{ "id": "ept37pg753", "slug": "uptight", "title": "Uptight", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s", "label": "Drama films 1960s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1966-1969", "label": "Released 1966 to 1969", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1966-1969" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000: Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Uptight (Up Tight!), 1968 American drama by blacklisted director Jules Dassin; all-Black remake of Ford's The Informer set in Cleveland after MLK's assassination; Paramount; box-office failure; Booker T. Jones score.", "snippet": "Uptight (Up Tight!), 1968 American drama by blacklisted director Jules Dassin; all-Black remake of Ford's The Informer set in Cleveland after MLK's assassination; Paramount; box-office failure; Booker T. Jones score.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1966-1969", "markdown": "# Uptight\n\n**Uptight** (sometimes rendered **Up Tight!**) is a 1968 American drama film directed, produced, and co-written by [Jules Dassin](https://www.edgepedia.org/jules-dassin), a remake of [John Ford](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-ford)'s 1935 film *The Informer* that transposes [Liam O'Flaherty](https://www.edgepedia.org/liam-oflaherty)'s story of betrayal from the Irish revolution to the Black Power movement in Cleveland in the days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.[1](https://www.paramount.com/movies/uptight) • [2](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/uptight-1968/) It was produced by Marluken Productions (Marlukin Productions) for Paramount Pictures, runs 104 minutes, and was photographed in Technicolor by Boris Kaufman.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22742-UPTIGHT)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | New York opening 18 December 1968; limited theatrical release 28 December 1968; working title *Betrayal*[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22742-UPTIGHT) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up_tight) |\n| Source | Remake of John Ford's *The Informer* (1935), based on Liam O'Flaherty's novel; first filmed by RKO-Radio in 1935[1](https://www.paramount.com/movies/uptight) • [3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22742-UPTIGHT) |\n| Setting | Cleveland's Black ghetto, April 1968, days after the King assassination; location scenes filmed on Cleveland's east side and in the Flats[5](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/uptight/) • [6](https://coolcleveland.com/2019/02/glenville-library-screens-jules-dassins-1968-uptight-set-and-filmed-in-cleveland/) |\n| Principal cast | Julian Mayfield (Tank), Raymond St. Jacques (B.G.), Ruby Dee (Laurie), Frank Silvera (Kyle), Roscoe Lee Browne (Clarence), Max Julien (Johnny)[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22742-UPTIGHT) |\n| Music | Score by Booker T. Jones, performed by Booker T. and the MG's; the theme \"Time Is Tight\" became the band's biggest hit[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22742-UPTIGHT) • [7](https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/hoberman-uptight-jules-dassin) |\n| Commercial result | A box-office failure; Paramount rereleased it in spring 1969 on a double bill with Otto Preminger's *Skidoo*[7](https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/hoberman-uptight-jules-dassin) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nThe story follows Tank Williams (Julian Mayfield), an unemployed Black steelworker in [Cleveland](https://www.edgepedia.org/cleveland). Shattered by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Tank gets drunk and fails to assist his best friend Johnny Wells ([Max Julien](https://www.edgepedia.org/max-julien)) and two confederates in the robbery of a Cleveland ammunition depot. Hampered by his absence, the trio is discovered, and Johnny kills a guard while escaping. Tank is expelled from the militant organization led by B.G. (Raymond St. Jacques), which, convinced that King's death has shown the failure of nonviolence, advocates guns as the only means of liberation. The informer Clarence ([Roscoe Lee Browne](https://www.edgepedia.org/roscoe-lee-browne)) tells Tank of a $1,000 reward for information leading to Johnny's capture; in despair, after being rejected by his community, Tank betrays Johnny's whereabouts to the police, who surround the ghetto and gun the fugitive down. The militants deduce that Tank is the informer, and, pursued by Rick and Larry, he races to the steel mills where he once worked.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22742-UPTIGHT)\n\n## Production\n\n**Origins.** Paramount, seeking the young audience that had made *Bonnie and Clyde* a success, conceived a remake of *The Informer*, and Dassin wanted to make it with an all-Black cast set in inner-city America.[7](https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/hoberman-uptight-jules-dassin) • [8](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063748/) Dassin had been named as a communist before the [House Un-American Activities Committee](https://www.edgepedia.org/house-un-american-activities-committee) and blacklisted in 1950, resuming his career in Europe with *Rififi* (1955) and *Never on Sunday* (1960); *Uptight* was his return to Hollywood.