While Petey Wheatstraw wasn’t necessarily a flop, it didn’t make nearly as much as Rudy Ray Moore’s previous movies. Moore’s producing partner, Theodore “T” Toney, decided that cleaning up his image would help boost his career. At the time, the disco craze was in full swing, and there was an epidemic of PCP sweeping the nation. With this in mind, they decided to make a disco-themed movie that addressed the PCP issue. Rather than rehire Cliff Roquemore, Moore decided to give a new director a shot, so he hired J. Robert Wagoner. While he was initially excited to work on the project, Wagoner quickly grew frustrated and lost interest. Roquemore came back as a writer and producer to help salvage things, but this film was doomed to fail. In August 1979, just days after the Fall of Disco, Disco Godfather made it to theaters across the US.
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Synopsis
Tucker Williams (Rudy Ray Moore) is an ex-cop/DJ at a famous disco club, where he’s called the Disco Godfather. Everything is going well until his nephew Bucky (Julius Carry) starts freaking out and must go to the hospital. Dr. Fred Mathis (Jerry Jones) explains to Tucker that his nephew was taking a drug known as “angel dust.” Hearing this makes Tucker upset, so he decides to come out of retirement to stop the spread of angel dust. Meanwhile, Tucker meets Noel (Carol Speed), a local reporter who’s also determined to end the angel dust epidemic. While she leads rallies and protests, Tucker takes the law into his own hands and tracks down angel dust dealers. The trail leads him to businessman Stinger Ray (Hawthorne James), who’s been dealing cigarettes dipped in angel dust. It’s up to the Disco Godfather to clean up the streets from the threat of PCP.
Review
Rudy Ray Moore has said that Disco Godfather ended his movie career, and it’s easy to see why. While his other movies didn’t offer much aside from surface-level entertainment, they still worked for what they were. With this, they tried going more mainstream by tackling an issue and chasing a then-popular trend that ended up dying. It doesn’t help that the anti-drug message is so heavy-handed that it starts turning into an after-school special. Even the disco theme, which was dying out by 1979, feels like they’re trying too hard to seem cool. Even then, the disco portions only comprise the first 30 or so minutes of the total runtime. Admittedly, these scenes are the film’s highlight, especially with Moore’s declaration, “Put yo weight on it!” He says it so much that you could make a drinking game out of it, but I wouldn’t recommend this.
You can tell that Rudy Ray Moore is still trying despite not being too into the material. Despite him trying to give another exaggerated performance, it’s evident he had to pull back to reach mainstream appeal. Jerry Jones again delivers another understated and reserved performance, and newcomer Julies Carrey gives it his all. Carol Speed, who starred in several exploitation films in the 1970s, deserved way better than what she got here. When it comes to first-time directors, J. Robert Wagoner sadly falters where Cliff Roquemore excelled in the past movies. There are these weird hallucinatory sequences throughout the film, which help keep it from being dull. Admittedly, the idea of an ex-cop turned DJ taking on drug dealers should’ve worked, but unfortunately, it just didn’t here. Overall, Disco Godfather is hardly one of the worst movies ever, but it’s a sad end to Moore’s stardom.
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