Black Caesar (1973) on Netflix

R19731h 35mAction Crime Drama

Tommy Gibbs grows up in Harlem, where a cop named McKinney breaks his leg while a payoff goes wrong. Nursing that grudge, he aims to become a kingpin criminal.

Netflix3.0/5
IMDb6.4/104,559 votes
Rotten Tomatoes64%

Trailer

Plot summary

Tommy Gibbs comes of age in Harlem, where a cop named McKinney breaks his leg while a payoff goes wrong. As a man, Gibbs is angry at a racist society, among criminals and respectable people alike, and he decides that gaining power is the cure for that rage. To draw the notice of a Mafia family's head, he carries out a freelance hit on a Mob contract, and the family reluctantly takes him in. In Harlem he takes charge of a black crime syndicate, and a gang war breaks out between him and the Italian mob. He records all his dealings in a ledger book, which he keeps as leverage over his business associates.

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Black Caesar (1973)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

When Larry Cohen shot Black Caesar in Harlem, local gangsters threatened to disrupt the shoot unless they were paid off, so he gave them small roles in the film instead.
Black Caesar's script was first commissioned by Sammy Davis Jr., who told Larry Cohen he wanted to star instead of being a flunky to Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin; Cohen pitched him a Little Caesar-style gangster film.
Stevie Wonder was asked to score the film but declined after Larry Cohen screened him a rough cut, because he was worried about being associated with a film so violent; James Brown replaced him.
SPOILER
The original cut ended with Tommy Gibbs beaten, robbed and killed by a black street gang, but the scene was removed from general release and seen only in European prints, until it was restored for home video.
SPOILER
Larry Cohen said the sequel Hell Up in Harlem was shot without a script, made up as he went along, and it contradicts Black Caesar's ending: Gibbs is still alive in it despite dying in the first film.
James Brown's "The Boss", the background music for the scene where Tommy Gibbs is shot crossing a street corner, was later sampled by Ice-T, Nas, Trick Daddy and Prodigy.
Public Enemy name-checked the film in "Burn Hollywood Burn", where, offered Driving Miss Daisy instead, guest rapper Big Daddy Kane says, "I got Black Caesar back at the crib."