Director Michael Campus with New York Times Film Critic Elvis Mitchell

The 40th Anniversary screening of the Mack was a gala affair. Fans and luminaries gathered in front of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Bing Theater waiting for the arrival of Director Michael Campus and New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell.

Mr Campus arrived with his wife and business partner Arla Campus. Fans and friends gathered to greet him. A film crew was on hand for informal interviews. Inside, there were many local Hollywood celebrities (and Mack fans)  such as Howard Hessman (WKRP in Cincinnati) and the former manager of Motown great Willie Hutch.  The version screened was from the private collection of Quentin Tarantino - a rarely seen alternative cut.

The informative and at times emotional Q and A session after the screening gave a behind the scenes look about the making of The Mack, the challenges faced to make the film and some history of Oakland California in the early 70’s.

Michael Campus’s 1973 crime melodrama features a charismatic lead performance by Max Julien as the pimp Goldie, whose soaring arrogance and movie-star charm laid the bedrock for hip-hop, and introduced the word “mack” into popular culture. “The Mack” brought the same kind of electricity and excitement to theaters during its day as Warner Brothers’ gangster dramas as “The Public Enemy” and “Little Caesar” did in the 1930s; like those films, “The Mack” was an examination of the social issues that led to criminal activity.

But unlike those movies, “The Mack” explored the African American underworld—groundbreaking territory—and the hypnotic combination of glamour and violence from a black perspective took the world by storm. As Goldie rises and his best friend Slim (Richard Pryor) savors the life, his activist brother (Roger E. Mosley) wages a campaign to bring a finish to the pimps’ ascent—even if it means the end for his own brother.