Juanita Brown Movies
- 1974
Chris Munger directed this blaxploitation version of the popular skinflick Starlet! (1969). The story concerns Clara (Juanita Brown), an aspiring actress from the housing projects of Gary, Indiana, who goes to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune. Predictably, she is robbed, betrayed, and must hit the casting couch before her dreams can come true. This entertaining sleaze romp features many familiar faces including Nicholas Worth, Al Lewis, and Rockne Tarkington. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Considered the quintessential "girls in prison" flick of the 1970s, novice director Jonathan Demme's Caged Heat is set in a hellish American woman's penitentiary run by vicious, wheelchair-bound Barbara Steele. Statuesque convict Erica Gavin is forced to undergo horrible (but legal) tortures when she is falsely accused of trying to escape. Gavin and fellow con Juanita Brown decide to make a real break, but return to prison to rescue a friend who is about to be lobotomized by the sadistic prison doctor. Then they stage a robbery, only to find a group of male robbers at the bank ahead of them. A final shootout in the prison yards brings the film to a bloody climax. Caged Heat was also released under the title Renegade Girls. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Blaxploitation icon Pam Grier stars as Foxy Brown, a sexy but streetwise woman whose ne'er-do-well brother Link (Antonio Fargas) is a drug dealer who owes mobsters 20,000 dollars. To get the hoods off his back, Link names Foxy's boyfriend as a government agent trying to wipe out organized crime, and the mob soon has him rubbed out. But Hell hath no fury like Foxy Brown scorned; posing as a hooker to get the inside scoop on the mob, she goes on a crusade to find out who murdered her man, and she exacts revenge with the help of a local activist group. The supporting cast includes cult figure Sid Haig as a bad guy (as usual) and Peter Brown and Kathryn Loder as a seriously kinky couple who rule the local mob. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pam Grier, Antonio Fargas, (more)
Willie Dynamite (Roscoe Orman) is a Manhattan pimp whose life and career are documented in this blaxploitation flick. Willie makes it to the top of his precarious profession, only to hit rock bottom again in record time. In her last movie role, Diana Sands plays an ex-hooker who becomes a social worker. She tries to get Willie to clean up his act before it's too late. Willie Dynamite was produced by Richard Zanuck and David Brown, who shortly afterward collaborated on a more upbeat project, The Sting. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