[7](https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/hoberman-uptight-jules-dassin) He wanted to call the film *Betrayal*, which was also its working title; the title *Uptight* was suggested by cast member [Ruby Dee](https://www.edgepedia.org/ruby-dee), who, with Julian Mayfield, revised Dassin's screenplay.[7](https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/hoberman-uptight-jules-dassin) • [3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22742-UPTIGHT)\n\n**Collaboration.** Dee, who also plays Tank's girlfriend Laurie, described in her autobiography *With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together* how she spent her workdays sequestered in Dassin's apartment, fleshing out scenes he described to her and handing him drafts to review.[9](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7329-life-meets-art-in-uptight-ruby-dee-s-groundbreaking-collaboration-with-jules-dassin) Mayfield was a produced playwright and published novelist whose political journey had run from the Harlem circle around [Paul Robeson](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-robeson) to revolutionary Cuba and newly independent Ghana.[7](https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/hoberman-uptight-jules-dassin)\n\n**Cleveland and 1968.** Location shooting took place on Cleveland's east side and in the Flats, wrapping in July 1968.[6](https://coolcleveland.com/2019/02/glenville-library-screens-jules-dassins-1968-uptight-set-and-filmed-in-cleveland/) • [10](https://brightlightsfilm.com/dont-talk-to-us-about-being-killed-uptight-and-the-problem-of-black-cinema-in-hollywood/) Reality intruded on the production at several points: King was assassinated during shooting; a few weeks later a Black nationalist group that had provided security during filming fought police, setting off several days of rioting (the Glenville shootout); and some crew members were FBI informants reporting to [J. Edgar Hoover](https://www.edgepedia.org/j-edgar-hoover).[10](https://brightlightsfilm.com/dont-talk-to-us-about-being-killed-uptight-and-the-problem-of-black-cinema-in-hollywood/) According to the Criterion Collection essay, Dassin also took his team to Memphis, Atlanta, and Baltimore to gather documentary material woven into the narrative, and took the film to Paris to edit, evading Paramount's threats to suppress the revolutionary content of the script.[9](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7329-life-meets-art-in-uptight-ruby-dee-s-groundbreaking-collaboration-with-jules-dassin)\n\n**Style and music.** The film is shot predominantly at night with tilted angles and bright colors organized around red, white, and blue, and alternates gritty location reality with Tank's stylized point of view, including painted studio backdrops of the cityscape.[10](https://brightlightsfilm.com/dont-talk-to-us-about-being-killed-uptight-and-the-problem-of-black-cinema-in-hollywood/) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up_tight) The score by Booker T. Jones of Booker T. and the MG's was the film's most successful element; the theme \"Time Is Tight\" became the band's biggest hit and later entered the Blues Brothers' stage intro music.[7](https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/hoberman-uptight-jules-dassin) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up_tight)\n\n## Reception\n\n**Contemporary critics.** Roger Ebert, the film critic of the *Chicago Sun-Times*, called it \"a forthright treatment of black militancy\" that \"doesn't chicken out,\" presenting the passions of Black militants head-on with little comfort for white liberals, and found it remarkable that a major studio financed and released it.[11](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/up-tight-1969) Vincent Canby of *The New York Times* called it \"an earnest hybrid of a movie,\" the transportation of *The Informer* from Dublin at the time of \"the troubles\" to the Cleveland of 1968 in the hours immediately after King's assassination, and concluded that it was too important in its essentials to be judged simply as entertainment; his review prompted a rebuttal from the paper's lead critic Renata Adler.[2](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/uptight-1968/) • [7](https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/hoberman-uptight-jules-dassin) [Leonard Maltin](https://www.edgepedia.org/leonard-maltin) called it \"a tough remake of *The Informer* . . . ghetto style\" and awarded three stars, while Halliwell's Film Guide judged it \"too schematic to make any dramatic or human impression.\"[2](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/uptight-1968/) Critics were racially polarized: the *Amsterdam News* found the anger of [Black people](https://www.edgepedia.org/black-people) present on screen at last, while the Communist Party's *Daily World* moved from an initial notice to a second review warning the movie was designed to \"intensify the racist fears held by whites.\"[7](https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/hoberman-uptight-jules-dassin) Reviewing for the magazine *Black Dialogue*, the poet [Nikki Giovanni](https://www.edgepedia.org/nikki-giovanni) wrote that it would be foolish to expect a movie to plan a revolution, but that *Uptight* was \"already the strongest possibility of a Black movie I have seen.