Friday Foster (1975)

Fearless magazine photographer Friday Foster (Pam Grier) discovers a plot to assassinate one of her subjects – Blake Tarr (Thalmus Rasulala), the wealthiest black man in America – and faces a nerve-wracking race against time to save his life.

Friday’s subsequent investigation, with cranky PI Colt Hawkins (Yaphet Kotto) at her side, comprises a clichéd string of close calls with incompetent would-be killers and convenient discoveries of clues. It’s all very laboured and it’s impossible to care what happens, even in the rare instances when the storyline is decipherable.

It’s a silly adventure story based on a family-friendly newspaper comic strip, but with the requisite level of sex and violence added to earn its blaxploitation credentials.

Pam Grier – who starred so well in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown (1997) – is joined by a terrific black cast including Godfrey Cambridge (crook), Eartha Kitt (fashion designer) and Scatman Crothers (minister). The villainous mastermind (Jim Backus) is white, though. Love Boat bartender Ted Lange plays a pimp named “Fancy Dexter” in a spectacularly bad performance.

Friday Foster
Pam Grier
Colt Hawkins
Yaphet Kotto
Ford Malotte
Godfrey Cambridge
Blake Tarr
Thalmus Rasulala
Fancy Dexter
Ted Lange
Madame Rena
Eartha Kitt
Enos Griffith
Jim Backus
Reverend Noble Franklin
Scatman Crothers

Director
Arthur Marks