Mister T (Trouble Man)

Created by John D.F. Black
(1932-2018)

“I come up hard baby, but now I’m cool,
I didn’t make it sugar, playin’ by the rules
I come up hard baby, but now I’m fine
I’m checkin’ trouble sugar, movin’ down the line.”
— from Trouble Man by Marvin Gaye

No, this MISTER T is not the jewelery-bedecked buffoon with a mohawk from the Rocky films (and later, TV’s The A-Team). We’re talking here about the “hero” of Ivan Dixon’s 1972 blaxploitation flick Trouble Man.

As played by Robert Hooks, T is a super-slick Black troubleshooter who finds himself caught between two warring gangs. But doncha worry ’bout a thing, because this cat’s about as tough as they come.

There’s not much subtle about this film. Even the tagline (one of several)  warned, “Mr. T is cold hard steel! He’ll give you peace of mind… piece by piece!” and that about summed up his character.

Less than a year after Shaft rocked the world, Mister T already seemed like a parody of the genre; a badass motherfucker complete with $600 three-piece suits and a snazzy $10,000 Lincoln Continental.

Of course, he was raised in the streets, but we’re assured “he’s been a man since he was a kid!”

“If you rub him the wrong way, he’ll blow up in your face!”

“His friends call him Mr. T… his enemies call for mercy!”

You get the idea.

Screenwriter (and executive producer) John D.F. Black‘s big claim to fame was that he had helped “blacken” Ernest Tidyman‘s script for Shaft. So that’s more or less what you get here — gone are any of the nuances and ambiguities of that landmark film. Instead, we get action.

And plenty of it.

There’s a pretty gruesome (but effective) fight in an elevator, and a few other good scenes. That’s no doubt due to director Ivan Dixon’s background as an athlete and stunt double; a background that also served him well in his work on such TV shows as Magnum P.I., The Rockford Files and the theatrical release The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973). Still, while the scenes in Trouble Man don’t really go anywhere, mostly because the script is essentially just your standard ode to guns, booty and drugs, this is an enjoyable enough slice of blaxploitation, best accompanied by a six pack and a giant bowl of popcorn.

Oh, and music…

Marvin Gaye (who had a bit part) did the music, working as both a songwriter and score composer. After all, Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes were both doing it, so why not Marvin? The result was moody and funky in parts, but the only real highlights were  ‘T Plays It Cool’, the sax-dominated ‘T Stands For Trouble’ and the anguished, overwrought minor hit ‘Trouble Man.”

Not bad, but nothing that would make people forget the themes from Shaft or Superfly.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John D. F. Black was the writer/producer on Trouble Man, and had co-penned the Shaft film with Ernest Tidyman. He’d begun his career in television, writing  for shows like Johnny Staccato, Surfside Six, The Untouchables, Star Trek, Mannix and Hawaii Five-O. He won an Edgar Award in 1972 for Best Television Feature or Miniseries Teleplay for his script for the TV movie Thief, which starred Richard Crenna and Angie Dickinson.

UNDER OATH

• “Cliché-ridden script includes about four hundred killings, glorifying underworld life. Well-made but tasteless.”
  — Leonard Maltin (TV Movies and Video Guide)
• “I’ve always been a tremendous fan of the Trouble Man soundtrack, believing that it’s one of Marvin’s finer creations, even if we only get glimpses of his voice throughout. The rockin’ 2nd track, “T Plays it Cool,” man, I gotta play ad infinitum.
  — Sean Cardinalli (Los Angeles)

FILMS

• TROUBLE MAN | Buy the DVD | Buy the Blu-Ray 
  (1972, 20th Century Fox/JDFB Productions)
  Screenplay by John D.F. Black
  Directed by Ivan Dixon 
  Produced by Joel Freeman
  Executive producer: John D.F. Black
  Original music by Marvin Gaye and J.J. Johnson | Buy the soundtrack
  Cinematography by Michel Hugo 
  Starring Robert Hooks as MR. T
  Also starring Paul Winfield, Ralph Waite, William Smithers, Paula Kelly, Julius Harris, Bill Henderson, Wayne Storm, Akili Jones, Vince Howard, Stack Pierce, Larry Cook, Virginia Capers, Rick Ferrell, James ‘Texas Blood’ Brown, Marvin Gaye

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

• Trouble Was His Business: 50 Years Of Trouble Man
  Michael Gonzales on how the story of a fixer in South Central LA, with a Marvin Gaye score, changed the game. (November 2022, CrimeReads)

THE DICK OF THE DAY

• August 28, 2026
  THE BOTTOM LINE: Not the the A-Team buffoon, but an enjoyable enough slice of blaxploitation action from 1972, starring Robert Hooks as the slick and righteous private dick in the sharp suit, caught between two warring gangs. Marvin Gaye brought the funk.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.