Lady Cocoa | |
---|---|
Directed by | Matt Cimber |
Written by | George Theakos (credited as Mikel Angel) |
Starring | Lola Falana |
Cinematography | Ken Gibb |
Edited by | Bud Warner |
Music by | Luchi De Jesus |
Distributed by | Dimension Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 93 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Lady Cocoa (also known as Pop Goes the Weasel) is a 1975 low-budget American blaxploitation crime drama that was directed by Matt Cimber. [1] With Lola Falana in the title role, [2] the film also featured Millie Perkins, Alex Dreier, Gene Washington and Joe Greene. It was released by Moonstone Entertainment, [3] and written by George Theakos.
The film tells the story of a woman (Lola Falana) who is released from jail for 24 hours prior to testifying against her ex-boyfriend (James A. Watson Jr.) [4]
Linda Gross of the Los Angeles Times called Lady Cocoa "a slick, predictable, but well-made blaxploitation film." [5] Joe Baltake, writing for the Philadelphia Daily News , complimented Falana's performance but called the film "a flimsy, boring situation comedy," concluding: "It's dumb, but Lola makes it palatable." [6]
Shaft in Africa is a 1973 American blaxploitation film directed by John Guillermin, and the third film of the Shaft series, starring Richard Roundtree as John Shaft. Stirling Silliphant wrote the screenplay. The cost went up to $2 million, but its gross fell to $1 million. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer quickly sold the property to television, but the television series was cancelled after just seven episodes.
Foxy Brown is a 1974 American blaxploitation film written and directed by Jack Hill. It stars Pam Grier as the title character who takes on a gang of white drug dealers who murdered her boyfriend. The film was released by American International Pictures as a double feature with Truck Turner. The film uses Afrocentric references in clothing and hair. Grier starred in six blaxploitation films for American International Pictures.
Loletha Elayne Falana or Loletha Elaine Falana(sources differ), better known by her stage name Lola Falana, is an American singer, dancer, model and actress.
Cleopatra Jones is a 1973 American blaxploitation film directed by Jack Starrett. Tamara Dobson stars as an undercover government agent who uses the day job of supermodel as her cover and an excuse to travel to exotic places. Bernie Casey, Shelley Winters and Antonio Fargas also feature. The film has been described as being primarily an action film, but also partially a comedy with a spoof tone.
Robert DoQui was an American actor who starred in film and on television. He is best known for his roles as King George in the 1973 film Coffy, starring Pam Grier; as Wade in Robert Altman's 1975 film Nashville; and as Sgt. Warren Reed in the 1987 science fiction film RoboCop, the 1990 sequel RoboCop 2, and the 1993 sequel RoboCop 3. He starred on television and is also known for his voice as Pablo Robertson on the cartoon series Harlem Globetrotters from 1970 to 1973.
Sheba, Baby is a 1975 American blaxploitation action film directed by William Girdler and starring Pam Grier and Austin Stoker.
Frank Alvin Silvera was a Jamaican-born American character actor and theatrical director.
Tamara Janice Dobson was an American actress and fashion model. Beginning her career in modeling during the late 1960s, Dobson became best known for her title role as government agent Cleopatra "Cleo" Jones the 1973 Blaxploitation film Cleopatra Jones and its 1975 sequel Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold.
Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold is a 1975 American action-adventure blaxploitation film directed by Charles Bail and starring Tamara Dobson as Cleopatra "Cleo" Jones, Stella Stevens and Norman Fell. The film is a sequel to the 1973 action film Cleopatra Jones.
Emmalyn Paulette Moody, known professionally as Lynne Moody, is an American film and television actress. Beginning her career in the early 1970s, Moody is best known her roles as Tracy Curtis–Taylor in the ABC television sitcom That's My Mama (1974–1975), Irene Harvey in Roots (1977), Roots: The Next Generations (1979), and Patricia Williams in Knots Landing (1988–1990).
Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde is a 1976 blaxploitation horror film loosely inspired by the 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The film stars Bernie Casey and Rosalind Cash and was directed by William Crain, who had also directed the successful Blacula for American International Pictures in 1972. Along with Crain, the film was written by Larry LeBron and Lawrence Woolner with cinematography by Tak Fujimoto. The movie was filmed primarily in Los Angeles, at locations such as the Watts Towers. Along with other blaxploitation films, Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde is filled with themes surrounding ideas of race, class and Black Power, yet it is unique in depicting these themes through the genre of horror.
Sugar Hill is a 1974 American horror blaxploitation zombie film, directed by Paul Maslansky and starring Marki Bey as the title character who uses voodoo to get revenge on the people responsible for her boyfriend's death. It was released by American International Pictures. According to the film, the zombies are the preserved bodies of slaves brought to the United States from Guinea. AIP had previously combined the horror and blaxploitation genres with Blacula (1972) and its sequel Scream Blacula Scream (1973).
Necromancy is a 1972 American supernatural horror film directed by Bert I. Gordon and starring Orson Welles, Pamela Franklin, Michael Ontkean, and Lee Purcell. The plot follows an enigmatic cult leader in a small California town who attempts to harness the powers of a local woman to resurrect his dead son.
Benji is a 1974 American family film written, produced and directed by Joe Camp. It is the first in a series of five films about the golden mixed breed dog named Benji. Filmed in and around McKinney and Denton in Texas, the story follows Benji, a stray but friendly dog, who is adored by some of the townspeople, including two children named Cindy and Paul. The children fail to convince their father, Dr. Chapman, to allow Benji to stay at their home. When the children are kidnapped by a band of robbers as part of a ransom, Benji attempts to rescue them. The film grossed $45 million on a budget of $500,000, and its theme song received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. The film was turned down by every studio in Hollywood; Camp had to form his own film company to distribute the film worldwide. This film was Frances Bavier's and Edgar Buchanan's last film before they retired from acting and died in 1989 and 1979 respectively.
Torso is a 1973 Italian giallo film directed by Sergio Martino.
Judy Lenteen Pace is an American actress known for her roles in films and television shows, particularly blaxploitation films. Pace portrayed Vickie Fletcher on the TV series Peyton Place (1968–1969) and Pat Walters on the ABC drama series The Young Lawyers (1969–1971), for which she won an Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series in 1970.
Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, then president of the Beverly Hills-Hollywood NAACP branch. He so named it because he claimed the genre was "proliferating offenses" to the black community in its perpetuation of stereotypical characters often involved in criminal activity. However, the genre does rank among the first after the race films in the 1940s and 1960s in which black characters and communities are the heroes and subjects of film and television, rather than sidekicks, villains, or victims of brutality. The genre's inception coincides with the rethinking of race relations in the 1970s.
William D. Alexander was an American filmmaker. He made U.S. government sponsored newsreels for African American audiences. He later established his own production company, Alexander Productions, in New York City and became a film producer.
Sky Riders is a 1976 American action film directed by Douglas Hickox and starring James Coburn, Susannah York and Robert Culp.
Pat Anderson is an American actress best known for her work in 1970s exploitation films. She played Elaine, an undercover CIA agent who assists the title character in T.N.T. Jackson (1974).