Has the usual charm of Pam Grier and the 70s looking blood and squibs I like. This movie goes through the motions a lot though. There are no really memorable action scenes or moments that are better than any of Pam's other movies. The action scenes almost look like anything you could see on television from back then. While still more violent and sensual than any PG-rated-movie could be today, the rating holds it back I think. There are a couple of memorable shootouts and some interrogation scenes involving chlorine and a car wash that are memorable. Thematically it is more surface level. It is about powerful white elite people moving in on Mom and Pop businesses, but that is just on the surface. I think this one was missing Jack Hill's direction. Austin Stoker, who people would recognize from Assault on Precinct 13 also plays a memorable role.
Plot Summary Contains Spoilers
The movie starts with some of typical yellow blaxploitation font and a great theme song by Barbara Mason. Two men are talking in a building. Andy Shayne (Rudy Challenger) and "Brick" Williams (Austin Stoker). They run a loan company and Andy is giving people deals because his company is being intimidated by a bigger one. After Brick leaves Andy is assaulted by three men. Andy's daughter, Sheba (Pam Grier) is getting back to Chicago, where she works as a private investigator. Her partner had not told her about a letter she received from Brick saying her father was in trouble. On this she travels to Louisville, Kentucky to meet with Brick and her father.
Her father talks to her about not doing a man's job which is the only time an interesting idea about gender bias is brought up. Her father calls the man who keeps threatening his company, Pilot (D'Urville Martin). Pilot says to accept the buyout or die. He tells him he put a bomb in his car that will go off 10 seconds after the keys are turned. Sheba is about to drive the car and Brick and Andy get her within safe distance before the explosion happens. Sheba at this point starts doing things herself. She goes to the police who say they can't spare anyone for protection to which she says they're just mad they'd have to miss a poker game. She interrogates one suspect by drowning him in chlorine and finds out the location of a meeting and someone who informs who works at a used car lot. She goes to a meeting where Pilot is. Her and Brick give chase but Pilot gets away. She also interrogates a street criminal near a used car lot and threatens him while in a car wash to give away Pilot's name. Criminals break into Andy's place and kill him while Sheba and Brick are there. Sheba manages to kill at least one of them.
Pam as Sheba threatening "number one," at the car wash.
Sheba now goes after Pilot and after going to where he works is chased into a nearby amusement park. She eventually corners Pilot and holds him over a roller coaster to find out a code number for a private party he goes too. He also says the man above him is named Shark. Brick also finds out that all these businesses that are going under have the same insurance company. Sheba gets to Shark's yacht party. Her cover is blown when Pilot shows up. Shark (Dick Merrifield) takes her hostage and later drags Pilot across the water from a rope while hanging from a speedboat. He threatens to do the same to her but she uses a blade she had hidden to cut the ropes. Brick finds a note about Shark's yacht and has the cops with him to track down the yacht. At this point a shootout ensues and Sheba catches up to Shark on a speedboat and kills him with a spear gun. Sheba and Brick reunite on the boat and she says she will go back to Chicago but will come to see him since they are now partners with their loan company.
Pam has an arsenal in this movie including a Colt Python and Mac-10. The ending speedboat chase is decent.
There are some classic Pam moments in this. I like when she threatens the street criminal, whom she later holds at gunpoint in the car wash and says, "I'm going to put my number one foot up your number one mouth." That checks out because he is known only as number one. Also when she is caught later she tries to seduce Shark which is something Pam does to the villains in all of these movies. The investigatory aspect is just Brick finding things out offscreen. Most of the action scenes including the chase at the meeting are quite run of the mill and don't standout. I was surprised at the amount of blood squibs though for a PG movie. There is even a sex scene implied between her and Brick where you see full side boob. So way more than you could get away with for a PG movie today. With the shootout on the boat I kept waiting for more blood squibs and then three great ones come in rapid succession, on the guy's legs and then one gets shot in the chest. I really liked the one close up shot of Pam with a magnum out of focus, then a tight focus on her face as she contemplates whether to shoot the guy or not. The amusement park filming location was cool. I've never seen someone threaten someone while holding them over a moving roller coaster so there was that. I always enjoy seeing the older prices on food stands. Like 50 cents for a burger?! I'd only recommend this to hardcore Pam Grier fans looking for something beyond her usual blaxploitation movies.
Rating: 6/10
Trivia: The Yacht in the film "Nu-Tronic," was owned by prominent Louisville, Kentucky businessman, Herman Weist. He received a credit as the, "marine sequence coordinator." The yacht is still around today and has been renamed "Mavis A."
Watch movie here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmtIKWKukxE
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