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Putney Swope is a 1969 film written and directed by Robert Downey Sr. and starring Arnold Johnson...

Putney Swope is a 1969 film written and directed by Robert Downey Sr. and starring Arnold Johnson as Swope. The comedy by a white writer / director satirizes, criticizes and plays with black militant rhetoric, the portrayal of race in Hollywood films, the white power structure, and nature of corruption in any struggle for power. Swope is the only black man on the executive board of an advertising firm, and is accidentally put in charge after the death of the chairman of the board. Following the unexpected death of the chairman, each member of the board believes that he, himself, should be elected to the board. However, the bylaws of the corporation prohibit voting for oneself for the chair, so each individual member votes in a secret ballot for the person that no one else would vote for: Putney Swope. Renaming the business "Truth and Soul, Inc.", Swope replaces all but one of the white employees and insists they no longer accept business from companies that produce alcohol, war toys, or tobacco. The success of the business draws unwanted attention from the United States Government, which considers it "a threat to the national security." The American director Paul Thomas Anderson