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Watermelon Man (1970)

Director: Melvin Van Peebles

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From Time Out Film Guide

Cambridge plays (admirably) a high-powered all-American insurance salesman, bursting with health, dirty jokes, and bigotry, who wakes up one morning to find that his skin has turned black. His frenzied attempts to explain the metamorphosis as an excess of tan and/or soya sauce won't wash any more than his skin will, so he finds himself forced to adjust. Often very funny in its topsy-turvy comments on racism, the script unfortunately has to battle against a director determined to use every gaudy trick in the book. The real pity, though, is that it fails to follow through on the logic of its premise whereby the hero is so heartily extrovert that everybody (wife and kids included) dislikes him. When he turns black, he also turns sympathetic, so nobody's reflex responses are really tested.

Author: TM 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: Melvin Van Peebles

Producer: John B Bennett

Cast: Godfrey Cambridge, Estelle Parsons, Howard Caine, D'Urville Martin, Mantan Moreland, Kay Kimberly full cast

Genre(s): Comedy

Duration: 100 mins


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