Get Christie Love!

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!)

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.

Christie Love's friends, enemies, and co-workers live in an alternate-reality world that attempts to depict Los Angeles in the early 1970's. Not the way it really was, but the way the scriptwriters wanted it to be. Along the way, expect Ms Love to blatantly flip off her boss and get away with it, for him to make advances to her when there's no apparent chemistry, and for her to behave like Superwoman "with emotions". One of the bad guys simply lets himself be flipped out an upper-story window. It doesn't matter that he weighs over twice what she does, if you look closely enough, he's actually helping her. What a guy! Did I say that almost everyone she knows in this movie dies? Ms. Graves also appears to be in a contest with everyone else to see who can be the worst actor. It's fun watching who's worse, it pays to actually have a scorecard. You can rank Harry Guardino first for the bad opening, and then keep notes from there.

This movie actually succeeds in points, despite itself. They put a bit of money into it, there are some good production values - I mean the now-vintage cars sometimes project better than the humans, but hey, the scale I'm using refers to television, not the cinema. You won't be crying with the actors as much as laughing at them, but you won't be turning this show off, either.

I had no trouble with the volume on my copy. But, at two DVD's for a dollar in my local supermarket, I don't feel ripped off either.

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.