Detroit 9000 (1973)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Arthur Marks

Writer:

Orville H. Hampton (writer)

Release Date:

1975 (Norway)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Action

Tagline:

Visit the murder capital of the world--where the honkies are the minority!

Plot:

Cops go after jewel thieves. |

Plot Keywords:

Vulgarity | Cigarette | Place Name In Title | Brothel | African American

Cast

Hari Rhodes	...	Sergeant Jesse Williams
Alex Rocco	...	Lieutenant Danny Bassett
Vonetta McGee	...	Ruby Harris
Ella Edwards	...	Helen Durbin
Scatman Crothers	...	Reverend Markham
Herb Jefferson Jr.	...	Ferdy
Robert Phillips	...	Captain Chalmers
Rudy Challenger	...	Aubrey Hale Clayton
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sally Baker	...	Ethel
Richard Bourin
Council Cargle
Bob Charlton
Regis Cordic
Jerry Dahlmann
June Fairchild	...	Barbara
Don Hayes
Dilart Heyson
Doris Ingraham
Ron Khoury
Bob McIlwain	...	Sam Orr
John Nichols	...	Police Chief John Nichols
Ed Oldani
Davis Roberts
George Skaff	...	Oscar
Jason Sommers
Martha Jean Steinberg
Michael Tylo
Whit Vernon
Herb Weatherspoon
Woody Willis
Ernie Winstanley

Also Known As:

Call Detroit 9000 (UK)
Detroit Heat (USA) (video title)

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Canada:14A | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (1975) | UK:18 (video rating) (1986) (uncut) | UK:X (original rating) (cut) | USA:R | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Detroit, Michigan, USA

Company:

Holly Hill Productions

Trivia:

Original title was "Motown 9000", but could not be used for legal reasons.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the shootout at the cemetery, one character's squib is visible on his neck prior to being "shot" in the neck.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Coonskin (1975)

Sophisticated blaxploitation, if you will.

Blaxploitation but sophisticated blaxploitation, if you will. Right from the bat you'll notice a little deeper characterization and more intricate plot mixed in with the jive music and bloody violence and for the most part, it works well. Some of the story does bog down the pace at times but not enough to cause any major problem. Seeing that this is one of the films released under Tarantino's Rolling Thunder company, the fact that Reservoir Dogs shares a few traits with Detroit 9000 should come as no surprise. However, Detroit 9000 took a few lines of dialogue from Dirty Harry, so I guess that's just the nature of the beast.