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TUESDAY

You probably know ex-football great Fred Williamson as the big black guy in From Dusk Till Dawn. Yes, he’s just one of the many ’70s refugees Quentin Tarantino has made a career out of saving. So it might be of some historic interest to check out Williamson’s turn as pimped-out, James Brown–strutting gangster Tommy Gibbs in 1973’s Black Caesar. Gibbs won’t let any Italian mafioso or cracker accountant get in his way as he takes back control of Harlem. “It’s a jungle,” he says, “and it takes a jungle bunny to run it.” Oh, my. The plot moves into what-the-fuck territory so often—a drive-by in a horse-drawn carriage?—that you stop worrying about continuity pretty quickly. Audiences of 30 years ago really enjoyed seeing a black Edward G. Robinson blow away white B-movie heavies for 90 minutes—and odds are you will, too. Unsettling footnote: Director Larry Cohen originally conceived Black Caesar as a vehicle for Sammy Davis Jr. The film screens as part of the Library of Congress’ “Blaxploitation” series at 7 p.m. at the LOC’s Mary Pickford Theater, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free. (202) 707-5677. (Paul Morton)