If You Give a Dance, You Gotta Pay the Band

In the movie, Billie Jean is saving money to go see her father in prison or saving for school -- I can't remember. Her junkie brother steals the money and she has to figure out a way to get it back. Laurence Fishburne plays Yancy Fisher "Fish" who lives next door. Fish is in LOVE with Billie Jean and tries to help her figure out a way to run a quick scam to get the money back. So he tells her about a scam. I remember him saying, "It's called 'The Murphy." I was about 12 years old in '72 and remember taping most of the movie on a cassette tape and knew most of the lines by heart -- but eventually my cassette tape wore out! If anyone knows where this made-for-TV movie can be purchased on video or DVD, I would appreciate a public post here. I've been looking for this one for awhile and haven't been able to find it.

This was a TV movie special, shot on videotape. The plot was about a teenaged girl struggling to make it in life. I remember that she had a goal she was going for. Don't remember exactly what her aim was, but she was saving money and hiding it in her room. She was being raised by her grandmother. Her mother was gone, and her dad was in prison. Lawrence Fishburne was thirteen or fourteen when this was made. He played a street-wise friend of the main character. His character did not get along with her oldest brother, who was a neer-do-well. One day, the brother finds his sister's hiding place and steals her money. Fishburne witnesses this, and follows the guy. He catches up with him in an alley. The guy is laid out drunk, and it's easy for Fishburne to beat him up and take what's left of the money. Fishburne returns the money to the main character. The movie felt more like a stage play in it's pacing and look.

I remember this movie. Very ironic that the character a 13-year old Laurence Fishburne portrayed was nicknamed "Fish". Was this purely coincidental, or part autobiography?

Overall, it was an excellent movie. The main character was a young girl named "Billie Jean" who was coming of age. She had no mother and was being raised by her grandmother. Her older brother "T-Bone" was a heroin addict and her best friend was a young boy called "Fish". She worked after school and was saving her money to travel out of state to visit her father who was serving time in federal prison and rumored to be in ill health. She had been hiding her money n a secret place. But one day T-Bone discovered where she had been hiding it. T-Bone stole her money and spent most of it getting high on dope. Fish caught up with a drugged out T-Bone, and although Fish was much smaller in physical build, he hit T-Bone over the head and retrieved what was left of her money. Then Fish went out and pulled a scam to try and recover what Bille Jean needed in order to buy herself a bus ticket to finally see her father before he died.

Even at age 13, Laurence Fishburne was an action hero.