\"[10](https://brightlightsfilm.com/dont-talk-to-us-about-being-killed-uptight-and-the-problem-of-black-cinema-in-hollywood/)\n\n**Commercial failure and afterlife.** The film depicts a fiasco and was one at the box office; after its failure Dassin announced he would never make another movie in America, and Paramount rereleased it in spring 1969 paired with *Skidoo*.[7](https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/hoberman-uptight-jules-dassin) It was largely unseen between its original release and later home-video and streaming editions, including a 2012 DVD from Olive Films and a 2018 streaming release.[2](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/uptight-1968/) • [12](https://blacklistedculture.com/uptight-1968/) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up_tight)\n\n## Place in film history\n\n**A precursor, not a blaxploitation film.** Although often framed as a predecessor to blaxploitation, *Uptight* bears little resemblance to the early-1970s cycle of larger-than-life fantasy heroes; scholars place its depiction of an insurrectionary underground closer to films such as [Larry Clark](https://www.edgepedia.org/larry-clark)'s *As Above, So Below* (1973) and its nuanced female protagonist alongside the heroines of Haile Gerima's *Bush Mama* and Charles Burnett's *Killer of Sheep*.[6](https://coolcleveland.com/2019/02/glenville-library-screens-jules-dassins-1968-uptight-set-and-filmed-in-cleveland/) • [10](https://brightlightsfilm.com/dont-talk-to-us-about-being-killed-uptight-and-the-problem-of-black-cinema-in-hollywood/) The possibility Nikki Giovanni saw in the film was taken up not in Hollywood but in the independent cinema controlled by Black filmmakers that emerged in the following decade.[10](https://brightlightsfilm.com/dont-talk-to-us-about-being-killed-uptight-and-the-problem-of-black-cinema-in-hollywood/)\n\n**Personal resonance for Dassin.** Commentators note that the theme of betrayal and expulsion by one's peers echoed Dassin's own history: fellow filmmakers such as Edward Dmytryk and [Elia Kazan](https://www.edgepedia.org/elia-kazan) informed on him to HUAC, leading to his blacklist and exile from Hollywood.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up_tight) The film's title sequence was by the blacklisted animators Faith and John Hubley, and the production was, in J. Hoberman's phrase, the most deeply Red movie produced in Hollywood since the dawn of the Cold War.[7](https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/hoberman-uptight-jules-dassin)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Uptight, Paramount Pictures](https://www.paramount.com/movies/uptight)\n2. [Uptight (1968), Toronto Film Society film notes](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/uptight-1968/)\n3. [Uptight (1968), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22742-UPTIGHT)\n4. [Uptight, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up_tight)\n5. [Uptight, Dennis Schwartz Reviews](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/uptight/)\n6. [Glenville Library Screens Jules Dassin's 1968 \"Uptight,\" CoolCleveland](https://coolcleveland.com/2019/02/glenville-library-screens-jules-dassins-1968-uptight-set-and-filmed-in-cleveland/)\n7. [J. Hoberman, \"Jules Dassin's 1968 Militantly Black Movie 'Uptight' Echoes American Social Tumult,\" Tablet Magazine, February 22, 2021](https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/hoberman-uptight-jules-dassin)\n8. [Uptight (1968), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063748/)\n9. [Ina Archer, \"Life Meets Art in Uptight,\" The Criterion Collection, March 25, 2021](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7329-life-meets-art-in-uptight-ruby-dee-s-groundbreaking-collaboration-with-jules-dassin)\n10. [David Grundy, \"'Don't talk to us about being killed': Uptight and the Problem of Black Cinema in Hollywood,\" Bright Lights Film Journal, August 26, 2020](https://brightlightsfilm.com/dont-talk-to-us-about-being-killed-uptight-and-the-problem-of-black-cinema-in-hollywood/)\n11. [Roger Ebert, \"Up Tight,\" Chicago Sun-Times, February 19, 1969](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/up-tight-1969)\n12. [Uptight (1968), BlacklistedCulture.com](https://blacklistedculture.com/uptight-1968/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1960s › Released 1966 to 1969*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/uptight", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/uptight.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Uptight\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/uptight. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Uptight](https://www.edgepedia.org/uptight)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/uptight](https://www.edgepedia.org/uptight). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Uptight\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/uptight. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Uptight, 1968 American drama by blacklisted director Jules Dassin; all-Black remake of Ford's The Informer set in Cleveland after MLK's assassination; Paramount; box-office failure; Booker T. Jones score." }