Denise Denise Movies
Diana Ross plays the magnificent, tragic song stylist Billie Holiday, who while writhing in a strait jacket in a prison cell, awaiting sentencing on drug charges, reflects on her turbulent life. Raped in her youth by a drunk (Adolph Caesar), then compelled to work as a domestic in a Harlem whorehouse, Holliday is encouraged to try for a singing career by the bordello's pianist (Richard Pryor). She rises as high as it is possible to go in the white-dominated show business world of the 1930s, but can't handle the pressure and turns to narcotics. The film takes several liberties with the 44-year existence of "Lady Day." Among the Billie Holiday standards performed by Ross are "My Man," "I Cried for You," "Lover Man," "Them There Eyes," and the title song. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, (more)
- 1972
- R
John Considine does a cut-rate Vincent Price impersonation as the flamboyant Dr. Death, a thousand-year-old magician who has mastered he art of transferring souls from one body to another and thereby manages to perpetuate himself by jumping from one body to the next (which actually makes him more of a "Seeker of Bodies"). Apparently the Doc is a kindred spirit to the Alien, since his blood is a highly-corrosive acid that can strip flesh from bone, thus ensuring his personal safety. This is "Z"-grade fare that plays somewhat like a Herschell Gordon Lewis film, but without enough silliness to keep things amusing. The only point of interest keeping this film in circulation (mainly via late-night-cable) is the presence of sad-looking former Stooge Moe Howard in his last role as a perverted old man. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
