Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (December 30, 2024)
Who’s the Black private dick that’s a sex machine with all the chicks? Shaft!
Who’s the Black private dick who made it to movie screens as a blatant copycat of Shaft? Shep Stone!
In 1974’s Black Eye, silent movie icon Marcus Rollo dies and a prostitute named Vera Brownmiller (Nancy Fisher) steals his iconic cane. When LA private investigator Shep Stone (Fred Williamson) stops by Vera’s apartment, he finds her dead and brawls with her killer (Frank Stell) before the assailant escapes.
All of this connects to the pilfered cane. Shep investigates the matter and follows a slippery slope that involves religious cults and heroin addicts.
As my snarky opening indicates, it seems unlikely that Eye would’ve hit movie screens in spring 1974 without the massive success of 1971’s Shaft. That flick helped advance the “Blaxploitation” genre in which Eye clearly belongs.
Though the story might’ve hit cinemas without the racial link. Based on Jeff Jacks’ 1971 novel Murder on the Wild Side, the source featured Shep as a white character.
Honestly, Eye seems like Blaxploitation in name only. Beyond the race of its lead character and a few lazy nods toward the genre, it doesn’t follow the usual tropes.
Sure, Shep tosses out some period “soul brother” lingo but otherwise, I find it tough to locate much that connects to the character’s ethnicity. Change some dialogue and Eye could use a Shep of any race.
Still, Blaxploitation sold tickets, and Eye winks toward another popular series of the era: 1971’s Dirty Harry. Like Clint Eastwood’s legendary Inspector Callahan, we see that Shep resents the way laws restrict his ability to beat the crap out of those he feels deserve that form of punishment.
Although Eye connects to both Blaxploitation and Dirty Harry, both feel like windowdressing more than anything else. The movie uses those conceits in such a half-hearted manner that they add little.
Honestly, “half-hearted” seems like am apt description of Eye as a whole. While a competent affair, the movie never becomes anything more than vaguely involving.
Best known for 1953’s It Came From Outer Space and 1954’s Creature from the Black Lagoon, director Jack Arnold brings little style to Eye. Despite the violence and intrigue involved with the basic story, Arnold allows Eye to amble and meander across its 98 minutes.
Perhaps the choice to make Eye a “PG” movie instead of the “R” shared by Shaft and Dirty Harry held back the production. The movie’s “PG” surprises me, as it seems like an “R” property at its core.
As depicted, most of Eye seems cautious and safe. The violence and action get tamped down for the “PG” rating, and the movie lacks the grittiness the tale deserves.
Even Shep himself seems neutered. He comes across, as the film doesn’t allow him to present the virile presence one expects from this sort of role.
Former football player Williamson cuts an appropriately imposing presence as Shep, but the movie never takes advantage of his size. Indeed, he ends up oddly tame and neutered.
I don’t want to paint Eye as a bad film. Though it revolves around the cane as a classic MacGuffin, the story still comes with potential.
At 98 minutes, the movie doesn’t wear out its welcome. The tale keeps us acceptably involved along the way.
Still, I can’t help but think Black Eye could – and should – have been something much better than this final product. We get a competent but uninspiring detective effort here.
Trivia Tidbit One: is it a coincidence that a character named Talbot covets a distinctive cane? The Talbots in 1941’s The Wolf Man also owned an unusual cane.
Trivia Tidbit Two: Rosemary Forsyth’s dialogue stands out as abnormally artificial compared to the rest of the actors. I suspect someone else voiced her lines, but maybe she did them herself and just looped them poorly.
