truck, who sleeps with his holster on and whose mere name makes the bad guys shake in fear, pays visits to his sexy girlfriend who tends to get jailed for her quick temper...The film basically has everything good blaxploitation cinema needs: A super-tough bad-ass of a hero as you will only see them in 70s cinema, a cool sidekick, eccentric villains, violent shootouts, funky music, delightfully vulgar slang dialogue including many unforgettable lines and, last but definitely not least, dozens of sexy and dangerous women.
None other than Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols plays the beautiful and lethal crime-madame and prostitution-mastermind Dorinda, and Yaphet Kotto (Alien) makes a perfect crime-boss in his role of Harvard Blue.
While Dorinda tries to hold her stable of girls together in a male dominated industry, she offers up a significant business share in her girls to the man who is able to kill Turner for her revenge.I have taken recently to watching some Blaxploitation films mostly because I find the genre to be agreeably trashy and in a way the weaknesses can be accepted and almost enjoyed as part of the experience that you have come for.
Weeks is funny, Chase is cute and beyond that everyone is par for the genre course, with plenty of bad hair and overacting in the men and lots of flesh in the women.Truck Turner is still a genre film of course and it needs to be met on those terms but it does stand out as a good example of the genre – tough, cool, good performances, lots of pimp etc stereotypes and plenty of silly gun action.
In Los Angeles, the tough bounty hunter Mac 'Truck' Turner (Isaac Hayes ) and his partner and friend Jerry (Alan Weeks) work for Nate Dinwiddie (Sam Laws) hunting down fugitives from the law.
When the drug dealer and pimp Richard Leroy 'Gator' Johnson (Paul Harris) is murdered by Turner, Gator´s woman Dorinda (Nichelle Nichols) hiresthe gangster Harvard Blue (Yaphet Kotto) and his professional killers to kill Turner.
The tall Isaac Hayes is funny in the role of a tough bounty hunter and former football player hard to be killed and the film is highly entertaining.
After months of searching, I finally caught up with the Isaac Hayes blaxploitation hit Truck Turner.
Now he works as a bounty hunter with his partner Jerry (Alan Weeks is great!) When he kills his most recent target, a pimp named Gator, he's in trouble with Mack Daddy Harvard Blue and his vicious hoes, as well as a one-eyed assassin and a lot of other unpleasant characters!
Nichelle Nicols of "Star Trek" gives the second-best performance in the movie as a hoe, Scatman Crothers is slick as Duke, the only pimp who backs Truck, and Annazette Chase is surprisingly good as Truck's lady!
Pre-Scientology Isaac Hayes acts plain ig'nant as bad ass bounty hunter Mack "Truck" Turner.
TRUCK TURNER is one of the finer movies from an era that's been vanished a good long time, but do check out BLACK CAESAR, SUPER FLY, and BLACK BELT JONES for the very best.
The dead pimp's girlfriend, who runs her own stable of high class girls, is none too pleased, and puts a bounty on Truck's head, employing, mob guy acquaintance (Kotto) to take him down.
The last twenty minute revenge part of the film was great, Kotto staggering back to his car, outside a hospital, after killing Weeks, and being shot in the back by Hayes, showing such determination for the black guy.
Shaft (1971) paved the way for the sub-genre with its strutting bad-ass lead who's a sex-machine to all the chicks, and Isaac Hayes' Oscar-winning score (for what he will forever be best remembered for).
Hayes himself steps into the lead role here as ex- American football star and bail bondsman Mac 'Truck' Turner, who according to Yaphet Kotto's bad-guy pimp Blue, is "like a bulldog with eyes up his ass!", and displays some surprisingly charismatic qualities that makes it quite a shame he didn't appear in more.Greasy lawyer Fogarty (the great Dick Miller) employs bounty-hunters 'Truck' Turner and his partner Jerry (Alan Weeks - with the best grin in cinema) to track down a low-down pusher and pimp named Gator (Paul Harris).
