Trivia for
The Mack (1973) More at IMDbPro »

• According to director Michael Campus, screenwriter Robert J. Poole started developing the treatment and script on toilet paper while he was in prison.
  
  
• According to Max Julien on the DVD commentary, producer Harvey Bernhard was against casting Richard Pryor in the film because of Pryor's notorious behavior. Pryor had become notorious in Hollywood for urinating on Shelley Winters while filming Wild in the Streets (1968). The box-office success of The Mack helped Pryor to get work in film again.
  
  
• According to Max Julien on the DVD commentary, Richard Pryor and producer Harvey Bernhard had a heated argument during filming. Later that night, Pryor was going to Bernhard's hotel room to attack him with a sock filled with ball bearings until Julien calmed Pryor down.
  
  
• Juanita Moore plays Max Julien's mother in this. She also played his mother in Up Tight! (1968).
  
  
• Lots of scenes were improvised right before they were filmed.
  
  
• The final draft of the script was written by Max Julien, Richard Pryor, and Michael Campus.
  
  
• The Ward brothers, who play themselves, were real life pimps and drug pushers in Oakland. They offered protection to the filmmakers to be included in the film. The Black Panthers heard about the film and shook down the director for $5,000 to film in Oakland. When the Ward brother's heard, they felt betrayed by the production. During one day of shooting, glass bottles rained down from buildings as retaliation from the brothers.
  
  
• Goldie's brother is based off Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, who were friends of Max Julien. Many of his speeches are word for word Huey P. Newton speeches.
  
  
• Max Julien found the scene where the cop is shown to be sleeping with a big, black woman offensive. The director shot it behind his back. When he asked why he shot the scene, Michael Campus said he wanted the character to be shown as decadent. Julien found this even more offensive because of the girls race and weight making it decadent. To this day, Julien finds this one scene to be his only regret about the film. The actress in the scene (Norma McClure) is said to not have been acting and did not enjoy doing the scene.
  
  
• Max Julien was writing Cleopatra Jones for his girlfriend when he was given the 30 page treatment for this film. He's said he wouldn't of agreed to make the movie based off that, but the producer's offered him carte Blanche on rewriting it.
  
  
• "The Mack" entered the non-competitive category of The Cannes Film Festival on May 11, 1983, 10 years after its release.
  
  
• Entertainment Weekly Magazine cited this as one of the top 20 cult film of all times.
  
  
• Max Julien made major contributions in the designing of the much heralded costumes.
  
  
• Michael Campus described working with Richard Pryor as 'difficult,' claiming he would often show up high, if at all. He was surprised how well the performance came off in the finished product.
  
  
• The infamous Player's Ball scene was largely Richard Pryor's idea. Other parts of the story Pryor took directly from people who he knew living this lifestyle. These included putting a man in the trunk of a car with rats and forcing a drug pusher to stab himself at gun point.
  
  
• For a long time was only available in bootleg format and in edited forms until an official VHS release.
  
  
• Was a direct influence on Oliver Stone's script for Scarface (1983). Both The Mack and Scarface have hugely influencde hip-hop culture. The Mack has been sampled in hundreds of songs (rap, R&B, hip hop, etc), including Dr. Dre's "The Chronic". Max Julien also played Nelly's father in the video for "Pimp Juice."
  
  
• The 1983 reissue contained an alternate score added by the distributors. This score was composed by a then unknown Alan Silvestri. Oddly enough, this alternate score is not on the current DVD.
  
  

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