The Big Score (1983) Almi Pictures/Action RT: 85 minutes Rated R (language, strong violence, brief nudity, drugs) Director: Fred Williamson Screenplay: Gail Morgan Hickman Music: Jay Chattaway Cinematography: Joao Fernandes Release date: December 1983 (Philadelphia, PA) Cast: Fred Williamson, Nancy Wilson, John Saxon, Richard Roundtree, Ed Lauter, D’Urville Martin, Michael Dante, Bruce Glover, Joe Spinell, Frank Pesce, Tony King, James Spinks, Chelcie Ross, Stack Pierce, Jerome Landfield, Ron Dean. Box Office: N/A
Rating: ***
Only in a cheap blaxploitation movie like 1983’s The Big Score will you get a line like, “Either you cooperate, man, or I’ll do the hustle all over your g**damn face!” Dialogue like this is priceless.
Fred “The Hammer” Williamson (Black Caesar) plays Frank Hooks, a Chicago detective who finds himself in trouble with both sides of the law after $1 million in drug money goes missing. It’s not the most complex of plots, but nobody expects any amount of depth from B-movies like The Big Score. I didn’t get to see it at the movies because it didn’t open in any of the suburban movie houses I frequented in my teen years. It showed up on HBO in September ’84 and I stayed up to watch it at 3am a few days before the school year officially began. I remember liking it despite its poor production values. It has low budget written all over it as evidenced by the cinematography, editing, sound and film stock. The acting is really bad; the fight choreography clumsy. It’s illogical and filled with plot holes and inconsistencies. So why watch The Big Score? Because Williamson is a total bad ass, that’s why! The movie features plenty of action, bloody violence and a funky jazz score. It’s a cool B-movie action flick.
Detective Hooks, like his white counterpart Dirty Harry, hates watching dirtbags get away with breaking the law he’s sworn to uphold. The movie opens with him busting a drug dealer named Goldy Jackson (Dante, Cage) in an undercover operation (he’s dressed like a pimp!). Even though he catches him red-handed, the guy walks out of the police station just a few hours later. Hooks and Goldy exchange words before the cop hauls off and punches him right in front of his lawyer (Ross, The Last Boy Scout). Naturally, his captain (Lauter, Death Wish 3) chews him out for this ill-advised action, telling him that he has to apologize to which Hooks replies, “You tell Jackson and his faggot lawyer to kiss my ass!” Hooks gets another shot at nailing Goldy after obese stool pigeon Cheech (Spinks, Car Wash) informs him of a big deal about to go down.
Along with partners Davis (Saxon, A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Gordon (Roundtree, Shaft), Hooks stakes out the abandoned building where the million dollar drug buy is to take place. As expected, all hell breaks loose when one of the bad guys spots Hooks on the fire escape peeking through the window. Shots are fired and bad guys end up dead while Hooks chases Goldy through the city streets. The drug dealer is carrying a briefcase containing the soon-to-be-missing money when the pursuit begins and hides it in the trunk of an abandoned car before Hooks catches up and shoots him dead. Since nobody knows where the money is, it’s assumed that Hooks stole the money. Ultimately, he’s suspended from the force until the matter can be cleared up. Since Hooks isn’t the kind of guy to wait around for justice, he sets out to find the cash himself. Meanwhile, crime boss Mayfield (Spinell, Maniac) gives two of his henchmen, Koslo (Glover, Diamonds Are Forever) and Jumbo (King, Sharky’s Machine), the go-ahead to go after Hooks and his nightclub owner wife Angie (jazz singer Wilson) in order to retrieve his money. Don’t they know if you push a man like Hooks he’s going to push back with a vengeance? Guess not.
It’s nice to see that Williamson, as a director, still appreciates the street slang heard in many a 70s blaxploitation flick. People refer to each other as “man”; Goldy refers to Hooks as “sucka” and “pig”. The script, by Gail Morgan Hickman (Murphy’s Law, Death Wish 4), includes great dialogue exchanges like the following:
Cheech: “Stuff is being delivered tonight.”
Hooks: “Sure of this?”
Cheech: “Hey man, I wouldn’t s*** ya, straight up. I got a lot riding on this thing …. like my ass!”
Such dialogue wouldn’t work as well without a cast of cool B-movie actors like the one in The Big Score. Williamson is a cool cat. This guy knows how to kick ass. Acting is another story. Let’s just say that performances aren’t this movie’s strong suit, but I love the actors just the same. I have just one problem. Roundtree receives top billing, yet plays only a small part before disappearing completely (without explanation) about midway through. At least in Kill Point, similarly misleading in giving him top billing, we see him getting killed. As an admirer of the man also known as John Shaft, I wanted to see more of him.
Another blaxploitation vet, D’Urville Martin (Hammer and Dolemite among others), shows up as the illegal weapons/explosives dealer that helps Hooks in the climax. And what a climax it is! Without giving too much away, although the end is pretty much a given thing in a movie like The Big Score, a man literally gets blown to pieces by a hand grenade. Sweet! The only violence I object to in The Big Score is the killing of two house pets (a cat and little dog). They occur off-screen, but still. The music is great. Ms. Wilson gets to sing a number and Ramsey Lewis makes an appearance. That’s in addition to Jay Chattaway’s funky score.
In the end, what’s important is that The Big Score succeeds in what it sets out to do. It’s a cheap action movie best seen as part of a triple bill at some grimy urban grindhouse theater. There’s absolutely no mistaking it for quality cinema. If I wanted that, I’d reach for Bergman. This kind of flick is just fun.
