Mandingo (1975): Cast & Plot

In the Deep South before the American Civil War, Falconhurst is a run-down plantation that sits at the center of a brutal social order. It is owned by widower Warren Maxwell, a man whose authority is largely exercised through his son, Hammond Maxwell. The two men visit a neighboring plantation where hospitality includes offering two black women. Hammond selects Ellen [Debbi Morgan], a young woman who is a virgin, while Charles — the other man present — rapes the other woman, a crime Hammond’s companion casually condones as if it were a matter of course. Ellen’s quiet insistence that she does not welcome what happens is met with a cold, transactional gaze from Hammond, who then takes Ellen as his own.