A Hitchcock-like wrong-man style thriller with Pam Grier in the lead is quite fun. While the mystery itself was a bit underwhelming, which lessens the tension, the action was well done. Pam Grier, Yaphet Kotto, and Carl Weathers elevate this movie. Pam uses her wit and charm more in this movie, which makes more sense since she is playing an ambitious reporter. I never thought I would see Carl Weathers play an assassin and get into a rooftop chase and fight with Yaphet Kotto but here we are. There is one well edited car chase and a couple of different foot chases that are electric. Eartha Kitt shows up for a few minutes and has a heat check moment where she takes over the movie. The themes are interesting like always in these kind of movies. This was made right after the civil rights era and it has to do with the white power structure trying to eliminate any black people who a say in the government, while still using black people to do their bidding. This is one of Pam Grier's more fun movies from around this time.
The movie starts with some location shots of Washington D.C. There is a cool camera shot where you see Pam Grier through the lens of a camera. The music is great too. Friday Foster (Pam Grier) is an investigative journalist who on New Year's eve is with her younger brother Cleve (Tierre Turner). She gets a call from her boss, Monk (Julius Harris [who James Bond fans will know as Tee Hee from Live and Let Die]). He asks her to go report on Blake Tarr (Thalmus Rasulala) the country's wealthiest black man arriving at the airport. At the airport three men in cop's uniforms are seen passing out guns and soon a gunfight erupts in the airport. Friday runs into Yarbro (Carl Weathers), one of the cops before he gets away. The other one, Chet, is the boyfriend of Friday's friend, Cloris (Rosalind Miles).
Pam Grier as Friday
Carl Weathers as Yarbro
At a party of some kind Cloris is also killed and she says something to Friday, "black widow," before she dies. Soon anyone who knows about black widow also starts getting killed. The head of the modeling agency where Cloris worked, Madame Rena (Eartha Kitt) blames a man named Ford Malotte (Godfrey Cambridge). Friday starts getting help from private detective Colt Hawkins (Yaphet Kotto). Tracking their leads to D.C. Friday has Malotte book her with a Senator named Hart (Paul Benjamin). Hart eventually reveals that Tarr faked his own death...
What I enjoyed about this movie are the action scenes and how certain mystery elements were paid off well later. The flowers at Cloris' funeral being sent by Hart for example was a neat touch. There was some good suspense as well. Yarbro and Friday get into a scuffle in her bathroom after he tricks Cleve into telling him what apartment they live in. After two people see him not wanting to leave witnesses he walks past her and down the stairs but you don't know he will walk past her. At the funeral she sees Yarbro and takes a picture but whne she goes to show the picture to Colt, he had all ready left. She steals a hearse to chase him and they wind up in a factory where he gets away. I like how this chase is balanced with first person shots, long tracking shots and bird's eye camera views. The chase between Kotto and Weathers ending in a fierce rooftop fight is great as well.
Pam Grier is as fun as ever in this movie. I enjoy the chemistry between her and Kotto. Her fearlessness in action movies when women were often relegated to characters who needed saving or just pining for the hero is quite ahead of it's time. While she plays an ambitious reporter, she is not above sleeping with men to get what she wants, which she does multiple times in this movie. It doesn't seem like she doesn't want to do that either. So it could be both showing her sexuality and getting what she needs for her job. I enjoy the line she gives Senator Hart and their exchange. "What will the gossips say?" "They will say I have made love to one of the most beautiful women DC has ever seen. One of the funnier moments between her and Kotto is Colt playing a role as her chauffeur at the party. I even like Friday's wit at the beginning of the film where she sneaks up to the guard to go in the hangar and brings him a drink and calls him LeRoy like she knows him. He says there is no LeRoy that works here. Its a funny moment. Eartha Kitt also shows up for a few minutes to say things like "We're all familiar with the joy of sex. Particularly since that doctor has determined that sex is on the male mind every other minute - and on the female mind every other second. Well, I've put it all together in one group which I call 'The Four Seasons of S-E-X".
Spoiler Section
Soon everyone whom Friday mentions black widow too ends up dead. Malotte is killed by Yarbro who runs into him in a telephone booth while driving a truck. When Rena offers more information she is shot by Yarbro and that is when Weathers and Kotto have agreat chase and fight. Colt ends up shooting him several times, killing him. Friday eventually meets with Blake Tarr who reveals that his unity program is black widow. His assistant Charley (Jason Bernard), who Cloris had called earlier, another great payoff from the beginning is working with a white politician named Enos Griffith (Jim Backus). Griffith is working to take down any black politician trying to gain power. Colt and Friday find out that the unity program is at Jericho's (Scatman Crothers) place. Two men are watching them and Friday steals an ice cream truck. She sees an army assembled and shows up to tell Senator Hart that an army is there to kill them as every black leader is at that summit. They are able to hold off the army of men and find out Charley betrayed them. Charley and Colt fight and Colt knocks him out saying "What you need is an education." The movie ends with Colt, Charley and Cleve all hanging out.
Pam Grier and Yaphet Kotto are awesome together
Since this movie was made just after the time when men like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Medgar Evers were all assassinated it feels reverential for the time. The relationship between Tarr and Hart in this movie is actually like King and Malcolm X's difference in philosophies but joining together for the greater good. The flaws in this movie have more to do with the writing and some things that could have been cut out. There is a pointless subplot involving a pimp that keeps trying to get Friday to be one of his girls. Black widow being more of an idea rather than a mystery is somewhat disappointing as the action and not the mystery mostly drives the narrative forward. I could have used many more movies with Pam and Yaphet together. I even enjoyed the presence of Edmund Cambridge as the other cop who talks about how he needs a beer multiple times. There is a lot to like here. If the final shootout were filmed better, because it is quite underwhelming, that would made this better than just decent.
Rating: 7/10
Trivia: The film is based on a newspaper comic strip of the same name by Jim Lawrence. It was the first mainstream comic strip with a black lead character.
Watch movie here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ptufslVgoE
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