On the glory of blaxploitation icon Pam Griers two greatest onscreen catfights.
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Over the four films they did together, Hill put Grier through some of her toughest hand-to-hand combat battles.
The suggestion for this scene came from Grier herself.
There were exceptions, from Judy Paces performer inCotton Comes to Harlemto Diana Sandss activist inWillie Dynamite.
Pam Griers starring role inCoffyin 1973 changed all that.
ForBlack Mama White Mama, he, Joe Viola, and screenwriter H.R.
Christian paid homage to or rather, blatantly ripped off Stanley Kramers 1958 race dramaThe Defiant Ones.
This time, Griers moll, Lee Daniels (like the director!
), and Margaret Markovs revolutionary, Karen Brent, are the interracial prisoners chained together.
When their prison convoy is ambushed by machine-gun-toting criminals, Karen and Lee escape.
Just like Poitier and Curtis, they get into a fistfight while tethered.
I hope he can last, Lee says to Karen as the lovers moans become more intense.
Unfortunately, he cannot.
Markov got top billing on the poster, but Grier got top billing onscreen.
As they would do for much of their careers, both actresses did their own stunts.
(See Pams bush!
is how Grier described this in her interview at the 2022 TCM Film Festival.)
Both films were among the first to open in their respective years.
It wastes no time in establishing its premise.
Griers character, Coffy (short for Coffin!
By day, shes an angel of mercy; by night, shes the angel of death.
As one guy strips down to his purple boxers, the other watches while prepping his fix.
Horny viewers expecting the requisite nudity and intertwined bodies were in for a big surprise.
The effect is so outrageously graphic that it jolts the audience into wicked levels of applause.
Then Coffy demands that the other guy shoot up with an enormous amount of horse.
This will kill me!
Maybe it will and maybe it wont, she says.
Coffyis an unapologetically nasty piece of work.
The baddest one-chick hit squad that ever hit town, crowed the posters tagline.
Jack Hill described her as having that something special only she has.
Whatever it was, it earnedCoffys rightful place in the Holy Trinity of blaxploitation alongsideSuper FlyandShaft.
Having a female hero wasntCoffys only deviation from the genre.
The negative portrayal of drugs was also unusual, especially afterSuper Fly.
Carter is the rare honest cop, uninterested in being on the take like the rest of the department.
This is a crucial mistake, because Coffy knows how to keep and settle a grudge.
Howard may be a stud, but hes also corrupt as shit and stupid as hell.
Like most of the men in this picture, he will underestimate Coffy at his own peril.
But the demands of Howards campaign give her time to plan and execute her revenge undetected.
His theme music, like Coffys, is by vibraphonist Roy Ayers.
George, King George, repeats a smooth-voiced brother over Ayerss music as George surveys his stable of women.
Jack Hill uses this location to stage one of the great catfights in exploitation film history.
After a botched assassination attempt on Arturo, Coffy tells him King George hired her.
They then proceed to drag him behind it for what feels like an eternity.
On the TCM podcastThe Plot Thickens, Grier said she wanted this scene to be evenmoregraphic.
Despite giving its audience the gore-filled, vengeful goods, Coffys climax is quite nihilistic.
Howards betrayals are particularly egregious, considering he knows what Coffy has been through.
In a hiss-worthy scene, he orders her death.
Howard is there, and he tries to sweet-talk Coffy into his loving arms.
Mirroring her first use of the shotgun, Coffy shoots Howard in the head.
Unfortunately for Howard, its not the one on his shoulders.
However, Griers lonely image in the frame visually questions the price of retribution.
As expected, reviews forCoffywere not so hot when the film opened on June 13, 1973.
In Chicago, it blew the roof off the Oriental (the Oriental is YOriental now!
read an ad for the theater), which is where Roger Ebert saw it.
Eberts two-star review was one of the nicer pans of the film.
Of course, the man who loved buxom women loved watching Grier.
Those demented creeps came out to say, Wham!
Another, more famous poster featured a gloriously Afro-crowned Grier wearing a red shirt tied above her midriff.
An iconic image was born.
