Cult Classic, 'Come Back, Charleston Blue'

I loved this movie as a teenager and still do. I eagerly await its dvd release. One of the things I most loved about COME BACK, CHARLESTON BLUE, was its Scooby Do, Hardy Boys-like, suspense plot. A legendary, Afro-American man- about-town, defender of the average black people, ladies' man, handsome and debonair Don Giovanni-like lover and sharp, chic dresser; lethal wielder of a straight-edged razor, Charleston Blue, has been dead for some forty years, killed while fighting to the bitter end on the violent Harlem streets against early 1930s white gangsters with Thompson submachineguns, led by equally legendary 'Dutch' Schultz. But now it's 1972, and word is quickly spreading on the streets of Harlem that long-dead, Charleston Blue has come back from the dead to wreak havoc on street dope dealers with his signature barber's straight razor.

The two, Afro-American actors, the late Godfrey Cambridge (Gravedigger Jones) and the late Raymond St. Jacques (Coffin Ed Johnson) made the movie work. Of all the Afro-American male actors who have come and gone, I respected Cambridge and St. Jacques the most especially for their work in this movie. Like another imdb poster complimented, both actors avoided the shuck n' jive stereotype routine and depicted intelligent, courageous, moral black men who upheld the law and protected the innocent, often against the odds and apathetic top brass. I always thought that Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed brought honor to law enforcement and served as moral examples to young Afro-American men. Perhaps both men's greatest struggle in this multi-movie franchise was to protect the innocent Afro-American community against its own criminal element who hid behind honeyed lies of black togetherness and identity.