Black Heat was a blaxploitation action film

Action film

Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...

 by producer Al Adamson

Al Adamson

Al Adamson was a prolific director of B-grade horror films throughout the 1960s and 1970s.After assisting his father, Victor Adamson, in making the 1963 movie Halfway to Hell, Adamson decided to work in the motion picture industry himself...

. The cast included Timothy Brown

Timothy Brown

Timothy Brown or Tim Brown may refer to:* Timothy Brown , actor and NFL football player* Tim Brown , NFL football player and 1987 Heisman Trophy winner...

, Russ Tamblyn

Russ Tamblyn

Russell Irving "Russ" Tamblyn is an American film and television actor, who is arguably best known for his performance in the 1961 movie musical West Side Story as Riff, the leader of the Jets gang....

 and Geoffrey Land. The film was renamed to Girl's Hotel for play at drive in theaters, then later changed to Murder Gang.

The film concerns a Las Vegas

Las Vegas metropolitan area

The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...

 detective named "Kicks" Carter (Brown) who attempts to foil arms dealers selling weapons to Central America

Central America

Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

. At the same time, he seeks to save some women who are forced to work as prostitutes to pay off gambling debts.