After an extended chase scene, Turner and Jerry manage to kill Gator, much to the dismay of Gator's lady Dorinda (Nichelle Nichols - Uhura!).
Wanting to settle down with his girlfriend Annie (Annazette Chase), Turner finds his life turned upside when Blue employs a gang of hired killers.Beginning almost as a buddy-comedy, the witty script and some genuine chemistry serve up some amusing early scenes, showing off Hayes' natural screen presence.
But this turns into pure police procedural blaxploitation as the main plot kicks in, with jive-talk, pimps in some of the most delightfully ludicrous dress I've ever seen, car-chases, slow-motion shoot-outs, cocaine, hookers, and of course a tragically neglected soundtrack from Hayes himself.
Isaac Hayes provides whole new dimensions to the term "Coolness" in his own and first Blaxploitation highlight "Truck Turner" (not counting the Italian Blaxploitation-Crime thriller crossover "Three Tough Guys").
Gator's main bi-atch Dorinda (Nichelle Nichols, acting like the black version of Ilsa Harem keeper of the Oil Sheiks) gathers all the city's most prominent pimps and promises the ownership of all her top-class prostitutes to whoever succeeds in killing Truck.
Although the music score (compliments of Issac Hayes) was a little funkier than Shaft (1971), there were a lot of themes common with the blaxploitation genre, like pimp hats and Cadillacs.
With Isaac Hayes providing the soundtrack himself, what you get is a simply cool action film that is not afraid to speak its mind and make the most out of a very basic plot.I'd even go so far as to call it original for its time!.
Carrying around a 44 Magnum that was probably bought at the same place Dirty Harry Callahan bought his, Isaac Hayes essays the role of Truck Turner, former pro-football player turned skip tracer.
Harris's woman and partner Nichelle Nichols wants Hayes dead and will pay anything for it and brings in a whole bunch of business competitors led by Yaphett Kotto to do the job.
I would not want her on my case.Truck Turner is a good action film with an astonishing portrayal from Nichelle Nichols.
Truck Turner is a great film vehicle for Issac Hayes and a very solid and entertaining entry for the blaxsploitation genre.
Hayes is pretty cool, his score is okay, the supporting cast is exceptional - Yaphet Kotto ('Blue Collar', 'Drum', 'Alien'), 'Black Belt Jones' Alan Weeks and Scatman Crothers, Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols, Corman legend Dick Miller,etc.
But really I could list ten blaxploitation movies I'd recommend before 'Truck Turner', and if you want Isaac Hayes at his best rent 'Escape From New York', and listen to his 'Hot Buttered Soul' and yes, 'Shaft'..
Having performed the theme song for blaxploitation classic Shaft (1971), soul singer Isaac Hayes got to be the star of his own funky black action flick, appearing as Mac 'Truck' Turner, an ex-football star turned bounty hunter who becomes the target of hired hit men after killing vicious pimp Richard Leroy 'Gator' Johnson (Paul Harris) during a shootout.Although Hayes isn't in the same league as blaxploitation legends Richard Roundtree, Fred Williamson or Jim Kelly, his acting leaving quite a lot to be desired, he acquits himself well enough in the lively action scenes, of which there are plenty.
The film also benefits from an unforgettable turn from Nichelle 'Lt. Uhura' Nichols as foul-mouthed bitch Dorinda, the woman who wants Truck dead: she couldn't be more unlike her wholesome Star Trek character if she tried.Other moments that guarantee a good time for fans of the genre include a wild-eyed topless woman attacking Truck's partner Jerry (Alan Weeks) with a knife, Gator's burial (you ain't lived until you've seen a funeral where all the guests are pimps and hos), Dorinda's hilarious sales pitch for her whores ("We call her Turnpike, cuz you gotta pay to get on and pay to get off!"), Jerry getting blasted to bits by the hired killers, a wonderfully violent gun-fight in a hospital, and the agonising death scene of pimp Harvard Blue (Yaphet Kotto), who deserves everything he gets for using a child as a human shield.7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for Scatman 'Kick the Can' Crothers sporting a silky white shirt and cult actor Dick Miller wearing a salmon pink jacket.
