William Marshall (August 19, 1924 – June 11, 2003) – There He Is Again (1972)
Best remembered for his role as Blacula, with soundtrack composed by Gene Page featuring the Hues Corporation who performed this funky, creepy cut on screen.
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William Marshall had a long career as an actor, director and opera singer, but is best remembered for his iconic role as Mamuwalde, the African prince turned vampire in the classic Blaxploitation horror films Blacula (1972) and Scream Blacula Scream (1973).
Born in Gary, Indiana, Marshall initially enrolled in New York University as an art student but ended up studying theater at the Actors Studio. He had a lengthy, distinguished career on stage and screen beginning in the 1940s, despite being blacklisted for his supposed Communist ties during the McCarthy era.
Marshall starred as Othello in a half dozen productions of Shakespeare’s classic, including a 1968 jazz musical version titled Catch My Soul that co-starred Jerry Lee Lewis as Iago. Also in 1968, he appeared in a guest role as brilliant computer scientist Dr. Richard Daystrom in Star Trek’s second season episode “The Ultimate Computer,” a powerful tale about the dangers of AI that grows more relevant with each passing year. He portrayed both Paul Robeson and Frederick Douglass on screen, spending years researching the latter’s life before starring in and co-producing the TV biopic Frederick Douglass: Slave and Statesman (1983).
He landed the title role in the 1972 film Blacula that gave birth to the Blaxploitation horror film genre. Marshall’s character Mamuwalde, the first Black vampire in film history, was an 18th century African prince who traveled to Transylvania to seek Count Dracula’s help in combatting the slave trade. He was instead bitten by Dracula and sealed in a coffin for two hundred years, before being shipped to early 1970s Los Angeles where he proceeded to terrorize the city.
The Blacula soundtrack was scored by legendary arranger and producer Gene Page, who composed, arranged and conducted most of it. The LP was produced by Gene’s brother Billy Page.
It contained three tracks by the Hues Corporation in their recording debut. These included the funky, creepy cut “There He Is Again,” which the group performed in the film during a scene at a nightclub where Mamuwalde came to return a purse to Tina (played by Vonetta McGee), the woman he believed was the reincarnation of his wife Luva.
All of the Hues Corporation’s songs were co-produced by Norm Ratner and Wally Holmes. “There He Is Again” was written by Holmes and arranged and conducted by Don Peake.
The rest of the soundtrack had several funky highlights, first and foremost its funk bomb title track “Blacula (The Stalkwalk).” It played over the film’s memorable animated opening credits, although the LP version was much funkier than the one heard in theaters. Another standout cut was “Movin’.”
Blacula was a low-budget film released by the independent studio American International Pictures (AIP), yet it grossed over a million dollars and became one of the top box office releases of 1972. It not only spawned a sequel co-starring Pam Grier, Scream Blacula Scream (1973), but numerous other Blaxploitation horror films such as Blackenstein (1973), Abby (1974) (which co-starred Marshall as an exorcist), Sugar Hill (1974), Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976), and J.D.'s Revenge (1976).
Further info:
“Interview with William Marshall,” Inside Black Hollywood, 1975.
“William Marshall Exhibition,” MuseumOfUncutFunk.com
#soul #funk #Blacula #GenePage #WilliamMarshall