#sam greenlee

[roseillest]

The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973)

[poppapeasy]

[veryslowreader]

The Spook Who Sat by the Door by Sam Greenlee

Snowfall: "Fight or Flight"

[luminaltheater]

Black Film of the Week: THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR (1973)

Director: Ivan Dixon. With Lawrence Cook, J.A. Preston, Paula Kelly, Paul Butler

At one point in the 80’s and early 90’s, you could not find VHS copies of “The Spook Who Sat By The Door”. Basically erased from history, it's not like they would broadcast it on TV.  So Black folks would arrange private screenings of bootleg copes in their homes and businesses, and spend hours breaking down how powerful both the film and its message is, and whether it could become a reality.  

“Spook…” centers on Dan Freeman (Lawrence Cook), the only Black agent of the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.), who after being recruited on affirmative action initiatives, and despite passing with superior marks, is made a “copy boy”, but leaves the agency after learning all he could about warfare, and returns to his home of Chicago to teach young people how to start the revolution.  Whaaatttt?!?  Based on the novel by Sam Greenlee, the fact alone that this film was made was a revolutionary act. But that it was made with skill, sincerity, and intense acting from its full cast and director, noted actor Ivan Dixon (more on Dixon in a future post) sells it all.

We don’t have enough space here to tell you every aspect on why this deserves its place in film history, but will share a bit more:

While the film was supposed to take place in Chicago, unsurprisingly, as David Somerset writes in a 2015 article for the BFI, “the city’s mayor Richard Daley refused to give them permission to shoot there. But help was at hand. Dubbed ‘chocolate city’, Gary, Indiana was home to a new administration under its first Black mayor, Richard Hatcher [who] opened the city doors to the “Spook” production team and gave them access to Gary’s police and fire departments, and even a helicopter...Halfway through shooting the film, Dixon and Greenlee ran out of money. Shown footage from the ‘riot’ scene cut together with shots of a sexy nightclub dancer and band, [film studio] United Artists were easily persuaded to support what looked like a blaxploitation movie. In addition the film was now to have an original score by electric-jazz musician Herbie Hancock.” 

Though an overnight smash, more trouble came as the FBI ‘persuaded’ theater managers to forego further screenings. “All the prints were seized, though director Ivan Dixon had the foresight to archive the negative under a different title, and it’s for this reason alone that the film survives today.” Dixon would never direct another feature film, Cook never got another meaty starring role, and Greenlee became near destitute.  

To see how the film affected the masses, and how all creatives involved were affected, watch the dynamic, award-winning documentary “Infiltrating Hollywood: The Rise and Fall of the Spook Who Sat by the Door” (2011), co-directed by Christine Acham and Cliff Ward, which has screened at over 20 national and int’l film festivals and universities.

Just like back in the day, the only place online to find a grainy copy of “Spook” is on YouTube (runtime is 102 min.) but you can also purchase a DVD.

[everythingsecondhand]

The Spook Who Sat By The Door, by Sam Greenlee (Pan, 1972).

From a charity shop in Belfast.

Sam Greenlee says of himself: “I am a black American and I write; not necessarily in that order of importance. I was born of a refugee family in Chicago on July 13th, 1930, a second generation immigrant from the deep south. My father was a chauffeur, my mother a singer and dancer in the chorus line of the Regal Theatre on Forty-seventh and South Parkway on the south side of Chicago.

‘I received a non-education in Chicago ghetto non-schools and played catch-up at three universities: Wincsonsin, Chicago and Thessalonika. I served for two years as an Infantry Lieutenant in the US Army, in the 31st Infantry “Dixie” Division. I was a professional propagandist in the foreign service of the United States Information Service. I served in Iraq, Pakistan, Indonesia and Greece and was given the Meretritious Service Award for activities during the 1958 Kassem revolution in Baghdad.

‘I have recently returned from four years of writing in Greece. I am employed with a fat salary and fancy title, by and otherwise white civil rights organization in Chicago. My job is to sit by the door.’

[thespookwhosatbythedoor]

Reading this book and watching this movie in itself is a revolutionary act because neither should exist in a society built on white supremacy. If you haven't make it a priority. #thespookwhosatbythedoor

[coupdetorchon]

[cardedly]

The men thought him harmless and appreciated that he did not try to steal their women; Freeman thought that there was little to choose from among the black middle-class chicks available and that risking the wrath of an insecure middle-class Negro, whose only available test of manhood was confined to the boundaries of his bed, was a waste of time and energy