Review of Tom

White former GI Jim (a decent and likable performance by director/co-writer Greydon Clark) goes to the dangerous black ghetto neighborhood of Watts, Los Angeles to deliver a letter from his black soldier friend who died in Vietnam. Jim soon finds himself dealing with hostility from both whites and blacks alike. Director Clark, who also co-wrote the sincere script with Alvin L. Fast, offers a strange, but still entertaining blend of straight drama and trashy exploitation: While Clark makes fine use of the gritty urban locations and astutely pegs the tense nature of race relations in the turbulent early 70's (Clark also deserves bonus points for depicting racism as something that both races fall prey to), he also really pours on the sleaze with a handful of tasty female nudity and a wild swinging pool party complete with hot buck naked skinny dipping babes. The earnest, if rather clunky, acting by the game cast keeps this film on track: Tom Johnigarn as the angry and antagonistic Makimba, Jacqueline Cole as Jim's perky and concerned girlfriend Nancy Dorian, Bambi Allen as the sweet Bobbi, and Fred D. Scott as Makimba's worried father Mr. Washington. Aldo Ray and Jock Mahoney are perfectly hateful as a couple of brutish bigoted cops. The jolting moments of ferocious violence and the uncompromising bummer ending pack a mean punch. Cinematographer Louis Horvath's use of a hand-held camera adds an extra kinetic buzz. Ed Cobb's mellow bluesy score does the right-on groovy trick. An interesting oddity.