The late Calvin Lockhart stars as the smooth-talking DJ Frankie J. Parker in this 1972 revenge drama, an early entry into the so-called blaxploitation genre. One night Parker meets the titular lady, played by Vonetta McGee (who also starred in Blacula and Hammer the same year), and takes her back to his place for a spot of the old horizontal mambo. The next morning Melinda is found dead and when Parker realises it’s the fault of the local mob he teams up with a few old friends, including Charles Atkins (Jim Kelly, star of Black Belt Jones in his first screen role), to seek revenge and clear his name.

Lockhart is perhaps best known for his role as the gangster ‘Biggie Smalls’ in the 1975 boxing film Let’s Do It Again, also starring Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby. The character name would later be appropriated by the now deceased rapper Christopher Wallace (AKA The Notorious B.I.G.). He also starred as the memorable character King Willie in Predator 2 (“You can’t see the eyes of the demon, until him come callin’.”)

One can only surmise as to who the ‘Your’ in the tag-line was aimed at originally. I’m unsure who is responsible for the artwork on this poster, so if you have an idea please get in touch. Frustratingly, the film has not been released on an official DVD yet.

Charles Bronson stars as Vince Majestyk in this story of a Vietnam veteran turned melon farmer in a remote Colorado farm, who winds up having to deal with the wrath of a mobster after refusing to get involved in a labour racket. Al Lettieri stars as Frank Renda, a notorious hit man who Majestyk meets whilst spending a short time in prison for assault. During a prison bus breakout instigated by Renda’s accomplices Majestyk takes control of the bus and plans to hand the mobster into the police in exchange for a reward. Before this can happen Renda’s girlfriend Wiley (Lee Purcell) rescues him and escapes the clutches of the law. A revenge plan is set in motion but the mobster soon comes to realise he underestimated the skills of the melon farmer.

The term ‘melon farmer’ was infamously appropriated by editors who were tasked with removing the word ‘mother fucker’ from films to be shown on TV. Director Alex Cox actually supervised the TV recut of his 1984 film Repo Man and this is where the phrase was first used (he actually mentions it during this interview). It has its own entry on the Urban Dictionary website too.

I’m unsure who is responsible for the artwork on this US 30×40 so please get in touch if you have an idea.

The original trailer is on YouTube.

Charles Bronson stars as Vince Majestyk in this story of a Vietnam veteran turned melon farmer in a remote Colorado farm, who winds up having to deal with the wrath of a mobster after refusing to get involved in a labour racket. Al Lettieri stars as Frank Renda, a notorious hit man who Majestyk meets whilst spending a short time in prison for assault. During a prison bus breakout instigated by Renda’s accomplices Majestyk takes control of the bus and plans to hand the mobster into the police in exchange for a reward. Before this can happen Renda’s girlfriend Wiley (Lee Purcell) rescues him and escapes the clutches of the law. A revenge plan is set in motion but the mobster soon comes to realise he underestimated the skills of the melon farmer.

The term ‘melon farmer’ was infamously appropriated by editors who were tasked with removing the word ‘mother fucker’ from films to be shown on TV. Director Alex Cox actually supervised the TV recut of his 1984 film Repo Man and this is where the phrase was first used (he actually mentions it during this interview). It has its own entry on the Urban Dictionary website too.

An minor bit of trivia is that this poster is actually hanging inside the trailer owned by Budd (Michael Madsen), a character in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, and is clearly visible during the scene where The Bride (Uma Thurman) attacks Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) – click here to see a clip (spoilers abound).

The original trailer is on YouTube.