Based on the hugely successful novel by Kyle Onstott, Mandingo takes the audience beyond the sentimentalized South with the shocking truth that other films dare not show! The lurid drama unfolds as the son (Perry King) of a Louisiana plantation owner (James Mason) buys a new slave (Ken Norton) in the hopes of training him to be a bare-knuckle boxer. But when they return home, the son’s young wife (Susan George) sets her eyes on the new prize. Controversial & uncompromising, Mandingo is a jaw-dropping hothouse melodrama, sticky with red-blooded tempers and fueled by forbidden lust. It’s unflinching & unforgettable!
“The tedious, emasculated stereotype of the Deep South circa 1840, with its stoical slaves and demure southern belles, is effectively exploded here. Fleischer utilizes the real sexuality and violence behind slavery to mount a compelling slice of American Gothic which analyses, in appropriately lurid terms, the twists and turns of a distorted society.” – Time Out
