Directed by William Witney
When a prominent abortion clinic owner goes missing along with a string of other black community leaders, her singing daughter and her fellow female biker gang investigate.
Get Down and Boogie, Бандата Darktown Strutters
USAPG 
Finland Finland USA
A white man makes a film with a bunch of African-American actors that portrays a white man who pretends to help African-Americans but is actually using them and working with the Klan. Is it self-awareness? Is it oblivious? Is it something in between? These questions are unanswerable, because the film that is made is beyond reason, beyond convention, and beyond ridiculous. It is farce, certainly, and probably laced with satire, though who can say. Certainly the filmmakers were aware of the stereotypes they were clowning on, but if they intended it as satire or just thought they could get away with it, I don't know. I suspect a bit of both.
Amidst all of the stupid jokes, hammy stereotyping, and…
What if — that old 'Wacky Races' cartoon was adapted into a blaxploitation film?
I love the wacky comedy and the jabs at racist police, but the best scene* is just three funky women hanging out in a parking lot and dancing around their kustom trikes to a song that sings the praises of the main character. It's an "only in the movies" moment. Just stop the forward momentum and live in it. Be happy to have eyes and ears. The police, the Klan and other problems don't exist in these moments. Strangely simpatico with Wattstax, even if confusingly coming from white profiteers, doesn't make it any less true.
*The acapella serenade and The Dramatics jail cell number are close contenders.
Blaxploitation by way of Sid & Marty Krofft.
The satire is as in your face as the humor, and I spent most of my viewing shaking my head in disbelief over how:
A) hilariously subversive it was
And
B) I hadn’t heard of it forever ago
Breaks every rule that’s ever been established, including having its leads be three, black, motorcycle-riding women who do, say, and wear whatever they want.
Takes a break before the third act for The Dramatics to perform Watcha See is Watcha Get, so I can’t see anything else I might watch this week topping it. Hard rec for any fans of Black Dynamite, Mad Magazine, or In Living Color.
Put this the top of your already ridiculously bloated watchlist, and then watch HERE, ASAP!
Action pioneer William Witney's penultimate film is a demented take on Blaxploitation that filters the tropes through the anarchic comedy of the 40's, keystone cop routines, and National Lampoon's style silliness.
The timing's not always on point, and the jokes can often veer into 'The white writer/director/producer is trying to make fun of racists by being racist", but it's tough not to be charmed by an all-women-biker-musical about a Grouch Marx-like protagonist trying to find her mom (who was kidnapped for wanting to start an abortion clinic) and uncovering a Klu Klux Klan founded plan led by Colonel Sanders.
One does not watch Downtown Strutters to be entertained. One watches Downtown Strutters to see wild fashion, motorcycle stunts, dancing, and general "what is going to happen next?" Some will laugh, some will cry, some will be offended. I couldn't tear my eyes or ears away.
Darktown Strutters hits its stride (get it?) when it shuts up and lets the magnificent costumes and production design and wild music do the talking. I loved the down'n'dirty accentuated L.A. locations, like the comic strip rib t and police station featuring an oversized racist map. And the plumage and spangles and hand painted art on some of those motorcycle outfits and pig costumes and pot-sickle(!!!) vendors really made the movie stand out from other Earth bound gritty blaxploitation fare. I felt like I had died and gone to absurdist hog heaven whenever the search for Cinderella cooled off and Darktown Strutters treated us to a Stax artist serenade or fast motion klansmen chase or Colonel Sanders adult baby surrogate. With style for miles and some biting humor to boot, I'm glad my eyeballs absorbed Darktown Strutters on a theater screen and saw every Jack Fisk designed caricature loom large!
A rather dissonant Blaxploitation farce that moves freely between anger and low comedy. Written by George Armitage under what I can only assume was influence of some very heavy shit and directed with straight forward care by William Witney of all people. It is the sort of film whose last act includes a madcap motorcycle chase in which the heroine is chased down by KKK bikers in full attire. While most directors under Corman stable would likely underline all the offbeat humor, Witney just let the material and its many radical tone shifts by itself which just makes things even more absurd.
"Watts is a shooting gallery, and you're the ducks!" - That Lady,
Funny and irreverent. While all of the humor hasn't aged well, the stuff that has is biting and hilarious. Extra points for making cops look like the buffoons they are.
If Rudy Ray Moore and Zucker/Abrams/Zucker sired a weird baby out of a white supremacist cloning machine, Darktown Strutters is the result. This starts off as a cartoon romp that escalates into sublimely gonzo territory.
I watched Darktown Strutters after reading about it in The Bad Movie Bible. I don't think it really deserves to be included in that book. It's not really bad; it's more self-consciously goofy.
I'm not sure if I can summarize the plot, which Rob Hill calls a "blaxploitation sci-fi adventure musical" (205). Yeah, that's about it, although he left out "mystery." It features a group of female bikers called the Strutters—who look like they stepped out of a gaudy sci-fi movie. There's some kung-fu. And the Klan makes an appearance. And some really stupid cops. And a cloning machine. And people dressed as pigs. And musical numbers.
I think the best way to describe the experience of watching this film…
The Strutters are a black female motorcycle gang that seems to cruise around defeating any racist sexists that try to rape/harass them. We first see them beating up a group of Marines. Then they take down a group of cops that make the "Police Academy"/Keystone Cops guys look as competent as Pacino's team in "Heat".
Soon the leader of the Strutters learns that her mother has gone missing and begins investigating her disappearance, which may or may not involve the owner of a chain of BBQ ribs ts.
"Darktown Strutters" is zany and ridiculous. Many of its jokes are off color and in poor taste (like the "N----- Alarm" that goes off at the local police station or the fate…
