A Piece of the Action

The third, and more serious, of the 1970's Bill Cosby/Sidney Poitier films. This time, Cosby is a thief and Poitier a con artist who are blackmailed into helping a community center. They have three weeks to take a group of scared and angry kids and place them in jobs, and help them find the confidence to keep them. Meanwhile, they try to find the identity of their blackmailer.

Cosby and Poitier are first rate, as are the supporting cast. Denise Nicolas is back as the administrator of the community center and James Earl Jones joins in the fun, as well. The young actors are good and many would go on to careers in television and movies.

There are plenty of laughs, but this is a bit more serious. The kids are all from poor neighborhoods and are frightened about entering the job market. They also carry deep seated anger over the conditions of their lives. They use hostility and cynicism to protect themselves. Poitier spends his time trying to build confidence in the kids and show them how work with people to improve their lives, if only to feed their families, without help from the government or charities. Slowly. the kids respond to his tough message and begin to grow.

Cosby tries to leave behind his past as a ladies man and build a relationship with Nicholas. He also snoops around to find their blackmailer.

This is a film with a message, but it doesn't hit you over the head with it. The comedy and drama work hand-in-hand. Definitely worth a look.

Cosby and Portier team up for a third time. This time they are successful criminals that have done very well for themselves... but it didn't go unnoticed. In fact, they are blackmailed into helping underserved youth as a means of atonement.

Just like "Uptown Saturday Night" and "Let's Do it Again," this was also cleverly written. In fact this movie was probably better than the prior movies in that there was an element of positivity in it. The challenge of helping the group of young African-Americans looking for employment was a nice positive feature. They took the challenge--with little choice in the matter--and were very creative in motivating the youth towards something different and better than what they were upon. This movie was as inspiring as it was fun, plus you get to see a young, sassy Sheryl Lee Ralph.

I've seen this film numerous times over the years. Most recently I introduced it to a new generation while removing my enamor for Poitier and Cosby and attempting to see it with a more critical eye. Even in purposely trying to criticize the film the best I could come up with is the Detective played by James Earl Jones makes Peter Falk's Columbo look like a sophomore. I never noticed it previously, but the recently retired cop character is observed looking at an empty safe in one scene and broken handcuffs in another, then meracuously he is able to deduce that our two favorite cons are responsible. Not only this, he is able to tell which one did which crime and exactly how. There is probably something that says that directors are allowed to bypass supplemental story details and cut to the chase. Now, having said this I return to my premise that this movie has so much heart, soul, and in comparison to many of today's silly comedies that seem to think that character development is not a requirement, it makes sense. The viewer actually gets a feel for the various personalities. Poitier is forever the straight man, humor deriving from his serious approach and competency amongst the unruly teens. Audiences can cheer and marvel at his ability to reach them. This is in contrast to the Ms. Thomas character who has a good heart but fails at getting through. Ms. Nichols plays a principal who is both beautiful and slick enough in the tongue to keep her enrollees at bay. Rather than gawdy scenes that provide momentary laughs through silliness, A Piece of the Action is a treasure in that it has numerous people interactions (Heart and Soul) that can be talked about for many years to come. For example, the young group I showed it to were able to pinpoint such scenes as "Tearful Testimony about little Timmy", "A Kick in the Butt for Something for Nothing",and "Barbara's Mad" as the easy favorites. While Cosby is naturally comical, his wooing of Nichols is more romantic. Consequently,the three favorite scenes by this poll do not involve Cosby, but rather Poitier and the young job seekers. This film is an integral part of my Black Film Presentations and I look forward to introducing to even more people.

This film is the third and final installment of the fine collaboration between Poitier and Cosby. Unfourtuately,it suffers from the first two films being great comedies of their time, so comparison is inevitable. The movie fails because they've taken our two players out of their working class element and portrays one as a sophisticatated con man and the other as a high class thief. It also never explains how Police detective James Earl Jones'discovers them as either.Where the film works is with Poitier's interaction with the troubled youth in the classroom sequences. Some good young actors are on display here and Poitier seems right at home reminiscent of "to sir with love".But once again then the film regresses back to the caper portion of the film which is as bland as bleach. And Cosby, who was the comic catalyst in the previous films was nothing more than a shell of his former form. The films message is mostly positive, but it terms of big laughs. It falls short.

This is a funny movie! I first saw this film when I was 12 years old. This had to be Sheryl Lee Ralph's break out role...she's good.(I use to imitate her part down to the neck roll). Cosby and Poitier were a great duo. They were cool when cool was COOL - even when they were dancing at the end...hilarious! This film ran during the times when Blaxploitation films were in, but it's not what I would call a Blaxpolitation film...It's drama and "back in the day" comedy ...Cosby style. I really enjoyed this film and would love to see it rerun. I haven't belly laughed in a while.