"If He Hollers, Let Him Go!" is trash. That it should be playing in a reputable first-run theater is astonishing; apparently it opened downtown because it has two cheaply exploited angles: nudity and racism. The ads make a lot of both.
I say racism, not race. Although this film features black actors in starring roles, It does not in any sense treat those actors with dignity or even decency. The distinguished black actor Raymond St. Jacques is forced to act in situations and mouth lines which must have caused him untold mental suffering.
The plot is insulting garbage. The story panders in prejudice, deliberately exploiting black-white tensions with a series of scenes in which characters pound, gouge and kick each other bloody. This is an evil film, a dishonest film, an ugly film.
Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.
Raymond St. Jacques as James Lake
Dana Wyntel as Ellen Whitlock
Kevin McCarthy as Leslie Whitlock
Barbara McNair as Lily
Arthur O'Connell as Prosecutor
John Russell as Sheriff