"The Spook Who Sat by the Door" (1973)

Adapted from a bestselling 1969 novel by Sam Greenlee, "Spook" tells of a black man trained by the CIA who launches a black nationalist revolution, leading a group of "Freedom Fighters" in guerilla warfare on the streets of Chicago.

Directed by Ivan Dixon (best known as an actor from "Nothing But a Man" and the TV series "Hogan's Heroes"), the movie starred Lawrence Cook, Paula Kelly, Janet League and J.A. Preston, and featured a score by jazz composer Herbie Hancock. Critics pilloried the film as sanctioning violence, and United Artists withdrew it from theaters after only a few weeks.

Credit: United Artists