Personal Problems

The Landlord


            
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Losing Ground


            Dr Hess Green [Duane Jones], anthropologist and geologist, is studying the Myrthian culture of Nigeria. Myrthians were human blood drinkers. Green gets a strange dagger from Myrthia and asks research assistant George Meda [Bill Gunn] to help him. When Meda stabs Green with the dagger (Why? "Oh, he's freaking out again"), Green doesn't die; he becomes immortal and needs to drink human blood. When Meda's wife [Marlene Clark] comes looking for Meda, she falls in love with Green. And when she finds her husband's body in Green's freezer, she marries Green!!!! Green makes Mrs. Meda immortal, then goes to a revivalist church to save himself. It's a screwy life being a Myrthian vampire, I guess.
    

Ganja & Hess


            A hip African-American angel returns to Earth to help a Jewish tailor re-examine his life. (Josiah Howard, "Blaxploitation Cinema: The Essential Reference Guide.")The story opens with Morris Mishkin, an elderly Jewish tailor (played by Zero Mostel) at the welfare office trying to get assistance paying for his wife's medicine. When he returns home we see that he and his wife, Fanny, live in a deteriorating neighborhood in New York City. Fanny (played by Ida Kaminska) is in bed and appears to be very ill. Morris tries to make her comfortable and then sits down to rest. Fanny tells Morris that she'd promised her friend that Morris would sew a new suit for her friend's son. Morris tells Fanny he will not, as the woman still owes him for a suit he made for her. Fanny says that she told her friend not to worry about the money. This upsets Morris, who tells Fanny angrily that they need the money, and he will not make the suit. Fanny becomes so upset she knocks over the tray of medications on her nightstand and then falls limp on the bed. Morris goes to her, worried, and tries to revive her. It appears as though she has died. Morris summons a friend to come immediately. He then recites a prayer to God to help him and falls asleep from exhaustion.When Morris awakens, it is dark and as he gets up to turn on lights, he finds a young black man sitting at his kitchen table. He is frightened that the man is there to harm him, and frantically searches for a weapon, coming up with a ladle instead of the knife that he he'd been reaching for. The man (played by Harry Belafonte) calmly takes the ladle and puts it away. Morris is having difficulty breathing, so the man helps him sit down and asks if he can help. Morris asks for water and when the man opens a cupboard to get a water glass, Morris jumps to grab a jar that has some money in it. The man returns the money jar to the cupboard and takes out a water glass. Morris also indicates he needs a pill that is near the sink, which the man gets for him.Having finally regained his composure, Morris asks the man who he is. The man introduces himself as Alexander Levine. Confused, Morris asks him, "You're Jewish?" Alex answers that he was Jewish and had been so willingly up until then. When Morris asks why he is no longer a Jew, Alex reveals that he is an Angel sent by God to help Morris. Morris cannot believe the man is an Angel and asks why he has no wings. Levine says that he is only recently deceased and has to help somebody first. Morris asks him to perform a miracle and Levine says he cannot yet perform miracles. Morris keeps trying to get the man to leave, as his wife is gravely ill. When he says this, the angel tells him that she is resting. Morris rushes to Fanny's side and sees that she is indeed resting and is in a different position on the bed from when he last saw her.The doorbell rings and Morris rushes to answer. He looks in the kitchen quickly; Alex is still in there. When Morris answers the door, he finds Dr. Berg (played by Mila O'Shea), the friend he'd called earlier. When Dr. Berg asks what the emergency was, first Morris tells him about his visitor. Dr. Berg looks in, and there's no one there. Morris tells Dr. Berg that Fanny was very ill. They enter her bedroom, where she's sitting up, alert and healthy looking. She does not seem to recall the earlier argument or that she'd either fainted or possibly died. The doctor sends Morris out of the room so he can examine Fanny, who he is surprised to find feeling well.Meanwhile Morris tries to return to the kitchen, but the door is locked... and Morris goes around to look in a tiny window to see Levine on the telephone. Alex has called a woman named Sally (played by Gloria Foster). In their conversation it comes out that Alexander owed some money to a someone who is sending people to collect it or kill him, and they've been harrassing Sally. He arranges to meet with her at a bar.When Dr. Berg finishes the exam, he exits the bedroom and wonders just what it was that made Morris call him earlier. Morris asks Dr. Berg to look in the kitchen. This time he sees Alex just as he's hanging up the phone. The Dr. Berg introduces himself and asks Alex who he is. He replies that he's an angel and asks Dr. Berg if he believes that. Dr. Berg replies yes... and Alex says 'just like that?' ...and Dr. Berg reaffirms and calls his wife to let her know he will be home soon. Alex asks Dr. Berg what's wrong with Mrs. Mishkin, and he explains that her heart does not properly pump blood. The trouble is, he explains it in a very technical way and Alex doesn't understand. Dr. Berg finally tells him that Fanny is dying and that no angel or medicine will stop it.Alex becomes upset that nobody believes he is an angel, and he leaves. Almost immediately Fanny starts coughing uncontrollably. When Dr. Berg and Morris go in to check on her, she complains that she cannot breath and that she feels almost as if she's drowning. The doctor makes her as comfortable as possible and gives Morris a prescription to get filled at the local