Drum follows up where Mandingo leaves off. More white devils. More slaves. More black on white lovin! More white on black lovin! Some like this one better, some prefer the original.

I say any movie with Pam Grier, Fiona Lewis, Isela Vega, Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith and Brenda Sykes is worth watching regardless of whether it's better or not.

To understand the nature of this 1974 film by Sam Peckinpah, you merely have to describe the opening scene: A young pregnant but unmarried Mexican woman who is sitting beside a beautiful stream is summoned by henchman to appear before her father, a rich Mexican landowner. He demands to know the name of the father of her child, and when she refuses, she is first stripped, then tortured, then finally her arm broken. She tells.

The father of the child is Alfredo Garcia, and the scene ends with the landowner offering one million dollars to anyone who will bring him the head (only) of Alfredo Garcia. Things grow more violent as two bounty hunters searching for Garcia encounter a local piano-player who knows Garcia's girlfriend. The piano-player convinces her to team up with him to collect the million, and things spiral downward as bodies fall like flies.

This is a violent, sexy thriller typical of Peckinpah, bordering on the distasteful much of the time, and rightfully deserves to be called a classic.