Cleopatra Jones [Blu-ray]

Director: Jack Starrett Jack Starrett

Overview

Tamara Dobson stars as Cleopatra Jones in Jack Starrett's blaxploitation programmer that, in its own way, deals effectively with the ravages of drugs in inner-city black communities. Cleopatra Jones is a jive female James Bond, a special drug agent for the United States government who wears sleek and hip clothes, drives a fancy car with a submachine-gun compartment in the front door, and travels all over the world to stomp out drugs at their source. Cleopatra has a loving relationship with Ruben (Bernie Casey), the well-meaning head of a drug rehabilitation clinic in Los Angeles. When Cleopatra travels to Turkey to oversee the destruction of poppy fields owned by Mommy (Shelley Winters) -- a lesbian drug dealer -- Mommy becomes upset. She exacts her revenge on Cleopatra by having the police close down Ruben's drug clinic. Nevertheless, Cleopatra continues to wreak havoc upon Mommy's drug business, and Mommy continues to try to do Cleopatra in, until finally there is a major confrontation between Cleopatra and Mommy and her minions.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/19/2019
UPC:	0888574645069
Original Release:	1973
Rating:	PG
Source:	Warner Archives
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Language:	English
Time:	1:29:00
Sales rank:	17,647

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Tamara Dobson	Cleopatra Jones
Bernie Casey	Reuben
Shelley Winters	Mommy
Brenda Sykes	Tiffany
Antonio Fargas	Doodlebug
Bill McKinney	Officer Purdy
Dan Frazer	Detective Crawford
Stafford Morgan	Sgt. Kert
Mike Warren	Andy
Albert Popwell	Matthew
Caro Kenyatta	Melvin
Esther Rolle	Mrs. Johnson
Paul Koslo	Mommy's Hood
Joe Tornatore	Mommy's Hood
Hedley Mattingly	Chauffeur
George Reynolds	Fireplug
Theodore Wilson	Doodlebug's Hood
Christopher Joy	Snake
Keith Hamilton	Maxwell Woodman
Angela Gibbs	Annie
John Garwood	Lt. Thompkins
John Alderman	Mommy's Assistant
Don Cornelius	Himself
Frankie Crocker	Himself
Dominic Frontiere	Composer
J.J. Johnson	Composer
Carl Brandt	Composer
Brad Shapiro	Composer

Technical Credits

Max Julien

Sheldon Keller

Jack Starrett	Director
Max Julien	Screenwriter
William Tennant	Producer
Ernest Robinson	Stunts
Sheldon Keller	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

This colorful blaxploitation outing is a lightweight affair but offers enough cheap thrills and campy laughs for fans of the genre. The script, which was penned by actor Max Julien (star of The Mack), is notable for applying a moral, socially positive approach to the blaxploitation genre by making its heroine an intelligent agent of the law who is out to clean up her neighborhood. However, it removes much of the fun of the average blaxploitation film in the process, creating a squeaky-clean tone devoid of the raunchy fun on display in films like Coffy and Superfly. It also suffers from a weak heroine; Cleopatra may be smart and resourceful, but the lack of depth applied to her character and the filmmakers' desire to have her be clean-cut makes her quite dull. Despite these problems, Cleopatra Jones remains quite watchable thanks to some energetic filmmaking. Jack Starrett's direction is crisp, giving the film the color and humor of a good comic book as it delivers plenty of fast, funky action. The film also benefits from a top-notch score by jazz arranger J.J. Johnson, who blends conventional orchestrations with gritty funk rhythms to create a soulful but stylish sound. In terms of acting, Tamara Dobson lacks the chops to overcome the comic-book nature of her character, but Antonio Fargas is slyly funny as the social-climbing crook Doodlebug and Shelley Winters gives one of her most memorably outrageous performances as the villainous Mommy. In the end, Cleopatra Jones is probably too lightweight and silly for a general audience, but offers up some modest charms for the patient blaxploitation enthusiast.

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