The string of blaxploitation movies continued with Jonathan Kaplan's "Truck Turner", starring Isaac Hayes as a football player looking for a bail-jumping pimp.
Aside from Hayes (known to later generations as Chef on "South Park"), there's Nichelle Nichols (Uhura on "Star Trek"), Scatman Crothers (Dick Hallorann in "The Shining"), and character actor Dick Miller, who often plays a character named Walter Paisley, but has also appeared in every one of Joe Dante's movies.All in all, a really fun flick..
If you are an Isaac Hayes fan or would really like to view a movie from the seventies with great scenic shots, Truck Turner would be the movie for you.
But in my book neither one holds a candle to Isaac Hayes' performance in this early Jonathan Kaplan movie: like a blend of John Shaft and Jim Rockford, Hayes suggests the kind of action hero Ving Rhames could be if he had a light, self-deprecating sense of humor.
Hayes won me over mostly because of his music but also because of his recurring role on The Rockford Files, where he lovingly referred to Jim as "Rockfish." Hayes also contributed a great deal to blaxploitation cinema (and was suitably rewarded with an Academy Award for his work on Shaft), starring (his lone starring role) in one of the genres better movies: Truck Turner.
Isaac Hayes and Yaphet Kotto are agreeable, and there are many action scenes, but most of them are not very exciting.
One of the more enjoyable Blacksploitation films of the '70's has uber-legend Issac Hayes as Matt 'Truck' Turner, a skip tracer, and his partner getting a hit placed on them after one of their targets dies.
Truck Turner (1974) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Violent, mean-spirited and entertaining blaxploitation film has Isaac Hayes playing Truck Turner, a former football star turned bounty hunter who gets a hit put out on him, which ends up getting his best friend killed.
I've always loved Blaxploitation films but don't know them all, and I recently found Truck Turner by complete chance.
A bounty hunter, Mack Truck Turner(Isaac Hayes)has a contract out on him by Dorinda(Nichelle Nichols, in a role bound to shock folks who know her as Ohura on STAR TREK), the vengeance seeking broad whose pimp daddy was murdered by him in self defense.
Harvard Blue(Yaphet Kotto), a sadistic pimp with quite a reputation, offers Dorinda his services for most of her prostitution business and hires assassins to target Truck, seriously hurting his boss and killing his bounty hunter partner.
Soon Blue and his cronies themselves become the prey and Trucker the predator with a lot of dead bodies left after the dust settles.Tailor made vehicle for Isaac Hayes, getting a terrific role as a nearly unstoppable bad ass with an unglamorous career chasing down pedophiles, rapists, junkies and pimps(..along with Alan Weeks as his partner Jerry)for bond claimer Nate Dinwiddie(Sam Laws).
Rough'n'tumble bounty hunter Truck Turner (smoothly played with charisma to burn by Isaac Hayes) runs afoul of both sadistic pimp Harvard Blue (Yaphet Kotto in fine ruthless form) and vengeful whorehouse madam Dorinda (Nichelle "Lt. Uhura" Nichols, spitting fire and paint-peeling profanity with startling ferocity).Director Jonathan Kaplan, working from a tart script by Oscar Williams and William Allin, keeps the exciting and entertaining story hurtling along at a brisk pace, maintains a tough gritty tone throughout, makes excellent use of grungy urban locations, stages the rousing action set pieces with rip-roaring verve (the wild climactic shoot-out at a hospital rates as a real stupendous doozy!), delivers oodles of bloody'n'brutal violence, and further sweetens the deal with a wickedly funny sense of brash humor.
Moreover, it's acted with zest by a bang-up cast: Alan Weeks as Truck's easygoing partner Jerry, Annazette Chase as Truck's sassy klepto girlfriend Annie, Sam Laws as laid-back bail bondsman Nate Dinwiddie, Paul Harris as vicious pimp Gator, Dick Miller as sleazy lawyer Fogarty, Scatman Crothers as friendly informant Duke, and John Kramer as the slippery Desmond.
