Mandingo

Set on a Southern plantation in the antebellum era, Mandingo centres on Warren Maxwell, the owner of a fading estate who presses his son Hammond to marry and provide an heir. Hammond chooses his cousin Blanche, but the marriage quickly sours, and he turns his attention elsewhere. Meanwhile, his father acquires a Mandingo slave named Mede, intending to train him as a prize fighter and use him for breeding. The arrival of Mede sets off a chain of relationships and tensions among the plantation's white family and its enslaved people.

Richard Fleischer directed, working from a screenplay by Norman Wexler and Jack Kirkland, with Dino De Laurentiis producing. It was Fleischer's eighteenth film as director, following Mr. Majestyk and preceding The Prince and the Pauper. Perry King plays Hammond, James Mason plays Warren, Susan George plays Blanche, and former boxer Ken Norton appears as Mede, alongside Richard Ward and Brenda Sykes in a credited cast of thirty-four.

Released in June 1975 and running 127 minutes, the film drew sharply divided reactions. Its critics' rating stands at 5.4/10 from twenty-four reviews, while audiences rate it 6.5/10 on IMDb from roughly 4,700 votes and 6.6/10 on TMDB from a much smaller sample of 164. The gap suggests viewers have generally been more receptive to the film than reviewers were.