My fondest memory of this movie is odd. It’s odd because I remember my grandma had a black, metal entertainment stand. On the side of the stand were shelves for movies. Back then, we had VHS’ (please Google it if you do not know). I remember seeing The Color Purple and this movie for some strange reason. I don’t remember any of the other VHS’ clearly, but I remember these two distinctly.
Some of you only know Denzel Washington as John David Washington’s dad or The Equalizer while others seem to only know Sheryl Lee Ralph as Mrs. Howard on Abbott Elementary. Some of you only know Robert Townsend, if you know his genius at all, as Skye Townsend’s dad. (She was a main on The Black Lady Sketch Show.) But before the real start of their illustrious careers, they were main characters in The Mighty Quinn.
The Mighty Quinn centers around island chief of police Xavier Quinn. Quinn is minding his business, getting hit on by a random island gal at a wedding he’s supervising (for lack of a better term), when he gets a call that Donald Pater has been murdered. Pater, mind you, is one of the wealthiest people on the island and his is also white. Naturally, Quinn wants to do his police duty, get the body autopsied and what not. He’s thwarted by Governor Chalk, whom he works closely and argues a lot with, and an arrogant political fixer named Thomas Elgin. On top of all this, the people believe that this killer is his best friend, Maubee, played by Townsend. Maubee is a Robin Hood of sorts, but a terrible one. His stands for justice and the well-being of his people, but he too, is a menace. There is a scene where he told a local that he would give him a $10,000 of he drank beer mixed with cigarette ash and butts. That man ended up throwing up everywhere with no money. God bless him.
Anyway, Maubee is a local menace and literally no one believes that Maubee killed this rich man. But the government is up to something and Quinn wants to know what! Now, spoiler alert, he does figure it out but at a cost. I won’t spoil it past that because I want you to go to Tubi and search this movie to watch these actors in their inception.
Y’all sleep on Sheryl Lee Ralph and forget all about the fact that she was a Dreamgirl on Broadway. In this movie, she plays Lola, Quinn’s…wife…girlfriend…baby momma who is also a performer. You get to see that in this film. You all also forget that she and her brother, who can be seen in various roles just not this film specifically, are Jamaican. When you hear her accent against Washington’s and Townsend’s it is comical. They are not terrible accents but they are not perfect accents. I’ll say that.
If you do decide to go watch this film to see a young Denzel Washington take his shirt off and play around in some water, remember, you must pay attention in this movie. Everything is a clue and everything requires you to listen and follow…well Maubee really. I had a great time rewatching this movie after about…15 years. It’s been so long since I popped that VHS in when I was a kid. Surprisingly, this is a movie Townsend is in that he did not direct. I found that interesting because I always thought he directed it. Also, the movie is based on a book called “Finding Maubee.” I never read the book, but if someone does, let me know what you see between the book and the movie. I want to know. Might get the book myself.
