Release Date: 2/25/1972; CBS
Genre: Drama / TV Movie
Rating: NR
Running Time: 70 mins.
Director: Gilbert Cates
Studio(s): Jamel Productions Inc., Jemmin Inc.
Cast: Bill Cosby (Blue). Gloria Foster (Serena), Dennis Hines (Vandy), Teddy Thompson (Tempo), Ray Mason (Doctor), Dennis Tate (Dr. Fogson).
Story: Blue is an airport redcap struggling to support his family. He takes on several odd jobs so he can save enough money to buy a house so they can move out of the projects. His wife Serena would rather he work less and spend more time with his young son, Vandy. Blue’s single-minded determination to get his family out of the ghetto has cut him off from them. Only when Vandy is diagnosed with sickle cell anemia does Blue realize what he should spend his time on – being with his family. Bill Cosby wrote, produced, scored and starred in the film. Sources: tcm.com, rottentomatoes.com. Photos source: daaracarchive.org.
Movie:
Release Date: 
The town’s dead, led by Melissa’s great-great-great-great-grandmother Lucinda Cavender, a witch who was put to death 300 years earlier, rise up from their graves and roam the town. As Melissa, Vinnie, Mitch, and Mary enjoy themselves at their annual Halloween costume party, Phil encounters a mysterious girl, named Sandra “Sandy” Matthews, dressed in a vintage 1950’s cheerleader outfit, who warns him that the whole town is in danger.
When the local police do not take Phil and Sandy’s warning seriously, Phil manages to get his father’s hunting rifle to make silver bullets from his father’s silver coins. When the couple ventures to the Halloween party, they discover everyone turned into undead zombies, vampires, witches or other evil beings. Phil manages to get the Grenville Spirit Ring from the zombie Vinnie. Phil and Sandy drive back to the town’s cemetery to break into Grenville’s crypt to take his remains to use to seal the scroll just as Lucinda and a horde of undead arrive and attack. Cornered in Phil’s car, he and Sandy manage to use candle wax to seal the parchment scroll and in a flash, Sandy and all of the undead vanish, plus the wounds that Phil sustains during this event disappear and the damage to his car is also gone as if the entire event never happened.
Phil finds himself all alone in the cemetery where he finds Sandy’s grave and finally learns that she has been one of the undead too, but that restoring the damage done has also made Sandy disappear too. As the time turns twelve midnight, Phil begins to drive back to town when he hears a music dedication on his car radio from ‘Sandy’ in devoting a song to him implying that she will always be looking after him from beyond the grave.
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Black Cinema Connection 