pharmacy. He leaves and Morris rushes to the drugstore. When he gets there, he finds out that the meds cost more than he has and pleads with the pharmacist to sell it to him at a discount. The pharmacist explains it is a new medication and must be sold as prescribed. During this exchange, we see Alex watching through the window. Morris leaves with the prescription in his hand, which Alex snatches and goes in to the store, where he creates a distraction, sneaks behind the pharmacy counter, and pockets the pill bottle on the counter. He then exits the store and gives the pills to Morris.When they return to the apartment, Morris keeps asking Alex how he got the pills without the prescription and how he paid for them. He realizes that Alexander stole the pills and begins complaining. Alex than tells him to take the money from the jar in the kitchen and go pay for the pills. Morris states that is their grocery money, and Alexander retorts, "Do you want to eat, or do you want your wife's pills"? Morris realizes he needs both. He then invites Alex to a drink at a bar. When they get there, Sally shows up and Morris uses that as an opportunity to ditch Alexander.Morris returns home and checks on Fanny... Morris wants to go to bed and Fanny wants to talk. Alex and Sally show up... Alex has a few private words with Morris who first shuts the door on Sally, then reopens it and beckons her in. Morris lets them in and allows them to use a spare room to talk. Sally tells Alex about the people looking for their money and asks if he has it. He tells her that the money won't be a problem anymore, but does not tell her he is an angel. They talk, and at one point start to kiss and fool around on the bed. Morris opens the door to check on them, closes it, and starts to make a lot of noise in the bathroom, then running the sewing machine to make a suit, which Fanny tells him to stop. Alex tells Sally she is all he has, all that will be left of him when he's gone and tells her he truly loves her... and Sally tries to talk with Alex about their future and states that she wants to marry him. He tells her he can't but won't say why. They argue, Sally provokes Alex with insults, and Alex slaps Sally so she leaves.Morris finds Alex lying listlessly on the bed and offers to talk and help. Alex doesn't say much, puts on his coat and leaves the apartment, going up to the roof. Morris follows him and finds him standing on the ledge as if about to jump. He states that no one believes in him or cares, and Morris tells him that he believes and cares, and that Alex should come back to the apartment and be welcome.When they return, Fanny is up and has set the table for dinner. She asks about Alex, and when Morris introduces him as a friend, she says, "Be welcome" and sets another place at the table. Alex states he is an angel, and Fanny stops, looks at him, and asks if he has come to take her. He replies that no, he's come to help her live, and she states that she wants no help and has been ready to die for some time now. She then leaves the two men alone and lies down on the bed. Morris and Alexander eat dinner, drink wine, and enjoy the meal.As they talk, Alex says he can feel a change ever since Fanny saw him. Morris still won't believe Alex is an angel sent from God, and he begins to tell Alex that he doesn't believe in God anymore. This conversation has begun to upset Alex who begins to cry out. The two men begin to argue, and as Morris continues to complain about God, Alex begins to fade away until he is gone. Morris looks in on Fanny, then sits down and begins laughing hysterically, finally falling asleep.Later Dr. Berg shows up and goes to examine Fanny, who tells him that she does not feel well; he suspects her time has come. He wants to call an ambulance to take her to a hospital, but she refuses, saying she wants to die in her own bed in her own home. He wants to call in Morris, but Fanny says no. He tells her that Morris has a right to be there, to which she replies that over the years they shared many things, but that she did not want to share this. She allows Morris to look in and they start speaking in the their old language (Yiddish perhaps), and finally as he turns to go, he looks at her lovingly, waves his hand, and says a final goodbye.As he exits the room, he notices a hat that Alex left behind. We then see Morris wandering around New York with the hat, showing it to various black people, who shake their heads. He then spies a synagogue and goes in. He sees a group of young black people praying and sits down in a pew. Then he's gone and has left the hat behind. As he wanders back home, through an open lot, a black feather floats overhead. He tries to catch it, but it stays just out of his reach... and the last we see is the feather dancing in the sky.
    

The Angel Levine


            A Spike Lee Joint, DA SWEET BLOOD OF JESUS is a new kind of love story, one that centers on an addiction to blood that once doomed a long-forgotten ancient African tribe. When Dr. Hess Green (Stephen Tyrone Williams) is introduced to a mysteriously cursed artifact by an art curator, Lafayette Hightower (Elvis Nolasco), he is uncontrollably drawn into a newfound thirst for blood that overwhelms his soul. He, however, is not a vampire. Lafayette quickly succumbs to the ravenous nature of the affliction, but leaves Hess a transformed man. Soon, Lafayette's wife, Ganja Hightower (Zaraah Abrahams), comes looking for her husband and becomes involved in a dangerous romance with Hess that questions the very nature of love, addiction, sex, and status in our seemingly sophisticated society.A reinterpretation of Bill Gunn's horror cult film Ganja & Hess, which played as a Critics Choice at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, Spike Lee's stylized thriller features an Original Score by Bruce Hornsby.
    

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