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Poster for Joe Dancer: The Big Black Pill

Joe Dancer: The Big Black Pill

1981 · 100 min

A gritty, unhurried private-eye yarn that trades flash for dogged legwork and a slow-building sense of rot beneath wealth.

Directed by
Reza Badiyi
Genres
Mystery, Crime, Drama
Overview
The first of three private-eye movies created by Robert Blake about rugged Joe Dancer as the forerunner to a prospective but unrealized series after the retirement of his "Baretta" character. In the initial outing, Blake, as Dancer, follows a trail of bodies through a maze of corruption involving a politically ambitious Beverly Hills family.

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Directed by
Reza Badiyi
Genres
Mystery, Crime, Drama
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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
    Pacing
    measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
    Attention
    engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
    Themes
    • corruption
    • power
    • crime
    • family
    Places
    • big city
    Era
    contemporary
    Audience
    adult
    Form
    • procedural
    Content intensity
    • Gore none
    • Language mild
    • Violence mild
    • Sex mild
    All scales, 0 to 10
    Scales, 0 to 10
    ScaleValue0 to 10
    Action3
    Horror1
    Humour2
    Realism7
    Romance2
    Tension5
    Darkness6
    Complexity5
    Emotional weight4

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    Cast

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    Details

    Genres
    mystery, crime, drama, tv movie
    Directed by
    Reza Badiyi
    Written by
    Michael Butler
    Starring
    Robert Blake, JoBeth Williams, Neva Patterson, James Gammon, Veronica Cartwright, Carol Wayne, Edward Winter, Phillip R. Allen
    Cinematography
    Sherman Kunkel
    Runtime
    100 min
    Country
    United States of America
    Languages
    English

    TMDBIMDb