Tommy Gibbs (Fred Williamson) is also known as Black Caesar, he finds himself shot by a corrupted police officer in the middle of the street in New York City. Since Gibbs is an well-known gangster, he has the ledger with the name of every bad cop and government officials on the mob's payroll. Gibbs is now public enemy number one in the city. He brings his father (Julius W. Harris) to the mob, Gibbs teaches his father every he knows. But someone in the gang is double-crossing Gibbs and he knows, there will be hell to pay. Revenge looks sweet for Black Caesar.Written, Produced and Directed by Larry Cohen (It's Alive Trilogy, A Return to Salem's Lot, Q:The Winged Serpent) made an amusing, violent, if sometimes unintentionally funny sequel to "Black Caesar". Cohen is at his best, during some of the action sequences, the quick-paced editing and hand-held camera work. Williamson and Harris are fun to watch in this movie. Although the movie looks rushed, the story isn't as clear as its supposed to be and the film is quite sloppy at times.DVD has an sharp anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) transfer and an decent Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono Sound. The DVD's best feature is the humorous and informative commentary track by Cohen. At times, his commentary track seems to be more entertaining than the movie! DVD also includes the original theatrical trailer and an teaser trailer. "Hell Up in Harlem" is a lot of fun, despite some real flaws. Some of Edwin Starr's songs are quite good. If you are an fan of Soul Cinema in the 1970's. Don't miss it. (*** ½/*****).

Hell Up In Harlem (1973) was a follow up to the classic Black Caesar. Do to the box office success of the former film, the producers wanted another sequel to cash in on the popularity of the first film. So Larry Cohen quickly completed a script that was going to follow the revenge of Tommy Gibbs. This time he's out to get rid of the clowns that he forgot to finish off in the first film. Papa Gibbs has taken control of his son's empire and Rev. Rufus is back as well. Not bad for a movie that was hastily put together. A fitting end for Tommy Gibbs as he tries to turn his life around in the process of seeking vengeance. One of the better black "exploitiation" films to come out of the seventies. If you enjoyed Black Caesar, you'll love Hell Up In Harlem.Highly recommended.

I loved Larry Cohen and Fred Williamson's previous collaboration 'Black Caesar', one of the toughest and most enjoyable movies of the early 70s blaxploitation boom. That movie was a great success and in the rush to cash in with a sequel something was lost. Cohen was shooting his killer baby classic 'It's Alive' at the same time Williamson was making 'That Man Bolt', yet they still attempted to make 'Hell Up In Harlem' simultaneously! Cohen's script is weaker this time around and the emphasis is on fights (fists and guns) over character development and story. The movie is more of an action film than a crime drama and therefore much less interesting to me. Williamson is still a powerhouse, but the movie as a whole fails to satisfy. Gloria Hendry ('Black Belt Jones') and D'Urville Martin ('Dolemite') both return from the first movie but aren't required to do all that much. You could even call their roles cameos and not be far wrong. Julius Harris ('Superfly') also returns as Williamson's father, but this time round he has a much larger role, and almost carries the first third of the movie all by himself. The film directly follows on from 'Black Caesar' with Tommy Gibbs (Williamson) recovering from a near fatal gunshot wound. He relies upon his Pop to keep things together, and this enables Harris to blossom from a middle aged straight citizen into a cool dressing killing machine almost overnight! This is one of the most entertaining things about the whole movie, but not enough to stop it from being a disappointment. Even the score this time round is inferior, with no James Brown content. I think this movie was too rushed and suffers for it. It has its moments but isn't a patch on 'Black Caesar'. I've noticed that quite a few blaxploitation classics fail to deliver with their sequels (I'm especially thinking of 'Foxy Brown', Jack Hill's weak follow up to his sensational 'Coffy'). I wonder why that was? Greed perhaps, or lack of faith in the material, I don't know. Anyway, 'Hell Up In Harlem' is okay, but it could have been, SHOULD have been a lot better! 'Black Caesar' is still brilliant though, don't miss that one.

Hell up in Harlem is one hell of those classic blaxploitation film. Too true though, 'cos I got this one on tape.This tells the story of Tommy Gibbs (Fred Williamson), the Black Caesar of New York's underworld who suffers a brutal blow when he gets shot in the streets courtesy of crooked New York cops trying to put an end to his reign of private organisation.One thing for sure, he gets hold of the book of ledgers, names of corrupt people responsible for screwing around the neighbourhood making people lives hell in New York City.. Tommy is a man who won't go down in a fight, in fact he goes around bumping off drug suppliers, gangs, corrupt lawyers, etc who causes trouble in and around New York's underworld...Also his main problem is another crooked officer James DiAngelo who seems determined to stop Tommy Gibbs from ruining his business.When it all grinds down to the nitty-gritty Tommy takes another shot to finish those where he started and restore peace to New York's underworld.This film made me laugh in a few parts, basically it's all to do with one man running his organisation in order to bring the bad guys who screwing up New York's neighbourhood.Great songs from Edwin Starr who also sings the theme tune to the film..It's worth a watch which Fred Williamson one of the stars who still makes his name as one of the classic names in blaxploitation films to date..If you ever get to see Hell up in Harlem, you'll see how the Big Boss takes care of the business.. You catch me drift..?