Calvin Lockhart's Los Angeles D. J. isn't exactly someone that the audience likes as the film begins. He is quite a narcissist, looking in the mirror as if he was the queen in "Snow White", his ego involving his looks making him ridiculously silly and his treatment of women making him a bit of a cad. That seems to change though when he meets the beautiful Vonette McKee and reveals some details from the innermost hidden parts of his soul. Estranged from girlfriend Rosalind Cash (beautiful but the type that puts up with no nonsense), Lockhart seems to genuinely fall in love with her, showing up back at his apartment when his shift is over with flowers, only to find it ransacked and her butchered to death. He must now find a way to get himself out of this mess, and ironically, it's Cash who steps up to help him.
I was surprised to see Paul Stevens show up in this as the man McKee had been in love with previously, a powerful white man with obvious mob connections, begrudging the fact that someone in his organization went too far in dealing with her. Having enjoyed his work as the honest lawyer and town mayor Brian Bancroft on "Another World", it was nice to see him playing a darker character even if here he's not entirely evil.
What is really good about this film is the character detail used to make the viewer change their minds about the leading character, going from one extreme to another, and making Lockhart much more human. I could also imagine The audiences cheering Cash on when she has a rant inside a bank so she can get into McKee's safety deposit box. She may be trying to commit a con, but even so, it's a great scene.
The film had quite a few erotic scenes, the one between Lockhart and McKee one of the hottest ever (complete with another character getting his jollies listening outside the door), and other ones played in a comical manner which always result in Lockhart bursting in and kicking the guy's butt, obviously ruining the mood. Certainly this had all the elements that make blaxploitation a powerful 70's genre, but other elements that gave it mainstream interest as well.
I was surprised to see Paul Stevens show up in this as the man McKee had been in love with previously, a powerful white man with obvious mob connections, begrudging the fact that someone in his organization went too far in dealing with her. Having enjoyed his work as the honest lawyer and town mayor Brian Bancroft on "Another World", it was nice to see him playing a darker character even if here he's not entirely evil.
What is really good about this film is the character detail used to make the viewer change their minds about the leading character, going from one extreme to another, and making Lockhart much more human. I could also imagine The audiences cheering Cash on when she has a rant inside a bank so she can get into McKee's safety deposit box. She may be trying to commit a con, but even so, it's a great scene.
The film had quite a few erotic scenes, the one between Lockhart and McKee one of the hottest ever (complete with another character getting his jollies listening outside the door), and other ones played in a comical manner which always result in Lockhart bursting in and kicking the guy's butt, obviously ruining the mood. Certainly this had all the elements that make blaxploitation a powerful 70's genre, but other elements that gave it mainstream interest as well.