WATERMELON MAN

FILM EXTRAS 1970 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Introduction, Q&A, Booklet

Acomedy about a white bigot who mysteriously becomes black overnight? You only have to know that studio bosses originally wanted someone like Alan Arkin or Jack Lemmon to ‘black up’ for the role to see how awful this could have been. But in the capable hands of filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles, who was only the second black director to helm a Hollywood studio feature, Watermelon Man turned into one of the great social satires of the ’70s. Bleak and angry? Sure. But extremely funny, too.

Anton van Beek