Cleopatra Jones (1973) Warner Bros./Action RT: 89 minutes Rated PG (violence, language, sensuality, drugs) Director: Jack Starrett Screenplay: Max Julien and Sheldon Keller Music: J.J. Johnson Cinematography: David M. Walsh Release date: July 13, 1973 (US) Cast: Tamara Dobson, Bernie Casey, Brenda Sykes, Antonio Fargas, Shelley Winters, Dan Frazer, Bill McKinney, Stafford Morgan, Paul Koslo, Joseph A. Tornatore, Hedley Mattingly, Michael Warren, Albert Popwell, Caro Kenyatta, Theodore Wilson, George Reynolds, Esther Rolle, Keith Hamilton, Jay Montgomery, Arnold Dover, Angela Gibbs, John Alderman. Box Office: $2.9M (US)
Rating: ***
At a statuesque 6’ 2”, Tamara Dobson is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest actress to ever play a leading role in a film. That film is Cleopatra Jones, a blaxploitation classic starring Dobson as a government agent trying to take down an evil drug lord named Mommy. Mommy is played by, of all people, two-time Academy Award winner Shelley Winters (The Diary of Anne Frank, A Patch of Blue) in an unforgettable performance. How should I describe it? She belongs between two pieces of rye bread with Swiss cheese and spicy brown mustard. She’s so hammy in Cleopatra Jones, she puts Porky Pig to shame. If you ask me, it’s one of her finest performances.
ANYWAY, the real star of the movie is Dobson who plays the eponymous character, a special agent highly skilled in martial arts, weaponry and looking fine. In the opening scene, she oversees the burning of a poppy field in Turkey, an operation that incurs the wrath of Mommy (the wrath of Mom, hmmm) furious over losing $30 million worth of product. She retaliates by sending the police to bust a community home for recovering drug addicts run by Cleo’s main squeeze Reuben Masters (Casey, Sharky’s Machine). She returns to the US only to be met by Mommy’s henchmen at the airport, an incompetent bunch she easily outfoxes. Then she meets with her friend on the force, Captain Crawford (Frazer, The Super Cops), to let him know she’s on the case. Look out, Mommy! Your day of reckoning is nigh.
The plot of Cleopatra Jones is fairly standard with the corrupt cops, jive-talking criminals, car chases and shoot-outs. HOWEVER, it’s elevated greatly by Dobson’s presence. Not only is she completely bad ass, she’s strikingly beautiful. She was a model before she got into acting. You can tell by the way she carries herself throughout the movie. She’s an exotic beauty, an African queen if you will, with her Afro, fur jackets, colorful outfits and collection of headdresses, scarves and turbans. Cleo is a perfect blend of fashion, femininity and strength. She’s a lady, but you don’t want to tangle with her. She can kick down doors and kick ass as good as any male action hero. She’s like a female James Bond. She drives around in a silver-and-black Stingray with hidden compartments for a bevy of automatic weapons. This comes in handy when she and Reuben are pinned down by more of Mommy’s inept hitmen in one scene. Like Bond with his charm and sophistication, Cleo uses her beauty and street smarts to get the job done.
Cleopatra Jones also benefits from a groovy supporting cast that also includes Antonio “Huggy Bear” Fargas (Starsky & Hutch) as drug dealer Doodlebug, a master of jive who delivers some of the movie’s funniest lines. Here’s a sample line: “If Mommy wants trouble, I’m not exactly known as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms.” I like Fargas as an actor; he’s great here. Esther Rolle (Good Times) shows up briefly as the mother of two karate expert brothers, Matthew (Popwell, Sudden Impact) and Melvin (Kenyatta, The Young Nurses), who help Cleo locate the corrupt cop who planted drugs on a resident of the community house. Bill McKinney (Every Which Way But Loose, Any Which Way You Can) plays a racist cop suspected of being the one that planted the drugs. The lovely Brenda Sykes (Black Gunn) plays Tiffany, nightclub singer and girlfriend to Doodlebug. Soul Train host Don Cornelius makes a cool cameo after a performance by Tiffany. In the end, however, Cleopatra Jones belongs to foxy Dobson and butch Winters. Their climactic fight in an auto junkyard is a true highlight. In fact, that whole scene is great.
Directed by Jack Starrett (Slaughter), Cleopatra Jones is bolstered by a funky soundtrack that includes Joe Simon (“Get Down, Get Down”) singing the theme song. The action scenes are well orchestrated. They’re exciting without being too over the top. Dobson has some slick moves and uses her height to great advantage. I also love how Winters devours the scenery in every scene she’s in. My only gripe about the movie is how some of the characters, like Reuben, disappear for long stretches. I actually forgot Casey was in it. By the way, he turns in his usual solid performance. Aside from that, Cleopatra Jones is a solid B-level blaxploitation action flick. It’s the kind of movie that’s fun to see with an audience at an urban grindhouse theater. Too bad we can’t go back in time…. yet.
