Friday Foster (1975) is a blacksploitation classic staring Pam Grier. This time, Pam is an ex fashion model turned tabloid photographer. She is sent to the airport to shoot the arrival of the "black Howard Hughes," and instead catches an attempted assassination. She would not be Pam if she didn't stick her nose in, and one of the would-be assassins is out to kill her. She uncovers a plot to destroy black power by gathering all the black leaders into one place and killing them.

This is more polished than Coffy or Foxy Brown, and Pam is not as strong and is more cuddly than the previous two films. I kind of miss the edge of her characters in the first two. Watch for Scatman Cruthers as a horny evangelist, Ertha Kitt as a fashion designer with an attitude, Godfrey Cambridge as a gay nightclub owner, and Jim Backus as a sleazy white politician. Though Pam is not an action superhero in this film, the role does call for her to act, which she proves more than capable of.

Grier shows breasts in three scenes, a shower scene, a spa scene, and a sex scene. Rosalind Miles as a fashion model shows a breast dressing before she is murdered. Several unidentified models also show breasts. IMDB readers have it at 5.0 of 10. Very little critical analysis is available. Grier fans should definitely see this. Others should be warned that Pam does not cuss and kick ass beginning to end this time, but she does act and get naked. The transfer looks great, and I found it entertaining, even though it was not the Pam Grier role I was expecting. C.

Movies:

Slaughter Studios is a pretty sweet little low budget straight-to-vid made earlier this year. They managed to work in a genre which can be delivered on the cheap - the self-referential comedy/slasher film. The plot and characterizations are forgettable but uinimportant. The keys to the film are as follows (1) good storyboarding and creative use of lighting and camera angles to cover up a zero budget (2) some creative deaths, a must in the slasher genre (3) a few good laughs (4) lots of good-looking naked chicks photographed clearly and colorfully. As I see it, that's what grade-b filmmaking is all about. This is like one of the classics from the 80s.

• Thumbnails (1, 2, 3)

• Lorissa McComas (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

• Serra Ellison (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

• Eva Frajko (1, 2)

• Tara Killian (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

• Laura Otis (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

Steambath is an off-Broadway stage play that was filmed for presentation on PBS. This brought back a lot of memories for me, but it isn't general interest stuff, so most of you can look at Valerie Perrine's nude scene and move on.. If you are interested in filmed versions of New York stage plays from the 70's, you need to take a look at the theater section of www.kultur.com  - awesome stuff - the performances of Streep, Langella, Dustin Hoffman, Lee J Cobb, John Gielgud, Faye Dunaway, and others performing the works of Tennessee Williams, Clifford Odets, and the other giants of the 20th century theater. A real find for theater lovers.

• Valerie Perrine (1, 2, 3)

Other crap:

• Awesome. BBC has 15 minutes worth of footage from the making of Terminator 3.
• Celebrity photographer Herb Ritts, one of photography's true geniuses, died yesterday. The best way to honor him is to soak up his online exhibition.
• Awesome - the legendary Pathe studios has placed 3500 of its old newsreels online for free.
• L'il Kim - wearing a burka and not much else
• High school hoopster breaks Wilt Chamberlain's Philly prep school scoring record. (The kid is a 6' tall guard)
• Very funny idea. Not many people know it, but Nostradamus predicted the creation of the A-Team and Winona's shoplifting. Not only that, but he predicted "Mentose, le freshmaquer"
• Best, worst, and silliest movie moments of 2002
• David Letterman's Top 10 Ways to make New Year's Eve more exciting

Updates:

• Charlie's French Cinema Nudity site is updated. Big names this week. Beart, Binoche ... check it out.

Total Poindexter Awareness watch:

• The personal private home of the convicted-but-excused multiple major felon turned government privacy czar.

Here are the latest movie reviews available at scoopy.com.

• The yellow asterisks indicate that I wrote the review, and am deluded into thinking it includes humor.
• If there is a white asterisk, it means that there isn't any significant humor, but I inexplicably determined there might be something else of interest.
• A blue asterisk indicates the review is written by Tuna (or Lawdog or Junior or C2000 or Realist or ICMS or Mick Locke, or somebody else besides me)
• If there is no asterisk, I wrote it, but am too ashamed to admit it.

Today it's back to 1977 and a look at "Hitch-Hike" aka "Autostop rosso sangue". The main attraction her has to be the lovely Corinne Clery who manages during the course of this movie to show us just about every inch of her body. We see her first as her husband gropes her body while she is driving, makes her stop the vehicle and, well you know what. Then there are scenes of her being attacked by David Hess, the bad guy hitchhiker. David made a living playing psycho, sadistic men in such movies as "Last House on the Left". Next time we will show you even more of the beautiful Corinne.

• Corinne Clery (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)

Nadja Fumant

Naomi Campbell

Stephanie Seymour

Nadja Auermann

Here's a breakdown:
Christensen...topless, rear nudity and cleavage
Fumant...breast exposure
Campbell...topless
Seymour...rear views
Auermann...brief breast exposure.