Coffy (1973)

A black nurse takes vigilante justice against inner-city drug dealers after her sister becomes their latest victim.

Director:

Jack Hill

Writer:

Jack Hill

Stars:

Pam Grier, Booker Bradshaw, Robert DoQui

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Pam Grier	...	Coffy
Booker Bradshaw	...	Howard Brunswick
Robert DoQui	...	King George
William Elliott	...	Carter
Allan Arbus	...	Arturo Vitroni
Sid Haig	...	Omar
Barry Cahill	...	McHenry
Lee de Broux	...	Nick
Ruben Moreno	...	Ramos
Lisa Farringer	...	Jeri
Carol Locatell	...	Priscilla (as Carol Lawson)
Linda Haynes	...	Meg
John Perak	...	Aleva
Mwako Cumbuka	...	Grover
Morris Buchanan	...	Sugarman

Storyline

Nurse "Coffy" Coffin leads a double life. During the day, she's a nurse at work. At night, she's an avenging angel on a personal vendetta, tracking down the drug pushers who hooked her younger sister on drugs. Along the way, she meets a honest police detective who also is leading a double life.

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Plot Keywords:

nude black woman | topless dancer | corrupt politician | limo driver | murderess | 

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Taglines:

The Baddest One-Chick Hit-Squad that ever hit town!

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

May 1973 (USA)

Also Known As:

Coffy

Filming Locations:

Glendale Freeway, Glendale, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

American International Pictures (AIP), Papazian-Hirsch Entertainment International

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Mono Mono (Ryder Sound Services)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Body Count: 10 (If you include Brunswick and Omar, who are both mortally wounded by Coffy)

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Goofs

When Harriet comes back and catches Priscilla talking to Coffy, she throws a chair at Coffy and it misses and hits the wall. After the impact, Harriet audibly says to Coffy, "Come on, bitch!" But if you look at her mouth during the impact a moment earlier, she clearly said the same line just then as well, and it was dubbed out by the foley used for the sound of the chair breaking.

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Quotes

Arturo Vitroni: Crawl, nigger!
Coffy: [pulls out gun] You want me to crawl, white mother fucker?
Arturo Vitroni: What're you doing? Put that down.
Coffy: You want to spit on me and make me crawl? I'm gonna piss on your grave tomorrow.

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Alternate Versions

The film was initially rejected for UK cinema under the title "Coffey" and then passed 6 months later with minimal BBFC cuts (to the stabbing of Omar). All later releases were fully uncut.

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Connections

Featured in Intimate Portrait: Pam Grier (1999)

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Soundtracks

Coffy Baby
Music by Roy Ayers
Lyrics by Roselle Weaver
Sung by Dee Dee Bridgewater (as Denise Bridgewater)

User Reviews

the best Pam Grier movie!

if you've always wondered what was so great about Pam Grier, and haven't seen any of her movies from the seventies, look no further than Coffy. Coffy has it all, violence, pimps, drugs, nudity, sex, and it's served up with some severe camp and crazy dialogue. what sets this movie apart from other blaxploitaion movies is the excellent story and powerful performance of Miss Grier. I don't think anyone else could have pulled it off, and despite the low budget ambiance and feeling the movie took about a couple of weeks to make, Grier gives a performance worthy of her cult reverence.

the movie is a typical revenge story, with a not so typical hero-a black woman. Coffy's sister is hooked on smack and Coffy vows to herself to destroy the people responsible. Coffy works as a nurse by day, and prowls the clubs by night looking for the pusher who destroyed her sister's mind with drugs. Her search leads her to a pimp, a mobster, the cops, and a politician. In the end, she takes care of them all using her brains as well as her body, and damn do she have a body! Pam Grier makes this movie believable despite the obvious flaws of the low budget production. Her character never shows the weak side of femininity and fall into the ethos that women are at some point weaker than men. Coffy never breaks down to cry for help, waiting for a man or anyone else to help her-she does it all on her own. she kicks ass all over, and no other movie has done that with a female character, at least not anything credible. Coffy makes Thelma and Louise look like Laverne and Shirley.

Pam went on to make more movies of this ilk, but none were as popular nor as good as Coffy. what about Foxy Brown you ask? despite a better title, it doesn't compare to Coffy in either performance or content. Coffy served to bring Pam Grier into the main stream, as much as any black actress could be, and make her a star. all i can say is, thank you Quentin Tarentino for making Jackie Brown and proving her power and presence as an actress. See this movie, then see Jackie Brown, you'll see why Tarentino made it.