Priest, a New York City drug kingpin, devises a scheme to get out of the business and retire with a big payday, but his plans are complicated when a street dealer rats him out to the police.
Score
Curtis Mayfield's soundtrack — better than the movie and he knew it.
Costume
Priest's coke-white suits and fur coats are character development.
Acting
Ron O'Neal's ice-cold charisma carries every frame.
Director
Gordon Parks Jr.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The NAACP and Congress actually protested this film for glorifying drug dealers, while Black audiences embraced Priest as a rare self-determined protagonist who outsmarts white systems.
Director Gordon Parks Jr. financed the $500,000 budget partly through his father (famed photographer/director Gordon Parks Sr.) and two dentists — it became one of the most profitable films of 1972.
US
