Get Christie Love!

When Captain Casey Reardon (played by Harry Guardino) learns that notorious gangster boss Enzo Cortino (Paul Stevens) possesses a secret ledger which could potentially be used to bring him to justice and said ledger is supposedly within the possession of his girlfriend Helena Varga (Louise Sorel), Reardon sends a brash but known for getting results, spirited and spunky young black female detective named Christie Love (Teresa Graves) on undercover assignment hoping she will be able to get to the heart of what makes Helena Varga tick so Ms. Varga will be convinced to co-operate and with her aid and possibly that of Cortino's "ledger", the police will finally be able to bring down Enzo Cortino once and for all.

Well a blaxploitation television movie had to be something somewhat groundbreaking back in 1974. Obviously this couldn't deliver the same level of violent thrills and nudity as was frequently evidenced in blaxploitation films of the period since it originally aired on television and was subject to television limitations in terms of what could and could not be shown. This element made it necessary for the plot to be more detailed than most films in the blaxploitation action vein so the focus here remains more on the mystery as it relates to Ms. Helena Varga's rather elusive past which means we see Christie actually do a surprising amount of detective work in this story. One negative element that affects the overall impact this one has is it's the subject matter seems to be aimed more towards a white audience than a black one and plays more to common expectation of non-blaxploitation detective television series from the time and era.

Personally I feel Teresa Graves does a terrific job here and really manages to convey a lot of information in a relatively short amount of time, enough to make her character one we immediately come to like and root on. All in all, this proves successful both in terms of introducing us to a lead character and providing the basic underlying set-up necessary for a TV series to follow as well as most any other TV Pilot I've ever seen and they must have done something right because a TV Series followed shortly thereafter.

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!)

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.

"Get Christie Love!" is included in many DVD packages along with "TNT Jackson", and the two films do have a lot of things in common: most importantly, they both have black female action leads who have the right attitude for their roles down pat, but their actual fight scenes leave a lot to be desired. "Get Christie Love" doesn't have nearly as much action as "TNT Jackson", but Teresa Graves is a better actress than Jeanne Bell, and (in my opinion at least) prettier as well. However, this film is hurt by the flat direction, a dreary pace and an uninteresting plot that wastes far too much time with an investigation about an adopted kid. And I have to agree with a previous reviewer, the DVD transfer is pretty bad. You turn the volume almost all the way up and you still can't listen to the dialogue clearly. (**)

An informant tells "Captain Casey Reardon" (Harry Guardino) of the Los Angeles Police Department that a major heroin shipment is coming in and that a drug-lord's girlfriend named "Helena Varga" (Louise Sorel) has all of the information on a secret ledger. Initially an undercover police detective named "Christie Love" (Teresa Graves) is called in but when her cover is blown she is taken off the case. At least that is what Captain Reardon tells her. Christie, on the other hand, doesn't want to be taken off the case. Therefore she takes it upon herself to dig deeper in order to get Helena to cooperate. Having said all of that, I thought Teresa Graves put on a very good performance despite the inherent limitations a made-for-television movie has placed upon it. I especially liked the flirtatious interplay between Christie Love and Captain Reardon and the way she used her sex appeal to her advantage. Be that as it may, while this movie might seem a bit tame to some viewers, I enjoyed it for the most part and rate it as slightly above average.