Following the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King, Cleveland’s African American community is on a knife-edge. Johnny, a charismatic black revolutionary, embarks on a mission to procure firearms from a warehouse, bracing for the impending eruption of violence. Yet, the air is thick with the scent of betrayal, and Johnny’s plans face internal threats. Director Jules Dassin (blacklisted for his activism and communist sympathies in the early 1950s) collaborated with black actors and activists Ruby Dee and Julian Mayfield on the script for this riveting reworking of Liam O’Flaherty’s novel “The Informer”.

Reviews

‘There’s no backsliding, toward a conciliatory moderate conclusion. The passions and beliefs of black militants are presented head-on, with little in the way of comfort for white liberals.’
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times