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Coco (Lola Falana) has been the girlfriend of bigshot mobster Eddie
(James A. Watson jr) - which eventually landed her in the slammer.
However, she has remained tight-lipped in regards to Eddie's organisation
for the last one and a half years, and it's only now that she agrees to
talk in court, in exchange for a night on the town in a Lake Tahoe casino.
The DA agrees and has her accompanied by two cops, heavy-set Ramsey (Alex
Dreier) and handsome Doug (Gene Washington), and she soon takes a bit to
the latter. However, she still proves to be a handful, as while the two
cops want to keep her in the room and order room service, she's soon out
and about, gambling, shopping, dancing and whatnot, and has soon made new
friends in Arthur (Matt Cimber) and Marie (Millie Perkins) - before she
spots one of Eddie's goons (Joe Greene) in the place, and now she knows
Eddie can't be far. And as it turns out, Arthur and Marie are in Eddie's
employ as well, and they get her in touch with Eddie, who sweet-talks her
while she asserts him she was never actually going to sing in court, just
wanted her day out ... and still, Eddie tries to have her assassinated.
This leads to Doug trying to chase down Arthur and Marie, and leaving them
both dead in the process, while Coco has a change of heart and decides to
spill the beans after all. Thing is, now that they know they're on Eddie's
hitlist, Coco and company have to lie low - but that's easier said than
done, especially since it seems Eddie has a mole with the police ... Made
in the wake of such female-led blaxploitation flicks like Coffy,
Cleopatra Jones, or Foxy
Brown, Lady Cocoa falls somewhat flat of doubling these
movies effect, as the tough-as-nails chick leading them has been turned
into basically a bratty girl here, and there's very little actual
"sticking it to the man", as the actual hero of the piece is a
straight-as-an-arrow (black) cop. Bearing all that in mind, no, Lady
Cocoa is by no means a classic, and not even a terribly good movie,
its script is just lacking in both build-up and structure, and the lead is
just a little bit too bratty (though Lola Falana's performance as just
that is fine), and the film could have needed a little more budget to make
things pop more. And that all said, it's still a fun time capsule, that
might lack greatness but is an entertaining walk down memory lane.
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