to be probably one of the fugitives, and that he deserves a beating in any case. Later, Beetle, now in a wheelchair following the police brutality, is brought to the morgue to identify a body believed to be Sweetback and smiles when he sees it is someone else. As the police trawl black areas for him, they find Sweetback's biological and rather confused mother, who reveals that his birth name is Leroy. Sweetback pays a hippie to switch clothes with him, deceiving a police helicopter which sends a patrol car in pursuit. Sweetback was also wounded in the shootout and both stows away and hitches rides on trucks and a train heading south. Running through arid country, he survives by drinking from a puddle and eating a lizard. When police hear he might be at a rural hippie musical event, he successfully disguises himself by simulating sex in the bushes. He is later spotted and police borrow a farmer's hunting dogs to track him. Realising he will cross the border before they reach him, a policeman releases the dogs, expecting them to catch and kill him. However, at the Tijuana River, Sweetback stabs the dogs and escapes into Mexico, swearing to return to "collect some dues". Cast Melvin Van Peebles as Sweetback Hubert Scales as Mu-Mu Simon Chuckster as "Beetle" John Dullaghan as Commissioner West Gale Niva Rochelle Rhetta Hughes as Old Girl Friend Nick Ferrari Ed Rue John Amos as Biker (as Johnny Amos) Lavelle Roby Ted Hayden Mario Van Peebles as Young Sweetback / Kid (as Mario Peebles) Production Pre-production During production on Watermelon Man for Columbia Pictures, Van Peebles attempted to rewrite the script in order to change it from a comedy poking fun at white liberals into the first black power film. The writer, Herman Raucher, who had based the script on friends of his who expressed liberal sentiments while still holding onto bigoted beliefs, objected to Van Peebles' efforts because he felt that the movie should be a parody of liberal culture. Raucher ultimately exercised a clause in his contract that allowed him to novelize his own script, effectively preventing Peebles from too radically changing the film. After Watermelon Man proved to be a financial success, Van Peebles was offered a three-picture contract. While the deal was still up in the air, Van Peebles—still wanting to create the first black power film—developed the story for