by Mark Deming
synopsis
Melvin Van Peebles' first film after his groundbreaking blaxploitation effort Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was this photographed version of his Broadway musical Don't Play Us Cheap, in which a pair of Satan's helpers, in order to earn their horns, are dispatched to Harlem to crash into (and break up) a wild party. Don't Play Us Cheap received only a minimal release in 1973, and was largely unseen until it was released on videotape in the mid-'90s.
characteristics
- Diablo
- Satan
- Party