Truck Turner is directed by Jonathan Kaplan, has a screenplay by Oscar Williams and Michael Allin and stars Isaac Hayes, Nichelle Nichols and Yaphet Kotto.Truck Turner is one of the very best Blaxploitation films.
Nichelle is excellent in this role and proves what a talented actress she is, this character is about as far from Lt.Uhura as it's possible to get.Truck Turner (Isaac Hayes)is a bounty hunter who kills a pimp called Gator(Paul Harris).
Dorinda enlists the help of a vicious pimp called Blue (Yaphet Kotto)and other criminals to kill Turner.
They all underestimate Turner though to their own cost.The violence in this film looks very realistic, the cast are superb, Isaac Hayes exudes coolness, there's plenty of action and the film is very funny.
Just two years after 'Shaft', Hayes starred in 'Truck Turner', which is one of the best blaxploitation films you'll ever see.It's highly entertaining, full of action and one liners, and even served as inspiration for future films and comedy sketches throughout the years.
***SPOILERS*** Very probably the best of the many black-exploitation movies to come out of the turbulent 1970's "Truck Turner" has it all and a bit more in it's star Isaac Hayes as the rough and tumble and take no BS Mac Truck Turner.
A man you don't mess with if you intend to go on living and enjoying life in one piece.Doing the dangerous work of tracking down criminals who jumped bail skip tracers, slang for bail bondsmen, Turner and his partner Jerry, Alen Weeks, are given the unenviable job of bringing in vicious pimp Gator Johnson, Paul Harris, by bailsman Fogarty, Dick Miller.
Not being able to make any ground against Turner as he frustrates her at every turn Madam Dorinda is forced to accepted Harvard Blue's, Yaphet Kotto, offer to put him away for good if he get's the majority share of her very successful prostitution business.
Truck Turner (Issac Hayes) is a former football star turned bounty hunter.
Hayes is joined by a very solid group of co-stars including wonderful performances by Yaphet Kotto (as the mega-pimp Harvard Blue), Alan Weeks (as Turner's partner Jerry), and Annazette Chase (in the small but pivotal role of Turner's girlfriend).
"Mac 'Truck' Turner" (Isaac Hayes) and "Jerry" (Alan Weeks) are two modern-day bounty hunters who have just accepted the difficult task of bringing a dangerous pimp by the name of "Gator" (Paul Harris) back into custody.
Unfortunately, things don't exactly go as planned and Gator's business manager, "Dorinda" (Nichelle Nichols) offers her entire stable of working girls to whoever can kill Truck Turner.
It has plenty of action spiced with typical jargon and good performances by several actors to include Isaac Hayes, Yaphet Kotto and Nichelle Nichols (who is best known for her role as "Uhura" in the Star Trek series).
This is a better than average so-called "blaxploitation" film about a bounty hunter named Truck Turner (Isaac Hayes).
Isaac Hayes plays this ex football player turned bounty hunter that kicks ass and takes names with his partner Jerry(Alan Weeks-another black belt jones nod).He and his partner take on this case of catching a pimp named Gator.They kill Gator.Which makes his main Ho or Madame Dorinda(very hott mama -Nichelle Nichols )mad.So she hires a bunch of other pimps to kill Truck.Including Harvard blue played by Yaphett Kotto-A deadly ,ruthless pimp himself.Intrigued at the thought of having a percent of Gator's money and hoes.Some of the pimps agree.Will they be too much for Truck or will Truck be too much for them?This is a fast paced hip,exciting/ action/pic that's one of the best out of the blax/genre.My second fav only to Black Belt Jones.Which has a lot of actors from that movie in this one.Laughs,Bullets,Broads,and Blood.Even throws in a love story between Truck and his woman Annie(Anazette Chase)-very beautiful i might add.
if you are into films of the genre, TRUCK TURNER rates right up there with the best of them.