Coffy.

Review #2352: Coffy.

Cast:

Pam Grier (Nurse Flower Child "Coffy" Coffin), Booker Bradshaw (Howard Brunswick), Robert DoQui (George "King George"), William Elliott (Officer Carter), Allan Arbus (Arturo Vitroni), Sid Haig (Omar), Barry Cahill (Officer McHenry), Lee de Broux (Officer Nick), Ruben Moreno (Captain Reuben Ramos), Lisa Farringer (Jeri), and Carol Locatell (Priscilla) Written and Directed by Jack Hill (#1654 - Blood Bath and #1740 - Spider Baby)

Review: 

It probably has been long enough to finally cover a Pam Grier movie, isn't it? Well, I figured it would be best to go with the one with the catchy enough title, which was in the middle of Grier's tenure with American International Pictures. Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Grier got involved in stage productions as a teenager before going to Los Angeles to work the switchboard at American International Pictures. Anybody who makes their debut (in a bit role) with Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) clearly has good fortune on their side. Jack Hill soon casted her among the leads for New World Pictures' The Big Doll House (1971) when he liked what he heard and saw when she participated in a "cattle call" for actors sent to read for parts (he has been quoted as citing her "authority"). The movie was a hit, and Grier was soon cast in the not-quite sequel The Big Bird Cage (1972), which was sandwiched between a handful of supporting roles. Coffy came about because Larry Gordon lost the rights to the film Cleopatra Jones (1973) and AIP wanted to make a movie to beat it to the market. This one was released in May, two months before the release of Cleopatra Jones. This would be the first non-prison lead movie for Grier that would lead to a handful of further feature roles for the remainder of the 1970s. While her leading roles dwindled in the next couple of years, there have still been enough highlights for a lifetime, as evidenced by Jackie Brown (1997). This was the third of four movies made with Hill. They returned to make Foxy Brown (1974), one that Hill had less control over as a movie that was initially aimed to be a follow-up to Coffy.

I find myself wondering just how much fun one can have with movies of this time period, one that dance the line between timeliness and allure with their style and character presence. As it turned out, there is plenty of each to be found with this movie, which manages to excel in general excitement with a snappy lead that exudes charm and style from the get-go while managing to have a tight conviction in showing a system in all of its bleak facets that would make one go for the idea of trying to strike back at it. It is lurid enough to actually make a quality vigilante movie for 90 minutes of sheer pulp that can't just be labeled as sleazy. Unlike certain movies of its time, you've got a lead who isn't a certain type of expert or playing it for humor but instead one wrapped in the terrors of what they believe themselves is important to do versus the conflict in seeing it actually play out. So yes, Grier kicks ass and looks good doing it, but there is more to her in terms of timing and conscience for how she handles herself that is quite curious to see play out on screen. It just so happens the supporting cast around her is scuzzy enough to make the experience worth seeing vigilance play out all the way to the grisly end (this is a movie that has a character killed by being dragged around with a rope before saving the gnarly-ness for last: shotgun to the groin). It isn't even a movie that wraps itself up in a neat bow, because at the end of the day, the disgusting drug trade and other purveyors of the sewer known as crime will still be around somewhere the law can't quite reach (whether by chance or deliberately) but so it goes. As a whole, it is pretty easy to see how Grier became such a star to see and hear with how much she is wrapped up in making this role more than just straight exploitation by playing it as an avenging angel with resilience that is devastatingly breathtaking in more ways than one.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.