Themes: Drug Trade, Fighting the System, Out For Revenge
Main Cast: John Perak, Pam Grier, Booker Bradshaw, Robert DoQui, William Elliott, Allan Arbus
Release Year: 1973
Country: US
Run Time: 91 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Writer-director Jack Hill (Spider Baby, Switchblade Sisters) managed to beat Death Wish to the screens by a year with this violent tale of a citizen touched by crime and deciding to fight back. Her little 11-year old sister is a hopeless addict, the police can't help, and poor Nurse "Coffy" Coffin (Pam Grier) has no choice but to take the law into her own hands. Posing as a Jamaican prostitute, Coffy infiltrates the lairs of pimp King George (Robert DoQui) and kingpin pusher Vitroni (Allan Arbus). Eventually, after her childhood sweetheart is beaten into a coma and she finds out her politician-lover (Booker Bradshaw) is involved, Coffy kills everyone with a shotgun. However, by having a black woman named Coffy get injected with a sugar mixture (the crooks think it's heroin), one can only imagine the filmmakers cackling about Coffy with cream and sugar. In fact, the original ad line promised "Coffy...she'll cream you!" ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Review
Coffy is one of the more lively blaxploitation films of the period, with some silly touches like genre standby Sid Haig as a racist Russian goon named Omar, puny Arbus as the perverted gangster (he calls Coffy a "wildcat from the tropical jungle"), and a catfight in which Coffy beats up a room full of scantily clad hookers. There's also a junkie hooker whose "man" is a giant leather-clad lesbian named Harriet, and DoQui wears one of the gaudiest yellow pimp outfits ever seen on film. Like all revenge films, this one puts its protagonist on dubious moral ground. Not only does Coffy ram heroin needles into people and blow a corrupt councilman's gonads off with a shotgun, but she intentionally steals a car from an innocent bystander, and causes hooker Linda Haynes to slice her hands to ribbons just for spilling food on her out of jealousy. Coffy also gets to run over a half-blind hit man, shotgun Vitroni in his swimming pool, burn a crooked cop alive in his squad car, and repeatedly jam a bobby pin into Omar's carotid artery. Needless to say, she is not a woman to trifle with. Despite taking the moral low road, this is an outstanding exploitation film with enough violence, sadism, nudity, and social outrage to satisfy even the most demanding sleaze buff. Grier is terrific, and it's no coincidence that Quentin Tarantino released Switchblade Sisters to theaters and cast both Grier and Haig in his masterful 1997 blaxpo tribute Jackie Brown. That film also featured music by Coffy composer Roy Ayers. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Sid Haig - Omar; Morris Buchanan - Sugar-Man; Barry Cahill - McHenry; Lee de Broux - Nick; Linda Haynes - Meg; Ruben Moreno - Ramos; Bob Minor - Studs; Lisa Farringer - Jeri; Carol Lawson; John Perak - Aleva
Credit
Perry Ferguson - Art Director, Jack Hill - Director, Charles McClelland - Editor, Chuck McClelland - Editor, Roy Ayers - Composer (Music Score), Paul Lohmann - Cinematographer, Salvatore Billitteri - Producer, Robert A. Papazian - Producer, Don Johnson - Sound/Sound Designer, Jack Hill - Screenwriter
A blaxploitation masterpiece on par with Curtis Mayfield's Superfly and Isaac Hayes' Shaft, Roy Ayers' soundtrack for the 1973 Pam Grier vehicle Coffy remains one of the most intriguing and evocative film scores of its era or any other. Ayers' signature vibes create atmospheres and textures quite distinct from your average blaxploitation effort, embracing both heavy, tripped-out funk ("Brawling Broads") and vividly nuanced soul-jazz ("Aragon"). The vocal numbers are no less impressive, in particular the rapturous opening cut, "Coffy Is the Color." Richly cinematic grooves, as inventive and cohesive as any of Ayers' vintage Ubiquity LPs. Highly recommended. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
Roy Ayers (Organ), Roy Ayers (Arranger), Roy Ayers (Composer), Roy Ayers (Conductor), Roy Ayers (Piano (Electric)), Roy Ayers (Vocals), Roy Ayers (Orchestra), Roy Ayers (Producer), Roy Ayers (Performer), Roy Ayers (Orchestration), Roy Ayers (Orchestral Arrangements), Richard Davis (Bass), Richard Davis (Bass (Electric)), Richard Davis (Bass (Acoustic)), Jon Faddis (Trumpet), Jon Faddis (Flugelhorn), Cecil Bridgewater (Trumpet), Cecil Bridgewater (Flugelhorn), Cecil Bridgewater (Vocals), Cecil Bridgewater (?), Wayne Andre (Trombone), Garnett Brown (Trombone), Dennis Davis (Drums), Peter Dimitriades (Strings), Wayne Garfield (Vocals), Margaret Goldfarb (Production Coordination), Harry Lookofsky (Strings), George Klabin (Engineer), George Klabin (Mixing Engineer), Billy Nichols (Guitar), Bob Rose (Guitar), Irving Spice (Strings), Harry Weinger (Research), Harry Weinger (Supervisor), Harry Whitaker (Organ), Harry Whitaker (Piano), Harry Whitaker (Harpsichord), Harry Whitaker (Piano (Electric)), Harry Whitaker (Performer), Harry Whitaker (Orchestration), Emanuel Vardi (Strings), Denise Bridgewater (Vocals), William King (Percussion), William King (Bongos), William King (Conga), Suha Gur (Digital Remastering), Mathieu Bitton (Design), Carl Clay (Performer), Roselle Weaver (Performer)
According to writer/director Hill, the project began when American International Pictures' head of production, Larry Gordon, lost the rights to the film Cleopatra Jones after making a handshake deal with the producers. Gordon subsequently approached Hill to quickly make a movie about an African American woman's revenge and beat Cleopatra Jones to market. The film ended up earning more money than Cleopatra Jones and established Grier as an icon of the genre.
Coffy is notable in its depiction of a strong female lead (a capable nurse), rare in the genre at the time, and also in its then-unfashionable anti-drug message. It was remade (with an all-white cast) in 1981's Lovely But Deadly.
In the movie, Grier plays the strong, titular character Coffy, a nurse by day and vigilante by night who conducts a one-woman war on organized crime in Los Angeles after her sister is harmed by drug abuse. Along the way, her police officer friend, Carter, is beaten into a coma, and her politician boyfriend, Howard, betrays her to the mob. Using every tool in her arsenal, from seduction to brute force, she eventually dispenses with every mafioso and crooked cop in the film.
