In 1972, Paul Winfield had an interesting year: he starred in the Oscar-nominated Sounder (of which he got a nod) with Kevin Hooks as his son. Then he also played one of the villains in Trouble Man which starred Hooks' father, Robert. As for the star, he's real cool here as he goes like Shaft playing pool, making love to his lady (Paula Kelly), and knowing when to shoot without messing up his suit! While I rarely watched "The Waltons", I knew the other bad guy was played by Papa Walton, Ralph Waite, and boy, does he really get it! And how about the future Arthur Carlson from "WKRP in Cincinnati", Gordon Jump, playing a slum landlord who has to apologize to a woman whose baby almost got killed by a railing but not before getting his butt whooped by Mr. T (Robert Hooks' character)? Julius Harris was as cool as Mr. Big here as he was in Hell Up in Harlem a year later. Most cool of all is Marvin Gaye's main title theme and the entire score he composed. Really, what else to say except Trouble Man is solid, you dig? And, no, I really don't think this deserves to be in the book "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time".
Review of Trouble Man
