Trick Baby Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Trick Baby Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov November 5, 2022

Larry Yust's "Trick Baby" (1972) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Scorpion Releasing. The supplemental features on the release include exclusive new program with Larry Yust; vintage trailer; and vintage radio spot. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The con never ends as long as there is a sucker.

In the city of brotherly love, veteran con artists Blue Howard (Mel Stewart) and White Folks (Kiel Martin) convince an elderly man to pay $10,000 for a bunch of fake diamonds. When their target discovers that he has lost his money, he crashes his car, suffers a heart attack, and ends up in a local hospital fighting for his life. Shortly after, his son, Nino Parelli (Tony Mazzadra), a prominent mafia boss, puts a price on their heads.

Instead of immediately leaving the city, however, Blue and Folks begin working on another job, which has the potential to be the biggest one they have ever done. A few days later, Blue becomes a real estate agent while Folks convinces a couple of amateur businessmen to partner with him in a hot property deal that could make them a lot richer. After the amateur businessmen hand over $100,000 in cash and the money is deposited in a local bank, Blue and Folks part ways with them and prepare to make an emergency withdrawal, but their perfect plan to get rich quickly begins to fall apart. First, a crooked cop (Dallas Edward Hayes) who has been promised a cut of their earlier winnings discovers that he has been played and goes on the warpath, and then a couple of Parelli’s goons begin tracking them down.

In an exclusive new program produced for this release, director Larry Yust recalls how he was approached with an offer to shoot Trick Baby and describes the original screenplay he was handed as an utter disaster. According to Yust, the screenplay was so poorly written that it was unfilmable. But Yust read the bestselling novel by Iceberg Slim that inspired it, liked it a lot, and agreed to do Trick Baby with a new screenplay. Yust and two other writers are credited as having worked on the new screenplay, but it is not difficult to conclude that Yust had the final say on virtually everything, from the lingo that was to be used throughout the film to the exact manner in which humor and action would be blended to give it its identity.

Producers Marshall Backlar and James Levitt were right to trust Yust and his instincts because in its current form Trick Baby is something of a minor masterpiece. On one hand, it has the raw personality and macho attitude of a blaxploitation thriller which means that it does not have any recognizable filters. On the other hand, its directness and kinetic energy seem to have been borrowed straight from John Cassavetes’ early works. (A laidback but very cool jazzy score from a mysterious artist named James Bond makes the Cassavetes connection practically impossible to miss). So, if seen from the right angle Trick Baby is a very special urban Americana that has great value as a ‘70s time capsule as well.

Once production started Stewart and Martin did a lot of improvising, but Yust explains that he was always in control of their work. What does this mean? It means that the improvising does not alter the rhythm of the action and drama. It also means that Trick Baby never creates the impression that it switches into auto-pilot mode, which could have been very easy considering how the action and drama keep overlapping until the final credits roll.

Yust worked with cinematographer Isidore Mankofsky, who also lensed his much better-known cult film Homebodies. The footage they shot in some of Philadelphia’s rougher areas easily could have been used in a conventional documentary.

*Another very unique and enjoyable film about con artists from the same period is Bruce Geller’s Harry in Your Pocket!. This film has a bigger cast and was shot on the West Coast and in Canada, but it is a wonderful time capsule as well.

Trick Baby Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Trick Baby arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Scorpion Releasing.

The release is sourced from an older master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. Unfortunately, this master is barely serviceable, and in many areas, it is actually problematic. For example, while most of the daylight footage appears to be holding up well, the indoor and nighttime footage quite easily transforms the grain into conventional noise. The good news is that in these areas there is still quite a bit of fine detail, but even on a smaller screen, you will easily conclude that a proper new master will produce vastly superior visuals. Depth and clarity fluctuate as well. When the limitations of the master are most pronounced, they instantly become problematic, too (see screencapture #20). Color balance is convincing, but there is definitely room for improvement. Image stability is good. A few blemishes and dirt spots can be seen, but there are no large cuts, warped or torn frames to report. So, most areas of the film gravitate around the 3.25/5.00 mark, but a few areas drop around the 3.00/5.00 and even 2.75/5.00 marks. Needless to say, even a proper new 2K master from an interpositive would have given the film a much more attractive organic appearance. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Trick Baby Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The lossless audio track is very solid. Even if you turn up the volume quite a bit, you won't hear distracting hiss, pops, or other similar age-related anomalies. If there is any room for improvement, I have to speculate that it would be primarily rebalancing work that strengthens existing qualities because nothing appears to be seriously compromised or lost.

Trick Baby Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with Director Larry Yust - in this exclusive new program, director Larry Yust recalls how he was offered to shoot Trick Baby and explains why the first screenplay he was handed had to be discarded, how he treated the original material from Iceberg Slims' bestselling novel, and what it was like to shoot the film on location in Philadelphia. Mr. Yust's comments are very candid and quite entertaining. In English, not subtitled. (28 min).

• Trailer - a vintage trailer for Trick Baby. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

• Radio Spot - a vintage radio spot for Trick Baby. In English, not subtitled. (1 min).

• Cover - a reversible cover with vintage poster art for Trick Baby.

Trick Baby Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If during the 1970s John Cassavetes had directed a blaxploitation thriller it would have looked exactly like Larry Yust's Trick Baby. Two years after Trick Baby, Cassavetes directed The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, which has a different personality but impresses in a similar way. When seen from the right angle, these films instantly become very special pieces of urban Americana that only the 1970s could have produced. Scorpion Releasing's Blu-ray release is sourced from a shaky dated master that was supplied by Universal Pictures, but until someone properly restores Trick Baby I think that it should not be ignored. If you decide to pick up Trick Baby for your collection, I recommend that you bundle it with Yust's Homebodies, which is another minor classic. RECOMMENDED.