Get Christie Love!

"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. (**)

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!)

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.

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.

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!)