Pam Grier Month

May is set aside to watch Pam Grier movies, as the actress has a birthday toward the end of the month. I started this many years ago as there were enough films in my collection to watch one every day. This year I've been very busy with work and other things that I've not made the time to watch a movie every night. Thursday I watch Coffy which remains one of my all time favorite Pam Grier films. Despite the 70's pimp fashions, everything else still holds up. Same issues, but we don't have women running around as vigilantes.

Last night I decided to watch Jackie Brown. The film was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino who wrote the script because he was also fascinated by Pam Grier. I don't know when he first saw Pam Grier in a film, but I was 12.

Jackie Brown is a long film so I don't watch it every year like most of the other films. I wasn't all that crazy about it the first time I saw it. Perhaps it was the big deal that Mr. Tarantino was resurrecting Miss Grier's career, but as far as I was concerned she had never really stopped working. She was doing guest appearances and had a show on cable. Besides, I had my movie collection, every article and pictures I could find. Luckily having access to industry memorabilia I didn't have to spend a lot of money.

There was something different about watching the film last night. I enjoyed it more. It had been about 10 years since I had watched it so that may have had something to do with it. I've always liked the way Tarantino wrote. His dialogue is so real. Some people do talk fast and over each other and then there are those who are just quiet. We see all of these things in Jackie Brown.

Of course in every film there are some things that don't mesh together. In Coffy we never know the characters first name. And her last name is Coffin and so she is nick named Coffy.

In Jackie Brown her hair in one scene is one way and when the camera angle changes so does the hair. It's still a fun film, but not as much blood as we've come to expect from Tarantino.
The music from the film pays homage to some of Pam Grier's older films.
A lot of the music is a part of the soundtrack to my life. The Delfonics and The Brothers Johnson.

If I get a chance I'll try to watch another of Miss Grier's films that are in the collection.

Film Lover For Pam Grier

 (from Pam Griers early days)

It's Pam Grier day. Today the black goddess turns 65. It all began when I was 11 years old and I saw my first Pam Grier film, Coffy. From that point on there was something that connected me to her. I've followed her career as much as possible, but I've never had the opportunity to meet her. I've tried many times, but it just wasn't meant to be.

(One of my many films posters from the actresses career)

I usually watch some of her films on this day, but since I recently watched most of her films I think I'll do an L word marathon. I've not watched the series in a couple of years. Although I don't have every single film she's ever done, (there are a few I just haven't run across, I do have a substantial collection of her work.) Perhaps I'll take some time out to watch Something Wicked This Way Comes. Pam Grier was the first black actress to have a lead role in a Disney film.

(From Scream Blacula Scream)

Pam Grier has appeared in over 100 films, Jaw Breakers, Class of 1999, Mars Attacks, Ghost of Mars, Twilight People, The Big Doll House, The Big Bird Cage, Bucktown, Sheba Baby, Friday Foster and Foxy Brown just to name a few.

Wherever she is I hope she has a blessed birthday and gets to enjoy many more. Raising a glass to Miss Grier on her special day.

Here's a list of some of my favorite Pam Grier films - Coffy, Fort Apache The Bronx, Black Mama White Mama, The Arena, and Scream Blacula Scream.

Thanks for stopping by; keep an open mind and do come back again.

Pam Grier day

It’s Pam Grier day. Today the actress and author turns 64. In the past I’ve dedicated the month to Pam Grier and watch her films. I will begin a marathon starting with The Arena and ending with my favorite film Coffy. Then I will watch the series The L Word. In the middle of that I’ll watch Black Mama, White Mama, The Big Doll House, Foxy Brown, The Big Bird Cage, Drum, Jackie Brown and Fort Apache The Bronx.
The Arena is a female version of the gladiator movies. Black Mama, White Mama is the female version of The Defiant Ones. The majority of the films showcase Pam’s bodily assets, but you can see her acting develop. Fort Apache the Bronx, although a small role was one of her more demanding roles. She wasn’t even considered for the part. She pulled a Dorothy Dandridge and Paul Newman liked what she saw and she was given the role. (Pulling a Dorothy Dandridge is a term I came up with for an actress that goes in for a role in character when she’s been told she isn’t right for the part and then she proves everyone wrong.) The only film of Miss Griers that I would like to add to my collection is Something Wicked This Way Comes. There are many other films that I have in my collection, but I’ll save them for another time. Strip Search, Love The Hard Way, Above the Law, Bucktown, Original Gangstas, Sheba Baby, Scream Blacula Scream, Feast of All Saints, Ghost of Mars and 3 A.M. & Bones which I watched a few weeks ago.

Thanks for stopping by, and do come back again. Remember to keep an open mind.

Blaxploitation Films

In the 70’s a new genre was invented, and like all things there are some good and some bad memories. I applaud anyone that gets a film made doesn’t matter if it is bad. I have sat through my share of films that critics would say are bad. Movies are entertaining and provide a place for us to get lost for a while. For someone like me who loves movies, I can always find something interesting and it also inspires me to do better.

I remember as a kid some of the scripts I wrote. I hadn’t really grasp the language yet. I hadn’t learned to listen to people and watch how they react when they are in conversation. When I began recording my cousins and I doing different skits I began to see the flow of language.
I then began recording television shows and movies. I remember writing the original King Kong film so that I could see how the dialogue looked on paper.

