#61 Coffy

February 27, 2021
Coffy (1973) ** 1/2
TCM
Free
Wildcard

“You want to spit on me and make me crawl? I’m gonna piss on your grave tomorrow!”

I do like a ’70s Blaxploitation flick, and Coffy was one that I needed to catch up with, thanks TCM!

It’s kind of terrible, but in a fun way. Pam Grier really was not the best actress in town, she got much better when it came time to do Jackie Brown, but she has more than her share of charisma, and you’re on her side no matter what. At one point, she pretends to be Jamaican to fool the pimpiest pimp who ever pimped, who must also be either stupid or stone deaf, because her accent mostly consists of saying “mon” at the end of each sentence.

100% the funniest part is Alan Arbus playing the mobster, Arturo Vitroni, because anyone of my generation only sees Dr. Sidney Freedman from M*A*S*H, even with the black suit, red tie, and perm that makes his scrawny chicken neck look even scrawnier. It looks like he had a lot of fun, though! He wasn’t surrounded by nearly so many naked bosoms in M*A*S*H!

There is a wonderful multiple girl-on-girl catfight where every. Single. Girl. Ends up with her tits out, as what always happens in all fights, as we all know. Though it helps when it’s 1973 and bras are seemingly illegal, and also it’s a bunch of whores dressed rather flimsily, because why wear a suit of armor when you have to keep taking it off all the time. See? Perfectly logical how every punch or throw, and it’s titties akimbo!

I was looking up the writer/director, Jack Hill, and he also wrote and directed Spider Baby, a film I really like, and his whole oeuvre is just a bunch of wonderful genre and exploitation films, many of which are playing for free on these weird little Roku channels, so I might need to start a Jack Hill film watch project, because I don’t have enough projects, but come on, none of the others include Switchblade Sisters or The Swinging Cheerleaders!