Kirk Calloway
Kirk Calloway emerged in the 1970s as an actor with a distinctive presence in cult cinema. He appears in The Soul of Nigger Charley (1973), where he navigates the complex themes of race and identity, and in The Monkey Hustle (1976), a film that captures the vibrant street life of Chicago. Calloway's roles reflect the gritty realism and social commentary characteristic of the era's exploitation films, making him a notable figure in the landscape of cult cinema.
The Monkey Hustle
The film includes a loose plot centered on the ensemble cast of characters in which Foxx mentors "Baby D" (Calloway), "Player" (Carter), and "Tiny" (Harper) in the ways of small-time hustling. An example of a hustle is the boys apparently stealing some televisions from a truck for Foxx in sight of a local shop owner. The boys then steal the televisions from Foxx's truck and stash them in some trash. The shop owner offers the boys $55 cash for the televisions which they accept. However, when the shop owner returns with his dolly, he finds that the boys have run off with the cash as well as the televisions (which were actually empty boxes). The overarching plotline is to prevent the construction of an expressway through the neighborhood in which all the characters reside. Using facilities that are not adequately described in the film, Foxx and local numbers man "Glitterin' Goldie" (Moore) use potentially corrupt connections within the city government to prevent the construction.