This past weekend I watched four movies that were part of a set billed as Bad Mothers and Mean Brothers. The films starred Fred Williamson, Roddy McDowell, Lola Falana, Billy Dee Williams, Elliot Gould, Gene Washington, Martin D’Urville and “Mean” Joe Greene.

A film entitled Velvet Smooth was the funniest of the quartet. It starred a bunch of unknowns who never went on to do anything better. It was a lot of bad acting and even worse karate moves.

Lady Cocoa was a film vehicle for Lola Falana, the first lady of Vegas. It was okay, but when you’re used to someone singing on stage they don’t always make a great cross over into film. It made for an entertaining night.

Final Comedown starred Billy Dee Williams and dealt with the racial struggles of the 70’s. Sort of a take on the Black Panthers. This was very low budget.

Then there was Mean Johnny Barrows which starred Fred Williams as a Vietnam Veteran trying to get back into society, but having nothing available to him. He gets an offer from a mob boss to use his military skills and soon he’s raking in the money.

There was a large abundance of films which as young kids we were eager to see and imitate what we saw on the screen when we got home. Some of the films I had seen I shouldn’t have even been allowed into the theater. As long as no one was doing an inspection the theater just wanted to make money. There were some films we didn’t dare attempt to get in to see alone. Usually we got someone older to get us into the theater. I remember going to the movies with one of my uncles and my aunt.
At least once a week I was going to the movies with friends after we got our allowance.

I remember films like Shaft, The Mack, Superfly, The Doberman Gang (which I’m still trying to find on DVD.) Cotton Comes to Harlem, Come Back Charleston Blue, Shaft in Africa, Watermelon Man, Cleopatra Jones, Blacula, Scream Blacula Scream, Foxy Brown, Slaughter and Bucktown to name a few.
The one film that had a big impact on me was Coffy. I’m sure it had more to do with the voluptuous Pam Grier than the film itself, but I still feel the film holds up. Pam Grier was beautiful. I had never seen anyone on the screen like her before. Pam Grier for me is like my black version of Marilyn Monroe. (I’m also a big fan of Marilyn’s but she had already passed before I knew who she was.) Pam Grier though was more like an obsession. I felt something whenever she was on the screen. (I still do.) I read everything there was to read about her. Once I started collecting movies I knew her films had to be included, but they weren’t that easy to find. It wasn’t until the late 80’s early 90’s that her films became available. There are still some films that I don’t have either because they were just really bad or I have yet to find them on DVD.

I was talking to a friend about actresses who wait until they are older to show off their bodies and it bothers me sometimes. With Pam Grier she started out showing off her body. In later years she had stopped showing her body in love scenes and I respect that. Pam Grier has had an interesting life. One day I would hope to meet her and I know if it is meant to be it will happen.

I remember when I was a senior in High School, Pam Grier was in New Orleans to film Drum. It was a slave picture which starred Ken Norton. Pam Grier was his love interest as she later became in several movies. She had become the wife or the girlfriend.
I was tempted to skip school so that I might get a glimpse of her, but I didn’t want to make my mother angry at me and I decided against it.

I tried many times to write letters and meet her, but it never worked out.

Thanks for stopping by; keep an open mind.


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Pam Grier Month

Pam Grier - May 26, is her birthday. I’ve been watching some of her movies that are a part of my collection. I watched the entire series the L word and The Miami Vice movie that introduced her in a recurring role as Tubbs love interest and undercover cop from NYC. The first Pam Grier film that I saw was Coffy when I was 12 at the Circle theater which no longer exist. There was something about seeing Pam Grier on that large screen that made me fall for her instantly. From that point on every film, magazine article, or television show she would appear on, I was there if I could.

Pam Grier had made many B movies before her breakout role in Coffy.
Because the majority of Miss Grier’s earlier work was R rated, I couldn’t always get in to see the films. But I did see Foxy Brown and Scream Blacula Scream on the big screen.

In 1978, Pam Grier was in New Orleans filming Drum. It was a picture about slavery, and Pam Grier starred opposite Ken Norton and Warren Oats. I had thought about skipping school one day to get a glimpse of Miss Grier. It was my senior year and in fear that I would get into trouble I opted against the idea. That December I turned 18 and when the film played at the Lowes, which is now the State Palace Theatre, my dad took me to see the film. It was the first time I had seen Pam Grier get killed on screen. That was a bit traumatic.

I hope one day to meet her face to face. Until then I just watch her films. There are still a few films I’d like to add to my collection. Greased Lightening, that she appeared in opposite Richard Pryor and Something Wicked This Way Comes, (I have it on VHS, but I want to get it on DVD) the Disney film which made her the first black actress to appear in a leading Role.

So I continue the Pam Grier film festival for the month of May with such films as, Arena, Sheba Baby, Friday Foster, Bucktown, Black Mama, White Mama and Foxy Brown along with many others ending with the classic film that for me remains timeless; Coffy.

Coming up: Returning to NOLA, Road Home, Keeping on track, Can I take a trip?

Thanks for stopping by, Open Your Mind. Relax, enjoy and believe.

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