In the wake of the King assassination, unemployed Julian Mayfield is too stinko to aid Black militant buddies on a raid on a Cleveland ammo depot, but after his ensuing rejection by the organization, a depressing visit with his hooker-by-necessity girlfriend, that $1000 reward for info starts to look good. Black power remake of John Ford’s The Informer.

“Actress Ruby Dee not only played a role in Jules Dassin’s Uptight but she also co-wrote the script. Though Uptight proved to be disappointing, it sought to capture the political rebellion of the period and to spotlight an emerging generation of Black actors of the 1960’s–Raymond St. Jacques, Janet MacLachlan, Roscoe Lee Browne, Max Julien, Robert DoQui, James McEachin–as well as veterans Frank Silvera and Juanita Moore.” – Donald Bogle, Hollywood Black

“A genuine revelation. In retrospect, I must have avoided this because the whole notion of a Black Power remake of John Ford’s The Informer (1935) sounded like a bad idea, but the movie proved me wrong, emerging 40-odd years later not only as a valuable time capsule but as a creditable achievement in its own right.” – Jonathan Rosenbaum