Get Christie Love!

Taking an honored place among the black exploitation characters of the Seventies is Teresa Graves and the indelible character she created in Get Christie Love. When she walked away from the series and later from show business all together she certainly was never forgotten.

I do remember her as a regular on Rowan&Martin back in the day and she was a talented woman with the ability to take herself not too seriously. Until she decided to become a Jehovah Witness. That was taking in to the max.

Christie Love is a LAPD policewoman who's real handy both with weapon and with fighting skills. When we first meet her she's taking down a serial rapist all by herself because her backup didn't get there on time to be of assistance. But her supervisor has bigger plans for her.

Harry Guardino playing the supervisor wants Graves to go undercover to find a ledger that drug kingpin Paul Stevens is supposed to have. Since the days of Al Capone those things are kept under the tightest of hoodlum security. Stevens certainly has one tightly secured operation. In these days before computers nothing is down on paper. All that they can learn for a while is that Louise Sorel has something to do with the books.

Teresa Graves was not alone or unique in putting religion first. Dolores Hart left movies to become a nun in the 60s. Later on Kirk Cameron made the same kind of demands on the producers of Growing Pains when he got into fundamentalist Christianity. Only Kirk came back using his celebrity for evangelism. Both Graves and Hart took a more private and more respectful approach to religion.

This was a television pilot, nothing spectacular or great about it except for Teresa Graves. She was unforgettable, RIP Teresa Graves.

Based on the book, "The Ledger", Get Christie Love was the first time a black female portrayed a detective on network TV. Teresa Graves is adequately compelling as the cop with some attitude whose superior, Captain Reardon (Harry Guardino), has a major open flirtation with her that she seems to occasionally encourage. The main plot concerns the search of a drug dealer's ledger through the interrogation of the wife in order to bring him down. Despite some fight scenes and car chases that attract some attention, the pace seemed mostly dreary and I almost fell asleep before the end. The most interesting discovery for me, however, was the appearance of Ron Rifkin as a serial killer of prostitutes named Normand whom Christie catches in the beginning when she dresses as one. Rifkin would, nearly three decades later, play Sloane on one of the most exciting action series ever-Alias. Compared to that show, this TV movie that later became a series doesn't have as exciting fight scenes but I guess network censorship was more stricter then. Worth a look for historical purposes.

It's sad this TV Movie & later a TV series never made it. It was better than some other cop shows that were on at the time. The beautiful Teresa Graves had lots of charm & charisma and made this worth watching. Watered down compared to the Pam Grier movies of the era. Funniest scene is the beginning of this TV movie where Teresa is a cop posing as a hooker and when she tells a "John" her price is $100 he calls her a nigger and she responds with "nigger lover". Try doing that today! Surprising this was 1974. Louise Sorel is a standout as a gangster's girlfriend who gets into a tussle or two with "Christie". I remember how cool I thought Teresa Graves was at the time driving around in her VW Convertible kicking men's butts and karate chopping men taller than she was. The later TV series was just as good, I don't know why it was cancelled, it was more fun than Barnaby Jones or Petrocelli or any of those other shows starring white men (how cliche). I hope they do a remastered DVD of this, the cheapie I have looks like a bad TV print transferred to DVD (snap, crackle, pop!)

I really find it offensive that this site said she "ruined her career" by turning down roles due to religious views. MORE black people needed to do the same so perhaps we still wouldn't be playing prostitutes, gang members, tough cops, scared comic relief aside white actors, and buffoons. She had hire morals and this site calls that a negative? So her infamous comment of the word "nigger" is positive? I am proud of this lady and her courage to NOT play negative roles. WHAT can ANYONE say against that? In todays times it is clear that many actors such as chris Tucker, play the typical scared black man roles, or even greats like richard prior took degrading roles in movies, never playing the brains till eddie murphy gave him the chance, but alas, eddie played the joke next to the white actor when he started off as well with nick nolte. So I feel Ms graves is a hero for black actors and actresses. Better to NOT work than play a pimp... Like the classic movie "hollywood shuffle" so aptly put it, "there is work at the post office"

Blaxploitation flicks were very popular in the early 70's. "Get Christie Love!" was a watered-down TV movie version of this genre about a female detective. It was also turned into a short lived TV series ('74-'75). It's star, Teresa Graves was the first black actress to have a one hour television series. She was featured on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In", appeared in some films, & was a member of the pop group The Doodletown Pipers. She also released a self-titled solo album in 1970 (songs included "Everybody's Talking'", "My Cherie Amour", "Hey Jude", & "A Time For Us" among others). In the TV movie, Christie is tracking down a drug dealer's ledger. She knocks out the bad guys with her large handbags & karate chops them unconscious. This cartoon aspect of the movie was later toned down in the TV show. I was about 14 when the series was on the air, & it was shown at the same time as the popular "Police Woman" with Angie Dickinson, which never made any sense to me. I liked both shows, so I alternated between them each week. This time slot may have added to it's downfall. (Purchase this on VHS, because the cheapo DVD's that are floating around out there, so far, are atrocious!)