Get Christie Love!

Slimcase DVD cover Get Christie Love!

Get Christie Love! is a 1974 made-for-television film starring Teresa Graves as an undercover female police detective who is determined to overthrow a drug ring. This film is based on Dorothy Uhnak's crime-thriller novel, The Ledger. However, the main character "Christie Opara" -- a white, New York Police detective—was dropped completely and "Christie Love" is who emerged.

Synopsis

The film was inspired by the 1970s heroine blaxploitation films such as Tamara Dobson's Cleopatra Jones (1973), and Pam Grier's Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974). The title character even had a catchphrase; upon apprehending a criminal, Love would declare, "you're under arrest, Sugah!" The film proved a big success, and consequently spawned a short-lived television series on the ABC network featuring Charles Cioffi as Love's supervisor Matt Reardon and Jack Kelly as Lt. Ryan, the next supervisor. However, the series, financed on a meager budget and heavily sanitized to conform to Graves' religious morals (she had become one of Jehovah's Witnesses since the making of the TV film), was eventually cancelled. One episode featured many of Graves' former Laugh-In co-stars such as Judy Carne, Jo Anne Worley and Arte Johnson in particular playing a mad bomber.

Cast

• Teresa Graves — Christie Love
• Harry Guardino — Captain Casey Reardon
• Louise Sorel — Helena Varga
• Paul Stevens — Enzo Cortino
• Ron Rifkin — Normand
• Lynne Holmes — Celia Jackson
• Lee Paul — Max Loomis
• Titos Vandis — Spiliolis
• Tracey Roberts — Gwen Fenley
• William Hansen — Dr. Shepard
• Andy Romano — Sergeant Seymour Greenberg
• Davis Roberts — Myron Jones
• Bill Henderson — Sergeant Stoner Martin
• Deborah Dozier — Amy
• Darleen Conley — Virginia

Cultural references

• In a famous scene in Quentin Tarantino's 1992 film, Reservoir Dogs, the characters Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), and "Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot (Chris Penn), engage in a brief discussion regarding Get Christie Love!.
• In the 2002 Austin Powers movie Goldmember, the character Foxxy Cleopatra uses the famous phrase, "You're under arrest, Sugah!".

See also

• Blaxploitation
• List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture

External links

• Get Christie Love! at the Internet Movie Database
• Get Christie Love! at Allmovie
• Top 10 Kick-Ass TV Divas